It took me seven years.......

During a sex education class the pupils were invited to write their questions anonymously and one child had written, "What is fingering?" In the staff room I suggested that I could answer the question, after all musicians are great at fingering.  We practise our fingering regularly.  There are charts to show us how to do it.

Pianists make up their own fingering and write notes of how to do it on their music.

Over the years of playing in orchestras I have learnt that violinists are attention seekers who demand a lot of the conductors time and attention.  While conductors pander to these divas I have lost count of the times the woodwind section as been asked to quietly 'finger your parts'.

Obviously, no musician ever sniggers while discussing this important part of their art.  So, I feel I must apologise as I was a little giggly tonight and received a raised eyebrow from a sensible member of the Youth Orchestra.

Not how you play a bassoon

We have acquired a new bassoon and a lovely man who helps out at the orchestra was explaining to the child who has volunteered to take it on how difficult the bassoon is to play.  He said, "I spent 3 years at music college learning how to put the thing together and it took me 7 years after to learn how to finger her."  There is nothing funny about that and I know that any professional musician wouldn't have even had cause to smile.