Oh no, that sounds terrible! I too would be far happier thinking "it's not ready yet" than knowing "it's ready but can't be sent to me yet"

Syllabub update: My teacher also teaches for Trinity Juniors. He says that whoever said the syllabus is being printed 'as we speak' was fibbing ever so slightly!! The current estimate is that the syllabus will be available some time next month, i.e. October.
He has written very sharply to the chief exec to say it is totally ludicrous, and they will need to extend the overlap period if they really can't get it out before then. On enquiring, he said they claimed that they don't have proof versions anyone can look at, they don't know if the scales, etc, will be changing too, and were just generally being 'typically Trinity' in their organisation levels!!

He said but for the ludicrous scale requirements (and several theory refusniks), he'd shift us all over to AB. On discovering I did have G5 theory, he said for me to hunt out an AB syllabus to look at

Having been drawn in to the idea of maybe attempting to learn some Stockhausen (don't ask, but no, it would not be for the new instrument in any case)....I was looking on John Everingham's site today for sources of sheet music...the comment next to the Trinity syllabus for the next few years was "on order"....so no, Trinity doesn't have a clue. Daft widgets, they're going to lose revenue, surely, by being so slow, cos everyone will have to wait til the next session

I've emailed Trinity about it. I'm not holding my breath...



It's a user-unfriendly forum. I look to see if they at least go onto a forum setup like this (the structure of which is not hard to create, really), and no...

Like you say anacrusis, it's a pity. I like their exams, to the extent I've chosen to do a Trinity dip. rather than an ABRSM one...

Now this is a phrase I like! And Trinity will now for ever be 'daft widgets' to me

*is now bouncing off all the walls in excitement*

One voice flute is in the post....and should be with me in a few days.....

(anacrusis bouncing off the walls)

W

News! News!

If you go to the Trinity forum you will see that there is news at last. It's as clear as mud as far as I am concerned - no new syllabus for a year, but an 'interim syllabus' for next year.

This is very confusing - does this mean that in 2012 we can use the current syllabus (which is being extended to last until the end of 2012)? Or, when they talk about the additions to the interim syllabus, does this mean additional alternatives (for poor teachers who are sick of the same old pieces!) or does this mean replacements?

I reckon it's as clear as mud because they have no idea either Have forwarded on to teach to see if he can get any sense out of them Wonder if I'll have to brave AB and *gasp* singing!!

The reply on the Trinity Forum seems to be more or less consistent with:



I've no idea where she got this information from (local rep?). However, I'll quizz her tomorrow, to see how reliable it might be.

Certainly does seem consistent

What's annoying for me is that, if they know recorder isn't going to change, can't they just confirm that rather than make me wait another month? And for someone like andante_in_c, who is not just waiting on recorder but also other woodwinds (as is my teacher), they could just clarify a bit about whether the new stuff is going to replace old stuff (i.e. some existing stuff will be invalid for the interim syllabus) or whether the new stuff is purely additions (i.e. all existing stuff will still be valid until the end of 2012).
Even if they can't tell us the new bits, confirming the status ofthe existing bits would be very helpful

The post on the Trinity forum isn't well worded, but I think it means the lists will remain the same, except a supplement will be published with pieces from their new repertoire books on it.

Even so, October is a bit on the late side for session A 2012 exams...

I agree...in that that is what I also think it means. But they could be clearer about it

Aha!! Something that makes sense posted here



Hurrah! Existing syllabus stands then, with no additions for G7 recorders Can work from that I'm just off to my lesson now, probably not doing the AB syllabus and having to sing now !

I haven't dropped in here for quite a while and I need a bit of advice...

I bought new recorders (replacement descant, sopranino and treble) while in the UK. I was wondering what tips you may have about blowing in multiple instruments. It's not too much of a problem at the start with max 10 mins per day but as I build up there is no way I will have time for them all, still less oboe too...

What about rotating instruments each day?

This purchase must come from some sixth sense ... I have just had a health problem diagnosed that means an op and I am likely to be off the oboe for quite a long stretch (fingers crossed that oboe is not going to be an ongoing issue with the particular problems I have )... but I think the recorder should be safe after the initial stages of recuperation. At least I assume that it would be much gentler on the system than the oboe. And I think I am going to need some form of musical exercise just to keep myself happy and sane...

So, any suggestions as to the blowing-in routine for 3 recorders?

I'd probably try to play all three every day, but rotate which one gets the time extension up from ten minutes: so all three for ten minutes for a few days, then one for twenty, the others for ten, rotate round but stil playing all three for at least ten minutes: then half an hour, same way - and you'd need to keep at each level for three times as long so that all instruments have had their full time. That way none of them gets bone dry in between - it'll take longer to blow them in but at least hopefully avoiding cracking.

That sounds like a solution!

What happens if you miss a day or two? Do you have to start over? Would it be better to leave this until after the op? I'm likely to be in hospital for a few days.

The weather is quite damp here, which I hope will also prevent cracking.

It sounds to me that after your op is a perfect time to blow in recorders if you are off oboe duty. I hope it's not serious - and certainly not serious enough to stop you playing oboe altogether.

NOT off oboe duty yet! I have a recital to work towards on 1 Oct (hoping op will be after that) and I intend to enjoy playing as much as I can while I can.

I am not sure that the pressure of playing the oboe is very good for pelvic situation but it does seem to be beneficial for the cough, so that's my pretext for now... I will have to be very careful after my op, whenever that happens. I would dearly like to find a doctor here who understands oboe playing and can advise me properly but there's pretty no chance of that.

In any case, as you say, recuperation will be a great chance to resume the recorder. I've been wanting to but no time for anything but oboe, really. (What an awful thing to say on the recorder thread! : )

Today is a public holiday and both flatmate and myself are at home so there is hot competition for practise time, which he has won temporarily ( )... later we're going to work on duets for the recital.

a few days off blowing-in won't make any difference: several weeks will. In any case, blowing in also requires more frequent oiling unless the instruments are impregnated with paraffin wax: and you can't play an instrument for at least twelve hours either side of oiling (I leave it twentyfour hours).

Have a word with your surgeon about the issue of oboing - all s/he needs to know is what is involved in providing support to your sound - increased abdominal pressure/support yes, but that also involves using pelvic muscles and may even aid recovery, depending on what's to be done. They may not know about oboe-playing per se, but they will know about muscle function in some detail .

Excellent advice on both fronts - thank you, anacrusis

Very useful to have medic musicians on here!

The docs I have consulted are, understandably, a bit reluctant to say much about the oboe playing and their cautious default position is to recommend not playing and to ask me - since I'm not a professional - why I don't just take up a different instrument. (Not musicians, obviously!!!). But as you say they will know about muscle function so it occurs to me that maybe I could take my oboe in to the next consultation and they can see what it involves. Now, if it turns out to be - contrary to speculations so far - an actual aid to recovery that would make me really happy!

The very idea of having to take a long break from the oboe has had a worse emotional effect than some of the other possible consequences that usually make women freak out a it about such interventions. Completely loony but there you go.

Still, I will at least have time for the recorders too.

[quote name='anacrusis' post='1090406' date='Sep 15 2011, 02:19 PM']
a few days off blowing-in won't make any difference: several weeks will. In any case, blowing in also requires more frequent oiling unless the instruments are impregnated with paraffin wax: and you can't play an instrument for at least twelve hours either side of oiling (I leave it twentyfour hours).

Are you saying that you oil your recorders during the blowing in process? I always thought it was best to leave them until the blowing in was complete and then do it. I oiled for the first time last night the two recorders that I bought at Summer School.

Yes, I oil during blowing in - the early stages of using a recorder are actually those when the wood needs most oil, it absorbs a lot then. I have never played a freshly oiled one, and never oil a damp-from-playing instrument, but every set of instructions I've ever received from manufacturers and elsewhere underlines the importance of this maintenance when a recorder is new, with frequency diminishing after the first few months of use.

I'm the proud owner of a very beautiful voice flute .

Now to wait for Photobucket to wake up - its site seems to be temporarily down, so I can't post piccies til it's back up again. There was one heck of a palaver to get it, with a certain couriers firm covering itself in the antithesis of glory over the matter - had to trawl a lot of internet and do a very lot of phoning round to get it, then got up at six to go to the Industrial Estate it was hiding out in, before work....

Daughter, not known for her love of my recorders, has just said, "that looks like the Prada of recorders" ...

so here it is, from head...



....to foot

Lovely!! Hope you have many happy hours together

Gosh it looks lovely!

It looks beautiful!

The sound this instrument makes is absolutely meltingly beautiful - and it's also rather responsive to breath pressure, so that I can do more subtle things with the tone....

Setting aside the issue of pitch for the moment (though it would trouble KJ, or YAP, or any others with absolute pitch) - learning to orientate myself on this new instrument is proving interesting....

I was trying to think of a tenor, played a tone up, trying to link notes to their names to the fingerings as I'm supposed to do. It's an old problem I have, the reason I can't memorise scales, because for me the link between dot on stave and finger pattern has always bypassed the note name - the thing I do slowest is to put a note name to a fingering. I took a whole summer to get to the stage where I knew all the notes for an F instrument . Of course I'm in far too much of a hurry to spend that much time trying to learn the voice flute that way - I want results, now .

So - I did start practising before I got the voice flute, using my tenor as the next nearest size. Up a tone from tenor, anacrusis, so all fingers down is now a D. And there is its octave, and the next. Anchor notes - three down in the left hand, was a G, is now an A. Oh heck, if I want to play an F it's the old fingering for Eb . After about five minutes, my brain goes into meltdown doing this, and I forget which way up is......

Then I got a facebook message from the maker about the other way people do this one - I'd discounted the option because it sounded like too many things to think about at once, but it works for me . What I've to do is think bass clef (confuzzlement number one, cos is not a bass instrument) and use treble fingerings....adding three flats to the key signature. Mad but effective, and it means I don't have to wait to make all the cerebral crosslinkages to start playing the sorts of lovely music this instrument is so well suited to.

Two downsides.....*wants treble at 415 to match*
*husband wants to upgrade harpsichord too* .

I did a bit of experimenting and came to the conclusion that, if I were ever lucky enough to own a voice flute, that is what I would do. I did something similar whilst trying to play a clarinet part on an alto flute once, but we won't go there.

I'll almost certainly be bringing it down to your neck of the woods in a few weeks' time - so if we happen to meet up round then, you can have a go, if you like .

Ooooh! Yes, please.

Hello, hopefully I?m posting this in the right place and someone will be able to help.

I?m looking for repertoire suggestions/recommendations for treble recorder (one) and piano that anyone may have. At the moment we?re working on two Telemann sonatas but we?d like to add something contrasting - perhaps Christmassy/modern. We can both play reasonably okay (anything grade 7 + would be fine). I?ve looked at the website www.recordermail.co.uk which seems to be a great place but unfortunately you can?t preview anything and it doesn?t always give the difficulty level ? not to mention that there is just loads to chose from! I've also looked in musicroom and Schott but I'd appreciate any suggestions people may have.

I played the final movement of Malcolm Arnold's Sonatina for recorder, for grade 7, and had an absolute blast doing so - it's lively, fun, not too cacophanous, and would certainly give you some contrast for Telemann. I can't now remember how difficult the piano part was - I know my pianist felt she had to work a little on it, and she was fairly accomplished, but she was also very particular about getting things just so, so it may still be within reach. I'm a bit of a baroque nut, so tend on the whole to play ridiculously avant-garde stuff in exams for my modern pieces, hoping to bamboozle examiners into thinking I can play well when all I'm doing is blowing a series of raspberries down recorders at them . However the other thought I have if you want modern would be something like some Staeps, or some Pete Rose if there's any accompanied material by him. I personally am not so keen on Gordon Jacob's music, but there will doubtless be others along who can sing his praises too.

I haven't come across recorder specific christmassy stuff - but if you were to want a christmassy feel you could do worse than to explore some Corelli, because his style is very recognisable, and people do associate one of his concerti grossi strongly with that time of year. However, that's baroque again.

Have a look at exam board lists - the advantage being that music shops tend to stock them and you can then at least squint at a score and see if it might suit .

Gordon Jacob's Suite for Treble Recorder + Piano might suit.

Haha, I'm not going to sing Jacob's praises, because like anacrusis I'm happier going back a few hundred years rather than just 50. But, I did play a movement of the suite for grade 6 last year. It was OK...until I got to have a go with a piano! It changed it completely having it with a good piano player - to the point that I would probably consider it again in a sbusequent exam (it's currently got another movement on TG G8, although that is theoretically due to change next year).

Having just gone through the TG G7 list with teach - in an attempt to find something from list B/modern stuff - he recommended the Arnold Sonatina, and the Staeps Sonata in Eb. For the latter, he did say you would need to have a piano with it, and the piano player mustn't be timind - it works with the piano played loudly and crashingly as written

So nothing new to add to what anacrusis and Halka have said, actually

Daughter did the Edmunds Sonatina (recommended by Bagpuss) and enjoyed it - but it is a descant piece, so if you need a treble piece may be no good to you.

Thank you - I need to buy more descant pieces (only have 3 across the syllabus), and teacher said he thought that one was worth doing too, so that's three recommendations (going shopping mid-week, I think!)

I seem to have forgotton what people are recommending music for My daughter likes the Herbele, she wasn't mad on the Arnold and has only ever played Jacob on Oboe

Here's some fun (and talent) . Found it whilst poking around some odd corners of the net - this kid is good, and also looks rather cute and mischievous .

Excellent! Really talented and well taught

Thanks for your replies. I think I may have already looked at the Gordon Jacob Suite, didn?t like it much and, the choice being given to me, opted for the Telemann Sonata. However I might get my friend to bring it back so we can double check this now - who knows, now I'm used to accompanying the recorder my ears might have changed their mind! I'll certainly check out the Arnold Sonatina and the Corelli.

I did take a look at the exam syllabus and this led what me to the recordermail website - sadly my nearest music shop is miles away (about an hour and a half drive away) so not much squinting going on for me!

John Everingham at Saunders Recorders is the person I always speak to when having a struggle for recorder repertoire. He is very helpful and knowledgable about all everything recorder

Just don't do so if you were about to nip out for the bus.....You May Be Some Time .
But yes, he is very well informed, and a good player himself too.

And shop I did I have come home with five new pieces from the TG G7 syllabus...and a version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Basically, it's the first violin line, transcribed for treble recorder. Two movements stay in the same key, two get shifted to suit. The other parts aren't included as they stay the same - but if you want to match keys, then all you need, according to the intro, is a treble in A and a treble in A flat! Simple Couldn't resist the chance to try playing them, though obviously the other parts will be purely in my head.

Haha, took my new purchases to lesson. We will have fun exploring the syllabus stuff, and the Vivaldi was smiled at knowingly, and declared "moderately impossible but good fun to play with". I said I'd add it to my "moderately impossible but fun pile", currently consisting of the Bach cello suites and the Flight of the Bumble Bee To which I was told that the cello suites are not all impossible (though a few are), in fact some are quite approachable, and I should bring them to a lesson when I want to give them a proper go...

I was also having problems getting top G to sound nicely in tune, assuming it to be (as usual) operator error, teacher borrowed my recorder. This usually results in a him playing something perfectly, thus proving it was indeed me and not the instrument. But not this time...this time he played a bottom G to go with it, said it was 'rubbery' and it was time for a revoice.

The good part is that the Early Music Shop in London now opens until 5.30pm - so I should be able to pop in on the way home from one of my Tuesday's working in London (especially if I slope off a few minutes early!) Hmm, that does mean two unsupervised visits to EMS though, which could potentially be a Bad Thing (reminder to self: I have no money, I have no money...)

The revised 2012 TG syllabuses are now available. Unfortunately the new books have not yet been published so we're not any further forward.

Have TG published any sort of date of release for said book?

According to Amazon it is still 15 August.