Hello All

looking for a bit of advice on the recorder front, picked up my recorder for the first time since middle school and found it came back to me quite quickly. However I'm not to keen on the sound of the recorder its too high pitched for me - and the rest of the family

I was wondering what Bass recorders sound like, I don't remember ever hearing one solo, are they easyier on the ear? Also someone mentioned to me they are much louder because of their size, is this the case?


Ant advice greatly appreciated - Many Thanks

Katy

Bass recorders are not good as solo instruments really. They are much more widely used in recorder consorts. The sound is not large but very mellow and without the upper harmonics that give the smaller recorders that edge and brightness. You might prefer a tenor recorder which has roughly the same range as the oboe. It is not at all high-pitched and squeeky! Also, a decent wooden recorder would cost about twice or three times the price of a decent wooden tenor. Having said that there are some nice plastic tenor instruments about and they are not expensive.

Thanks Petrat, im guessing my recorder is soprano?? Its the small one which everyone seems to learn to play in school. Tenor sounds like a good option I will look into it, thank you

The one everyone learns to play at school is a soprano (aka descant).

The tenor is great for descant players as the fingering is the same and the music is the same to read (the descant is an octave higher, but its music is written down an octave - so both the descant and the treble have music that is written from middle C upwards).

Bass recorders are written in bass clef and there isn't a lot of solo music for them, as petrat said. With a tenor, you can use any descant music and just play it at a slightly friendlier pitch (having said that: my cat does not like any pitch of recorder!!)