Historically, the teaching of bassoon has presented many barriers to band directors and to music students of all ages across the nation, including personal and school finances, distance to in-person private lessons, access to good learning materials, and the general lack of band directors’ knowledge of and comfort with teaching the bassoon. All these things create problems when recruiting, retaining, and nurturing new and continuing bassoonists.
Due to the lack of readily available research on bassoon education, research on general instrumental education trends are identified and applied to the author's bassoon teaching experience. In the pursuit of finding the origins of existing barriers, the author conducts two surveys: one for bassoonists and one for band directors. placing emphasis on personal experiences and issues surrounding learning or teaching the bassoon. Solutions to the biggest barriers found in this research (finances and access to great resources) are discussed.