Second Bassoon

A trick you can use to play B flat in the bass clef and also an octave above quietly is to set up the right hand third finger B flat key so that it only opens the tone hole on the back of the instrument a little. You can do this by sticking a piece of cork on the under-side of the key. I keep my instrument set up like this since normally I never or hardly ever use this key. I believe it is only there as a relic of the French system, but I may be wrong about this.

F sharp below middle C: add the low D + Eflat keys. Strong effect.

G below middle C: add the E plate.

G sharp V below middle C: not much to suggest here.

A below middle C: add the F sharp key.

B flat below middle C: close or half close the E plate.

B natural below middle C: very carefully shade the A finger hole

Middle C: Very carefully shade the B and A finger holes.

Middle C sharp: rather than use the long (or full) C sharp (which includes the right hand A hole G key and F key) try the short fingering (i.e. nothing in the right hand but add the low D key as well as the C sharp key). Alternatively, try the C - Dflat trill key (right index finger on most instruments) but the pitch of this is usually a bit suspect.

Tenor D: add the right thumb B flat key and the right hand second finger.

The notes from E flat upwards are mostly quite amenable to being played pp.

Good luck with these fingerings and if you have any additional suggestions please feel free to leave a comment.