Me as well!
(slightly less bouncy than barry cos saying this mean - horror of horrors - potentially meeting people...)

Saturday is SRP and Sundays are my OU days. It also means a day off work and my husband not having to be dragged along. I won't be able to get there tooooooooo early due to having to wait until the trains have a vaguely civilised price (otherwise how will I be able to buy, well, whatever I'm going to spend my non-existant money on...?)

Have you ever been before?

If you haven't, I'll let you know now that almost every stall is likely to have things on it that you'll want to buy...

Would be good to meet you if you can make it.

Why do all the good things happen in London?

It's just not fair!! I would sulk but at least it will save me some money

<parachutes into thread>



Ooh, sounds fun. I've got the day off work that day, so can someone provide me with all the details? Will I be laughed at for playing a new-fangled clarinet? Will I need to bring a bag big enough to carry around a newly-purchased harpsichord? Does the refreshment area serve strong tea and chocolate buns?

this should give you the links you need

I'd love to go, but it might me a bad idea for me to go anywhere where it's possible to buy a wooden treble...

T.

You only have to look. And trying a few out in an exhibition will give you a better idea for when it's time to invest.....

I know, but looking and trying them out will make me want one even more.

T.

Right, so the provisional list is

Katyjay
Barry-Clari
Maizie
Deborah

I'll update this list with anyone else who's up for it.

My suggestion would be that we meet at the main entrance at a time that suits all travellers. Ideally I'd like to get there before 12 noon, as I'd like to get into Philip Thorby's recital if I can. (He taught on the Easter Early Music course I did this year and was pretty darn good). But if that's too early, I'll go to that on my own and meet the rest of you after 12.45

And then I'll be ready to hit the exhibition. Armed with Misterjay's credit card

Teigr, you could always relieve any urge to purchase pretty toys by helping me choose some sheet music instead....

Oooh... *really wants to go*

I need to find a parent to drag down on Sunday, as I'll be at school on Friday and work on Saturday.....

Which is just as tempting as instruments... ;-)

T.

KJ, are you being a bad influence????




















............glad to hear it

Who, me?

Yup! Though as I'm already in your league when it comes to instrument-acquisition, it's not as if KJ's corrupting an innocent here... ;-)

T.

Last year, they had an old clarinet stall there Deborah...

Yes, I'd seen that recital on the programme and thought I'd like to make that one too I should be able to get there by 11.30 so fingers crossed!

Not sure how I missed your post there yesterday katyjay, but I shouldn't have any problem arriving by 12, indeed I'm hoping to be there well before that.

Oh, wow, what just happened...suddenly, I've just won a maple Moeck Rottenburgh sopranino...



Well, I suppose it means if I do get a garklein at some future point, I now don't have to worry about having the 'gap' between descant and garklein to fill.

Damn, just realised that I have my car booked in for a service on 27th - which means that the Early Music Festival is in the same 'pay month' as my car service. Oh well - I'm sure "that's what credit cards are for".

Perhaps my new sopranino and/or the festival will give me a kick to get me practising again (five weeks today since I did anything and, no, I don't really know why). Oh, just realised I have SRP on Saturday, that will remind me what I've been missing if I don't get round to kicking myself in to gear by then...

You lot are a BAD, BAD influence!

Thanks for the link, anacrusis. Wonder if I can justify £100 on an ornate EMS music stand?

I don't think I can go, as I'm playing in a festival class that evening, so I daren't risk being late getting back for that (if there's a problem with trains or whatever), and I should probably spend the day quietly at home and doing some practice rather than trekking round London. :-(
I might see if I can go on the Saturday though, or wait til next year.


Question for people who've done grade 6/7/8 treble - what sort of instrument(s) did you use for the exam?

T.

My daughter is going to do Grade 6 (Trinity) shortly.

She'll play on my Dolmetsch boxwood as it's much better for solo playing than her own Kung bubinga.

She'll also play on her own Moeck boxwood soprano for one piece.

However, you wouldn't be penalised for playing on plastics as long as they were good. As you'll know, good plastics are far better than bad wooden ones.

We need to organise a padded mat or something so she has somewhere safe to put the one she's not playing.
What have other people done about this in multi-recorder exams?

I pre-warm my instruments by cuddling them under my jumper until I go in, and then wrap them in a duster to keep them as cosy as possible; I take in a treble or tenor case and rest the instruments not in use across it on the floor. I'd also recheck tuning carefully with each change, if nothing else to get fingers used to the change in size - I know that all sounds obvious, but it's very easy to forget to do so in the pressure of an exam. I've always played my boxwood treble, had a cheapie wooden descant for the van Eyck at grade 7, then a better boxwood one for grade 8, and a modest pearwood Dolmetsch tenor (though it will be another boxwood one for the next exam) for grade 8 and ATCL.
Another tip - if using piano accompaniment, get the pianist to put the lid down. I've even been told off for letting the harpsichordist use a full-length lidstick instead of a short one, in a music festival .

Absolutely


Probably not much consolation, but I can sympathise


Good luck for the festival!

I'm planning to use a cheap plastic one for some parts of my g5 descant exam.
It's a translucent multicoloured Yamaha (currently green at each end and blue in the middle, but it changes from time to time). My old Aulos falls apart and has a hole through the mouthpiece (I used to bite it, so there are two deep grooves, one with an actual hole in).

The Yamaha has a more robust sound to it than my wooden one (pearwood Dolmetsch), so I'm using it for the Turner Fanfare. Using the Dolmetsch for the Rameau and the Keuning. Will probably use the Yamaha for scales as that's what I practice them on (don't want to over-play the wooden one) and it's in three sections so I can adjust the position of the bottom holes, which I can't on the Dolmetsch. Will use whichever is least clogged up by that point for sight-reading.

For higher grades I'll need to switch to treble (for most if not all of it) and currently have only an old Aulos (with a few tuning issues which I /think/ are at least partly down to the instrument). So I think an upgrade is going to be required - either to a new plastic instrument or, most likely, to a wooden one. If I'm going to invest in a new treble, I want one that'll see me right through to grade 8 if I ever want to do it.



My current plan is just to stick whichever I'm not using at the time into the back of the waistband of my jeans - keep it warm, safe and out of the way, but easy to get at. (It won't look silly, as I never tuck my shirt in.)
That's with just descants though. Dunno what I'll do for treble when the time comes.




I pre-warm my Dolmetsch by tucking it into my sock inside my jeans, or into the back of the waistband. :-)

Hadn't thought about re-tuning when switching instruments, but after the first switch I'll be unaccompanied anyway, so I just need to remember to tune the Yamaha before playing the second piece.

T.

edit: Thanks Sarah! I'll need it - never played in a festival before and I'm absolutely terrified.

Hope it goes well - I'm sure you'll be fine. Remember, you can only do your best on the day - whatever that may be. Go for it, do your best, and don't beat yourself over the head with it afterwards!

You can just warm the head of the treble - after all, that's the bit at risk of clogging - and therefore use the tucked-into waistband trick, providing the jeans are big enough. After that size, instrument heads do really get a bit too wide for that to be practicable.
I'm still looking for the magic garment which would allow me to keep three recorders warm next to me whilst performing in a concert, look smart enough but not suspiciously lumpy...I suspect I'm going to have to make it myself . *thinks up voluminous flowing coat with big inside pockets*.
I have seen players using variations on the theme of hot water bottles, but would be worried about leakages or getting the temperature disastrously wrong.
Good luck with the festival, Teigr - you have my sympathy, as I did my first one this year too; and all the best for it too.

That has just brought back a painful memory!

I was taking part in the solo recorder class at a local music festival (aged about 11 or so). The room was freezing cold so to help me keep my recorder warm my accompanist stuck it inside her fur coat......it was unbelievably sharp by the time my turn to perform occured.

Better too sharp than flat, though - at least you can pull the head out to flatten down, but once the instrument is assembled as tightly as possible, you can only go any sharper by altering fingerings . At the music festival last summer the room got very chilly, causing the harpsichord to go sharp, whilst my tenor went flat...and I got pulled up for poor intonation .

I just played I'm so pleased, not only that I did some practice, but also it's given me the wonderful 'I can make music' buzz. My husband isn't home yet, and I hunted out my easiest book for treble and my easiest book for descant and played a few pieces from each.

Right, I'm off to change my signature then...wonder what that little hiatus was all about...

Everyone seems to get them now and then. I need a kick to get me out of mine...

Well, it's just arrived here at work, and I'd be very pleased with it, except....it's NOT a sopranino! I put it together, and it didn't feel particularly small. I've gone and hunted down a ruler, and it's 12" long. Which to my mind makes it a descant (I'm convinced, really, but somehow between being here and being at home, you never know, it might shrink and go up a fourth and turn out to actually be a sopranino...)

I've just double-double-checked the listing, and it is listed with the word Sopranino and the model number 219 (which was a sopranino model number).
Shame - it's not in brilliant condition but it was going to be a lovely bargain 'nino...and now I'll just be having to send it back (as I doubt I'd ever choose it over my Dolmetsch descant, given it's condition)...

How annoying for you, Maizie.

It's not uncommon on e-bay though. The only reason I have a garklein was because I won an auction for an Aulos sopranino. And the picture on the listing was of a sopranino, but the instrument that arrived wasn't a sopranino at all....

But it was in adequately good nick (once I'd cleaned it up), and the vendor refunded half of what I paid for it (which was not a lot to start with...) so I kept it.

Hello everyone!

I sing tenor in a church choir, and one day our choir director suggested that, for a bit of fun, we get together after choir practice for a "scratch orchestra". Now, the only instrument I had ever played was recorder (at school, apallingly). I had one (an Aulos descant) lying around under the bed, so dug it out, re-learnt the notes, and came along to the "orchestra".

I thoroughly enjoyed playing in an instrumental emsemble, and liked the recorder a lot. Especially since it transpired that our organist is a closet bass recorder player. She has a lovely old wooden instrument, and I really liked the sound.

So, since then, we've had a few more of these evenings, and I've played some tunes found on the Internet, etc. I want to learn recorder properly, and having listened to sound files on the Internet, I like the treble/alto one best.

It's my birthday coming up, and I've asked my parents to buy me a treble recorder. They've agreed and set the budget at £100 but I don't have any idea what to buy. Wooden or plastic in this price range? The wooden ones sound lovely, but are they too expensive for me? Since I'm a beginner, might it be best to start with plastic?

Also, I've never had instrumental lessons in my life. How much do they cost (roughly)? Can I teach myself? And, what about emsembles? How good do I need to be to join an ensemble? How do I find them?

Sorry for such a long and boring story, and lots of questions, but I really would appreciate some advice. I'm also sorry if this is the wrong place to post.

Thank you and kindest regards,
CP

Sounds a good a place as any to post I've seen wooden treble for around £100, perhaps a bit more, but never actually played one so couldn't say how good they were. I have a plastic Aulos treble that does me pretty well

I would get lessons if at all possible. They seem to range from £10 - £15 for a half hour, and if you take a look at the FAQ at the top of each board I believe there is a section on finding teachers there The recorder specialists will probably have more advice! But most of all, enjoy it

I'd advise getting the Yamaha 302B plastic treble for starters, because £100 won't get you a very good wooden instrument. The Yamaha has a nice full-bodied tone, costs about £21, and I've had pupils achieve excellent marks right up to Grade 8 on those - I do prefer pupils to have a good-quality wooden instrument by about Grade 6 really, but for some families that is just out of the question.

Once you get reasonably proficient - and if I were you I would work at both F and C instruments - you can go along to your local SRP and join in the fun!

How much does one need to spend to buy a "good-quality wooden instrument", then?
What's an SRP?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks very much for your help . I think my parents are going to take me to Saunders Recorders soon, so that'll be good. I can't wait .

Kind regards,
CP

Hi Celestianpower! Welcome to the recorder!

A couple of points:

SRP is Society of Recorder Players, they hold branch meetings in many areas - find them on google. (Some people can do links, I can't!)

Saunders Recorders has recently closed as a shop. John Everingham is continuing to run the business from his home, if you check the website, I think it says you can make an appointment to visit. His house is only a little way from where the shop used to be.

Post any more questions, you'll get lots of recorder fans willing to help you

Hi Celestianpower! Welcome to the recorder!

A couple of points:

SRP is Society of Recorder Players, they hold branch meetings in many areas - find them on google. (Some people can do links, I can't!)

Saunders Recorders has recently closed as a shop. John Everingham is continuing to run the business from his home, if you check the website, I think it says you can make an appointment to visit. His house is only a little way from where the shop used to be.

Post any more questions, you'll get lots of recorder fans willing to help you

You'd be looking at about £300-£400 and upwards (sky's the limit for the really super-duper hand-made ones!) to get a good wooden treble - it depends on the wood. Go for a good-quality plastic first, then when you have been playing for a while you'll be in a better position to start looking around for a wooden one. And as your parents have offered you up to £100, why not spend the extra on some recorder music to get you going?

....and I'll say again - a recorder player really should play both the F and C instruments. You'll find it very limiting after a while in playing situations with other people if you only play treble. Thinking about it, for the £100 budget you could get both the Yamaha 302B treble and the Yamaha 304B tenor (or the Dolmetsch Nova tenor, which is a comparable instrument)!

If you are anywhere near London, why not come along to the Early Music Festival in Greenwich, which is running from 9th-11th November? There'll be plenty of recorders there, and it's an ideal opportunity to try them all out!

After the rugby last night, I watched 'Have I got News for You'.

It's repeated this Monday, 22nd October, at 10pm, on BBC2.

Recorders are mentioned in the show.

I shall say no more for the moment, except for THIS.....

Great! How much does that tenor you mention cost? Would I still have money left over for music?

Sadly, I live in Gloucestershire, so it'd cost rather a lot to go to the festival. Money I'd rather spend on actual recorder stuff . I do hope you have a good time, though . I'd love to be there.

Thanks for the advice . Kind regards,
CP

??

How long is it - I may be able to persaude my parents to let me watch it....

It's a half hour programme, the section in question was (I think) about half way into the show.

Reminder to the forum (and particularly recorder players) - it's Have I Got News For You, tomorrow (Monday 22nd October), 10pm, BBC2

Okay, I should get away with it then. Must be bad...

It's not great, no...

I'll try to remember to watch it. Someone remind me just before 10 on monday!!

The Yamaha tenor retails for around £70, so with the treble at about £21/£22 you'd still have a little money left over for music - though not much! Perhaps you could ask other relations to give you money to put towards music?

Well, I've just had a full refund for the sopranino-that-wasn't. I'm almost sad to be parting with it, after all, it was a lovely Rottenburgh and I'd played a scale on it and thus it is in some way 'mine'. BUT, on the up side, this gives me more money to spend at the Early Music Festival


I saw it Friday night, and I don't remember recorders being mentioned - I know the Saturday night repeat is an extended version with bits they had to cut for the Friday night added back in...so now I'm intrigued as to what I missed...

Just watched the Have i got news for you reapeat and i don't think there were any recorders mentioned, so it was probably just in the longer version. But then i wasn't giving it my full attention.

Er - there were certainly no recorders mentioned in this week's show...but I DO remember an edition from a while ago when they were...it wasn't an old one you saw, by any chance, barry, was it???