For today’s activity all you will need is access to YouTube (I’d guess that’s not difficult if you are reading this blog) and a couple of minutes concentration from your children (potentially more difficult if your children are anything like mine…).

I saw an article a few days ago talking about the bassoon as an ‘endangered’ instrument. You can read the article here. In it, bassoonist Bram van Sambeek is quoted as saying, “At the moment, only about 1% of people on the street can even recognise this instrument.”

I don’t know if this is true but, just in case, to avoid my children being in the 99% of bassoon non-recognisers, I thought we’d sample some bassoon repertoire.

First, here’s some baroque bassoon music:

And some jazz:

And, of course, Angry Birds:

If your children have a longer concentration span, this segment about the bassoon is very interesting, my kids only managed the first couple of minutes, but I think they did learn something!