Anyone know anything about bassoon tone-holes?

[musicalita_23]

I know it isn't piano trouble, but I play the bassoon, and the high-C tone-hole is blocked or something. I tried cleaning it with a pipe-cleaner, and blew really hard into it, but nothing is working.. Anyone know what I can try before having to send it to the repair?

[quantum]

Are you sure it is blocked?  It may be an adjacent tone hole has a leak.  The repair man will have a leak light to check for this.  Or you could attach a small flashlight to a string and lower it into the instrument yourself to check. 

Mind you I play clarinet not bassoon. 

[indianajo]

some reeds won't go that high.  You're talking about the one right up near the bocal, right? 3rd octave? Try a different reed.  High notes take a lot of pressure, also squeezing the reed.  If you suspect a leak like the previous responder says, spit on the pad of the hole that might be leaking and see if you can see bubbles when you play.   This question goes on a different forum down near the bottom.

[musicalita_23]

oops, sorry about posting on the wrong page. My bad.

I'm not the one making my reeds, but I've tried this reed on other bassoons, and managed to get the high C out. I'll definitely try out that trick, thanks.

[indianajo]

There weren't any scores that required anything above "A" that I ran into in my 7 year custody of a bassoon.  I used to shave my reeds with an exacto knife to improve high response -or really, any response.  I was a wimpy kid and couldn't make a big fat sound with a big thick reed that a bassoon should really make.  My private lesson teacher never addressed this, although the band director complained about it some.  Actually, I should have been out running miles and building up my lung capacity. I didn't know how weird I was until my draft number came up 36 and the ROTC started trying to train me.  My first mile was "run" in 13 minutes. 6.5 min is standard.  I got there, I was a healthy kid, but it took a lot of practice.  The first chair oboe player in my band (oboe takes a lot of pressure) played a lot of sand lot football.