The Structure of the Bassoon
What Kind of Musical Instrument is a Bassoon?

Parts of a bassoon

The bassoon is an unusually long instrument, and the one that can be seen in the photograph is around 135 centimeters long. Actually, since the long tube of the instrument has a folded shape, it would reach around 260 centimeters if extended to its full length.
At the tip of the instrument (seen on the right of the photograph) a fine metal tube known as the bocal is attached. The bassoonist blows air into the reed attached to the very end of the bocal. The bore of the bassoon extends from the joint to which the bocal is attached, continues downward before performing a u-turn within the metal part at the instrument's lowest point, and then leads all the way up to its highest point. At the very top there is an opening called the bell.

The interior of a bassoon, from the bocal to the bell, is a conical tube the diameter of which steadily widens. The diameter at the very tip of the bocal is around 4 millimeters, while the diameter at the bell it is 40 millimeters. Between those two points, the interior of the bore gradually becomes wider.