I got £20 of book tokens and £70 of cash for my birthday. £30 has to be reserved for a haircut (I promised my mother 
), which means £60 left to spend as I please. And that all went on sheet music 
Here's what I got, with some commentary, because I'm good at wittering...Descant
* First Repetoire for Descant Recorder - on grade lists (AB & TG) from G1 to G4. I think my confidence will be given a huge boost if I find things I can play, which the G1 end should provide! Plus, the higher end should be challenging, bearing in mind it was 15 years ago I was at G4.
* Celtic Music for Recorder - this one was a real treat, as it was expensive due to coming with a CD. The CD has the recorder line with a guitar accompaniament - however, they've recorded it so that recorder comes out of the left speaker, and the guitar out of the right. So if you crank the balance over to the right, you just get the guitar. Which means I can hear how it is 'supposed' to sound, but then also have a go with some backing. Some of these are also in range for the treble.
* 12 Etudes (Duschennes) - I'll witter about these in the treble section
Treble
* A Day in the Country - this is G1 to G3. For descant/tenor, I can turn dots on a page in to fingerings without thinking. That gives me great confusion with the treble, where my fingers want to form the C-fingerings while my brain is stumbling on the F-fingering! So I'm starting easy in the hope that I can make the F-fingerings just a different set of dots-in-to-fingers.
* Amazing Solos - this is G1 to G4. Lots of well-known tunes to graduate on to as I become capable.
* 12 Etudes - I got this in both descant and treble. Imagine my surprise to get home to find one of these is on the G6 list! They are studies, but each study is a whole page, so they are effectively pieces. They look to be challenging in terms of getting your fingers and tounge working together properly. They are mostly semi-quavers and allegro, but I decided that I didn't need to play them allegro to start off with. So it gives me some challenges to work on for years to come - once I can do them very very slowly, I can try doing them faster! I think doing these slowly will help with the dots-to-fingers thing, as they are quite repetitive (in a good way). The first one starts along the lines of: C, E, D, F, E, G, F, A, G, B, G, A, F, G, E, F, D, E, C. Then it goes up and down again, throwing in a couple of sharps. Then it goes up and down again, throwing in a couple of flats. Then it goes up and down again, throwing in flats and sharps. I enjoy this sort of thing at least as much as I enjoy bashing out a 'real tune'.
Tenor
* 3 Gymnopedies by Satie - because, in two shops, it was the only thing I came across specifically for the tenor. The second piece can be played on tenor, treble or descant.
Which should keep me quiet for a long long time, when added to my four tutor books (Orr's Basic Recorder Technique, two volumes for descant, two volumes for treble). Except yesterday I went to a second-hand shop, and got a book of descant solos for 49p! Plus, a very wordy book: "Playing Recorder Sonatas" which my husband said I had to buy myself (for £1.49) despite my explaining I'm a long way from sonatas. I think he thinks it looks impressive on the music book shelf
On the downside, I actually was very quiet for a long long time - I spent about an hour getting up the courage to pick up my recorder and shut myself in the bedroom to play, and then I spent 20 minutes sitting there holding it, making the finger movements for Handel's Gavotte in the 'first repertoire' book but without actually blowing. I caved totally and didn't play anything at all, and my husband told me I was very silly to be so self-conscious! Does anyone else have stage-fright about practising in their own home?!
