Great news. I hope that this one will be a success.

I think that deserves a

Well I've now got Grade 7, and my Mollerhauer Denner in Pearwood is due at Christmas...from the same shop Sarah used. I hope I have more success. However they have looked after my oboe and cor anglais well over the years, and seem to be doing a decent job with my son's flute.


Good luck in your exam Sarah... at least your not playing yours on a 33year old Aulos Treble like I did.

Thanks for the good luck

If anything happens to your new recorder, whatever you do, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKE IT BACK TO THE SHOP! It's a lot easier just to send it back to Mollenhauer, and that's ignoring the fact that the man shop seemed to go out of his way to make life difficult.

Good luck with it Jo, and congrats om the exam result too. I used a Denner once and it was a real beast for clogging.

After a quick blow to enjoy myself, I will spend Christmas afternoon oiling it!

Better not to oil it directly after playing it though, jod - the recorder should be dry when you do that, and left to dry afterwards at least overnight. There are some useful tips on oiling on the Saunders recorders website - don't forget to keep oil off the block at all costs or you may well run into clogging problems. I have a Mollenhauer Denner tenor in boxwood, and it is a beautiful thing - no problems with clogging at all, but then is also a chunk larger than the treble. The instrument I own which does fug up if I so much as look at it the wrong way is a Moeck Steenbergen treble, and there it is because the windway is ridiculously narrow.

Is it ok to use more than one of the same size of recorder in an exam?

I haven't really had time to practice my pieces enough on my treble to get the coordination of fast bits 100% there for my exam tomorrow, since it got back, so I'm going to use my teacher's recorder for at least part of the exam. However, I find it quite difficult to stop its high notes cracking (especially top G), so the scales that go up particularly high would be slightly iffy, as well as the end of the slower of my two treble pieces. So what I'm considering doing is playing my A piece (and possibly B depending on how I feel about it after practising tonight, and maybe sight reading too) on my teacher's recorder, the scales and maybe SR and B on my treble, and C on descant. Would this be ok do you think?

My pieces are 'Song from Norway' by Roy Newsome for B and the Chedeville Sonata on the A list.

My teacher's recorder has a very good bottom range, whereas mine has more of a fuzzy bottom range, but clear high notes, which it hits every time without cracking.

The norway piece is slow (so there isn't the coordination problem) has a low melody in the first half, which is then repeated an octave higher after a section in the middle range and ends with a series of jumps from low D to high D (which often crack on my teacher's recorder, but wouldn't on mine). Any advice on which would be the better choice would be much appreciated

I suppose it's also relevant that I'm not meant to be playing mine for more than 15 mins a day at the moment.

Things are never simple!

It's not a problem at all. Chop and change as much as you need to. Have you got a nice snug vest or something else suitable to keep the head joints warm so that they will be ready for action?

I am sure that it will go well, but best of luck anyway.

Thanks, that's good to know!

What do you think would be the best thing to do about the Norway piece?

I just did an exam last Monday, using three recorders, admittedly all different sizes - the regulations though only stipulate what combinations of sizes are allowed, not how many of each so you should be fine.

I have a big recorder bag which fits pretty much any combination of recorders as long as none is bigger than a bass, so can carry them all in to an exam together - I took with me a hotwater bottle, filled warm but not hot, and carefully checked the bung wasn't leaking, wrapped that up in a thick piece of cloth, and laid that on the open case (bung side facing out just in case) to snuggle the recorder heads under after getting them to my body temperature in my usual way, down my shirt . It worked a treat. Both the warm up room and exam room were not very warm, so I did get cold fingers, but at least no condensation. So, if you take in something to keep the heads warm - other players will use a duster, also prewarmed, and Piers Adams has a rather posh arrangement like a purpose-built snuggly nest for his instruments. Then again, he is generally playing more than three in one recital .

good luck

you may not get this before the exam, I realise - difficult to know how to help with Norway, except to say, which is more prominent or more significant, the high stuff or the low melody at the beginning? If the piece comes last, it may be better to end well than begin well too, that is the other consideration. I made sure I played my nicest music last.....

The Adler has been found to be out-of-tune and therefore I will have to play my orchestra part on an Aulos plastic tenor. I've been told that the Adler might still be OK for consort playing but as I'm not part of that elite world I guess I won't be playing it again.

I wonder did you play the Adler in when you bought it? This is something we didn't do with our first wooden Recorders and they always played out of tune with themselves.

No, because I assumed that its previous owner had done so.

If recorders haven't been played for a while they need to be played in again. Don't worry been there done that got the Tshirt. At least it might not be as bad as you think if you play it in now.

Never give up on a wooden recorder because of tuning problems if you like the tone quality of the thing. The wonderful technician at the Early Music Shop in Bradford seems to tune almost anything and it doesn't cost much. It is well worth doing if it is a half decent recorder to start with.

Would playing a recorder with a cracked headjoint in any way damage the other sections?

I know that the crack would get worse, but that doesn't matter, as this would just be while I'm playing in the new headjoint (the rest of it has been thoroughly played in twice now, so wouldn't mind being played more).

I'm just really fed up with only being able to practice for twenty minutes a day and want to avoid using my aulos if possible, as it seems to do more harm than good.

Obviously, I wouldn't want to risk damaging the rest of my recorder though.

Y'know how if you see Proper Recorder Music in a charity shop, you have to buy it?

Yesterday I got a copy of Colin Hand's Five Caprices in just this way. Haven't had the chance to tootle yet, so don't know if I have bought something way out of my league (I frequently do - have a shelf full of stuff, half of which I can't play yet, and the other half I stare at wondering just where to make a start )

But, the five pieces are all for different recorders. Treble, Tenor, Sopranino, Bass and Descant. Well, well, well...I don't own a 'nino...think I know where this is going...

OK, it may be notated on both the Sopranino and Bass pieces that they can be played on the treble, but it wouldn't be right, would it?

Having said that, I was busy counting ledger lines, and noticed that the "sopranino (or treble)" piece goes up to G, four lines above the stave. I'm thinking that if I do acquire a sopranino, playing Gs all the way up there will probably be damaging to my ears, the windows, the neighbours, any wildlife in a ten mile radius, etc....

XD I've somehow got into recorder again.

I used to play bass in the recorder ensemble (about 30 peeps) every wednesday night, but when i got into high school i was no longer allowed to go because i never did grades.

I do play treble in a church recorder group at christmas time. For some reason i've taught myself one a piece that i play at every chance i get. Subconciously.

It's weird.

I just got to play a contrabass at Recorder Orchestra (Paetzold) . Bass clef on recorder added to the confusion, but it went fine. Back to the more familiar treble by the end.

anyone?

Sarah, my gut feeling, and it is only a gut feeling, would be not to put the bad headjoint on the good body.

Practise beyond the playing-in time either on your plastic recorder, or by doing silent work - moving fingers without blowing down the instrument, listening to recordings with the music in front of you, etc.

My new descant has survived a whole 11 weeks with no cracks

This sets a new record!

I wasn't really sure where would be the best to post this, but here goes...

I want to write a piece for two recorders (probably treble and descant) and piano. What minor key would be best given:

* I need as good a range of useful notes as possible over the ranges of both instruments.
* It should be a key that fits as well under the fingers as possible (you get marks for writing well for the chosen instrument).
* I would rather use a sharp minor, but if flat ones are better, then I'm open to that.
* I want to avoid top F/C# and any other high notes that involve standing on one leg, as I'm most likely going to have to play it.

Thanks,
Sarah

I would use A minor. Lowish tonic on your lower instrument, useful range of notes on both, F# and G# accidentals. Lies well under the fingers - as much as any minor key will.

Thanks, I somehow managed to get it into my head that A wasn't great for treble high notes, but I'm not quite sure where that came from, given you can go all the way up to F before getting into trouble.

This made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it.

From a guide on composing for recorder:

"Garklein Flautlein is an octave higher than the descant. Sitting next to someone playing this instrument can be like having nails driven into your head. "

- it's fun though

I took the Adler into the London Recorder Centre on Saturday and it's now on its way to the technician in Bradford. Don't know whether the recorder can be fairly described as half-way decent, seeing as it only cost me £15 secondhand. Is it worth the expense of buying better wooden recorders when my playing opportunities are limited to bog-standard SRP monthly meetings and the Exeter Recorder Orchestra?

For the feedback you get from playing a decent recorder, I'd say it is always worth spending as much as your budget will allow. Just because your opportunities to play with others might be limited at the moment doesn't mean that you can't get pleasure from playing - I know that that alone, having a good instrument, was enough to lift my standard and let me see where I could perhaps aim for musically . It also meant that when the occasional opportunity did arise, I had instruments which could match the occasion...

I'm thoroughly disheartened by reading this on another thread:
"My daughter is 'left' handed in some things and holds the recorder with right hand at the top. She has been told by a previous recorder teacher at school that this is wrong and must be the other way around."

You don't get parents saying "My son's piano teacher told him that he must play the treble part with his right hand and the bass part with his left hand, but he's left handed and plays with his hands crossed over the whole time."

What on earth is it about the recorder that engenders this sort of thing?

I can't imagine many parents accepting a kid's insistence on playing the violin like a miniature 'cello or playing the trumpet with the valves underneath.
But the equivalent situation with recorder seems commonplace.

It just seems to reinforce the idea that the recorder is "not a proper instrument". :-(

I'm sure I saw left handed Recorders on the EMS website recently

I agree mainly because I don't see how handedness makes a difference on Recorder when both hands are used for similar things.

I think the thing is that most instruments can't sensibly be played back to front: playing the piano with your hands crossed over wouldn't be practical and most woodwinds mechanisms probably wouldn't work back to front. Recorder, assuming you can move the footjoint, is pretty much the same with either hand on top.

You get left handed guitars...

Having said that, I would never dream of playing a recorder upsidedown - it feels weird

Recorder can't /sensibly/ be played back to front either - it means the double holes are the wrong way round.

Left handed guitars are generally specially made or adapted instruments. If you simply restring an ordinary guitar, the strings will be slightly misaligned because the nut and bridge should be set up to allow for the fact that the strings are different thicknesses.

It's not so much the upside down playing that dismays me, as the way it comes across as being OK to do something that the teacher has already countermanded because it's only the recorder.

What I meant was that, compared with other instruments, the recorder is relatively easy to play back to front. On a flute, all the keys would be the wrong way round and playing the piano with hands always crossed over would be an absolute nightmare, whereas for a recorder a couple of holes will be a couple of millimetres out which, while annoying and slightly uncomfortable, wouldn't make playing it like that too difficult.

Feedback, hmm... The most fulsome praise I get for my playing comes from those who've never attended my concerts. My fellow Exeter Recorder Orchestra players have said next to nothing either way. I suppose that should tell me something, but I'm not sure what.
http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?s=&s...st&p=602446

I didn't mean from others - I meant aural feedback for yourself. A long time ago I was having an oboe lesson with my second oboe teacher, playing my ghastly plastic Boosey and Hawkes Regent horror of an instrument, and after a few squarks and squawks, my teacher stopped me, and gave me her Howarth oboe to play. I blew a few tentative notes, and just about melted, hardly able to believe that I was really making such a nice noise. The same happened a couple of months ago, when my second recorder teacher let me have a blow on her pet descant after I'd confessed to wanting a transitional instrument to play Castello and van Eyck on...again, after only a few notes, I was blown away with the sound I could make. My own recorders are fairly good models, most of them, and I need them as a minimum, to help me make a reasonable sound: I sound totally rubbish on plastic ones, and rather nice on the rare occasion when I can get a really good instrument in my hands.

It may just be a case of a bad workman blaming her tools, but for me at any rate, any tiny advantage I can gain in the way of a good instrument actually does make a difference to my playing.

I have just spotted Anacrusis' new signature. Are you Anacrusis L.T.C.L. now perchance? (Was that the right dip?)

Yes, or at least will be when the certificate has finished its long walk from London to Edinburgh... .
Funny how they give you the result, but say all over the regulations that it doesn't count until that arrives...
The mark sheet has come back headed up LGSMD, though I'd put that I was applying for LTCL on the form - but a quick email to Trinity has established that I can have the LTCL after all. Makes no difference of course, to those in the know, but I liked the idea of LTCL as I'd already got ATCL.

Brilliant. Well done. (These are harpsichord and recorder players by the way. )

Ive been playing my sopranino too much tonight....

Many thanks . We'd taken our harpsichord down to the exam centre too, so had a very familiar setup for it...

HC - I hope you have earplugs .

The Adler's now back at home sporting some new cork bits and in tune (well it agrees with my plastic Aulos tenor at least). Only trouble is I'm having to relearn the top C on the wooden tenor again, having just about mastered it on the plastic one.
http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?s=&s...st&p=745250

AAAAAAArgh!!!!!!

Stupid recorder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's cracked again!

This is getting ridiculous!

It's the same place, but on the opposite side this time.

Looking on the bright side though, this one lasted two days longer than the last one

I really don't know what to do about it, as it could carry on like this forever.

How incredibly annoying for you.

I know that you will need to go back to Mollenhauer on this one.

I'd be prepared for them to ask questions about the place and way you keep the instrument (centrally heated room or in the sunlight or whatever, in its case or out the whole time) , how you played it in - how long, how often and what you did with it afterwards (did you put it straight away or did you leave it out to dry once you'd mopped it out...) and how you handled it to assemble and dismantle it.

They will need that information to eliminate any external factors that may be affecting the instrument.

I'm in London.
It's been the usual stressy morning having to work in London, but equally usual I booked the afternoon off.
It's my birthday on Saturday.
I have an awful lot of money sat in the bank at the moment.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not going to fill that glaring sopranino-sized gap in my recorder collection, not I'm not...

(I might browse some music in Foyles, though. I know the selection isn't the brilliantist, but if I go to the London Recorder Centre then I'm done for...)

Oh heck, I just checked the secondhand listings, they've only got a Kung great bass in stock in London (no, no, no, no, no, money is to buy double-glazing for the house).

Buy the recorder...I just spent a fortune on double glazing and I'm still cold!

I feel really helpless

My friend's german-speaking mum is going to talk some sense into mollenhauer for me.

(The man practically agreed with me when I pointed out that just mending the crack would not solve the problem and that the same thing would most likely happen again, yet still tried to charge me 70 euros for a synpor block that I don't want - and shouldn't need! Then refused to listen to a word i said.)

I've just written a her a realllly long email explaining what to say to everything that I could picture him saying, a detailed life history of my recorder, explained all about playing it in and the bits of a recorder and generally how annoyed I am about the whole thing.

I still think I've missed something important out though

Aaargh...it's torture sitting around waiting to find out what happens... my teacher told me not to accept a repair job, or replacement head-joint because that didn't work before, but that they should give me a new whole recorder in a different wood or a refund because it's starting to get ridiculous now (i wouldn't be supriseed if it carried on like this for the entire 2-year warentee period, then I'd be stuck). Something makes me think this isn't going to be too pretty... I feel a bit guilty for inflicting it on my friends mum

Hmm, I shouldn't have to wait more than an hour and a half, given they shut at 4...but that's ages away!

Hopefully she manages to sort it out today, because I'm going away for a week as of tomorrow.

I spoke too soon. Our conductor decreed that the upper F# is out of tune and I'm back on the Aulos plastic tenor for the foreseeable future.
Yet another reason why I'd make a lousy teacher - I haven't a clue whether I'm in tune or not.
http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopic=33169

Was it flat or sharp ?