Hi All

A quick question to the Recorder teachers out there. I am a piano teacher who will be helping at school next week with the recorder group.

The question is: Is there only one way to play the recorder? - i.e., left hand at the top and right at the bottom?

I would be grateful for your views - especially from people who teach the recorder.

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.

I would be grateful for any advice.

Many thanks.

Sarah

Recorder should never* be played the "wrong way" up.

Kids who are allowed to will have problems transitioning to other woodwind instruments later and with serious recorder playing. The double holes are of unequal sizes, so rotating the foot joint and allowing upside down fingering means that the wrong hole will be covered for some notes. Also some do not have a separate foot joint.


* The exception would be for someone with severe physical limitations necessitating the use of a specially adapted instrument. You can get recorders that can be played with one hand or with only certain fingers from each.

Lefthandedness should make very little difference - both hands are used in pretty much the same way, bar the little fingers and thumb. Definitely agree - in the absence of any major hand problem, and lefthandedness isn't, all players should have their left hands on top, right below. If anything, the left hand has to have a more flexible and mobile thumb, and there are more trills using the left ring finger, so a left-handed individual could be said to be at an advantage playing the recorder.

There is indeed only one way round to play a recorder - in the same way that there is only one way round to play a violin - whatever your handedness, your bow goes in your right hand. With vertical woodwind instruments, your left hand goes at the top.

In fact, I can't think of any instrument that doesn't have a 'right way round'...(triangle? )

I think that left handed percussion players will do things the other way about but for recorders there is only one way and that is with the left hand on top. If you want any more tips on recorder techniques ask away. There are some real experts on the fora.

Hi All

Many thanks for your quick replies.

I will definitely ask if I need any more guidance - I'm sure I will!

I have invested in copies of Recorder Magic as recommended on the forum recently and having completed my CTABRSM last year have plenty of fresh ideas for group teaching - not just the playing of the instrument, but rhythm, aural, etc, which at the moment isn't covered in the group at school.

They are being taught by a (lovely) teacher who has got the job because she can read music which she crams into her already full day. She is very encouraging though and hopefully I will be able to help.

Thanks again for your time.

Sarah

I am left-handed, and learnt to play the recorder the correct way, and it caused me no problems! If anything, I'd say recorders are really left-handed anyway, as the left hand fingers do at least as much work as the right, and the left hand has all the thumb work.

I agree with the last post. I'm left handed as well and have never tried to hold a recorder wrongly and feel it's very natural with left hand on top.

I play recorder, am left-handed, and I have never had a problem.
As it happens, I have just begun to teach recoder in school this week too!

Because we live in a right-handed world, I think it's probably true that we left-handers are more ambidextrous than right handers in general, because we just have to adapt more often. I actually can't use scissors, pinking shears or vegetable peelers designed for lefties at all!
Somewhat off the subject; my neighbours are gob-smacked that I drive both a right- and left-hand drive car as a matter of course ... you learn to do what you have to!

Given that we lefties have been called sinister, gauche and cack-handed over the ages, it's amazing that were as level-headed as we so obviously are.

We have to be, how else will the world domination plan go ahead?

I'm left handed also and TBH i don't understand why people say they want to play it the other way "because they're left handed", when surely the thought of left hand being at the top, certainly for beginners when there isn't that much for RH to do would cause issue with RH'd people if any as it is using their weaker hand?
You wouldn't try to play a flute sticking out to the left so why a recorder with RH at the top? (for one it's practically impossible with a normal flute). It makes it so much harder and useless if you either want to move onto flute, clarinet or get good at recorder itself...the bottom keys are the wrong way round and in theory completely impossible to use properly...

IMO people should be able to see how its easier to do it the conventional way. Some parents talk about it having not seen a recorder since first school, XX many years ago and like many things learnt at school, forget details like that...why make life harder for yourself?


hmmm sinister...has a ring to it...lol...nah im far to boring for that!

In my experience, it's right handed children who sometimes struggle to start with on the recorder. Yes, there is only one correct way to hold it. Good luck with your class!

Oh, and I'm sure it's my left-handedness that makes me able to do mirror write easily.

Just a thought re the left-handedness of recorders ... something that might be worth trying:

Tell a group of children who haven't played the recorder before that they should pick up the recorder with ONE hand, and as they pick the recorder up, they should pick it up with the three fingers covering the three top holes, and the thumb on the back hole, ready to play their first note. (Don't demonstrate the action, just show them which holes you're talking about.)

I wouldn't mind betting that a majority of the right-handers would pick up the recorder with their right hands (and vice versa for the lefties), as they would subconsciously use their dominant hand to follow the detailed instructions given. If this did actually happen, I think there would be a good case for saying that recorders are really left-handed instruments, as the left-handers picked the recorders up with the correct hand.

I suppose the counter argument might be that the little finger of one hand needs to work the split C holes at the end, and that this needs the finesse of the dominant hand ... to which I'd respond with the cogently argued response of "Bah!"

I've always wondered about left handed guitars and violins - I would have thought it would be easier for lefties to play them as the left hand has to be more dextrous to do the stopping? If you're using both hands anyway then why bother switching?

Hi everyone

Thanks for all of your replies - very interesting.

I went in this week to teach my recorder group that I have been given - loved every minute of it. A couple of 'challenging' ones in the group too!!

I just have another question concerning my original thread. 3 of the group play with their hands the wrong way around. I asked them all to change their hands around to see how it felt and how they would get on but they all said they couldn't do it.

Bearing in mind the 3 concerned don't play other instruments (apart from one learning electric guitar) - my question is this. As they are a school group who come voluntarily to play (all want to and enjoy) - is it worth me forcing them to change over their hands? Or should I leave them as they are - I don't want to put them off.

What do you all think?

Thanks!

Sarah

I would still encourage them to change over. If they move on to other recorders/clarinet etc. , they'll hit problems. Best to nip in the bud.

Parent here! You have no choice but to insist that they change. I really don't see the problem if you take a careful approach and continue with the fun aspect of learning.

Both my girls started playing in a Recorder group at Primary school. The eldest went on to play Clarinet. The youngest will play anything she can get her hands on, including all of the woodwind instruments except Bassoon. There was no way in the early stages that anyone could tell this would happen. Like most children her instinct was to play the Recorder with the wrong hands but this was discouraged from the ioutset and she got used to it. I'm so glad for her that she wasn't allowed to play it incorrectly as there would have been no way she could have made the progress she has.

She is a very musical child but that didn't come out until much later. We would never have known had it not been for one of the group Recorder Teachers suggesting she learnt Oboe as there were free lessons under the endangered instrument scheme.

Daughter is currently year 9 and recently gained a Merit for G7 Recorder. she is now learning technique with a specialist Recorder Teacher and Soloist to prepare for G8 properly. It goes to show you never know what path the students in your group learning for fun will take.

Give them something with bottom C# and D# in



It's only a matter of time.

Make a game of asking who can remember which hand goes on top and then ask them all to show you. That worked for me at school.

I played the recorder with my hands the wrong way round for three years at school. I only noticed when someone said "some of the notes have the same fingering as the flute" and I twisted my hands round to the side and proclaimed it impossible!
That said, I think any music teacher attempting to teach an entire class of 32 students (in years 7-9) to play the recorder, half of whom can't read music and most of the rest have never seen a recorder before, deserves some sort of award, so I'm not going to complain about it now! I think most other people in the class played with their hands the correct way round, though, and had it ever been mentioned I would have tried to fix it.

Use what you know about working with kids on the instrument you know. There's a good chance that a lot of the tricks you have for that will be useful for dealing with the recorder class.

You're a piano teacher, so think about how you'd react to reading something like this...

"I'm a recorder teacher and I'm helping out in a school, teaching a group keyboard lesson. Some of the children play with their arms crossed over all the time, so they play the treble clef part with their left hands and the bass clef part with their right hands.
They say that they can't play with their hands the other way around. None of them play other keyboard instruments. Should I let them do this?"

If you can work out how someone in that situation could get the kids to play with their hands the right way round on the keyboards you can probably adapt that to deal with the recorder playing kids.

Hi All

Once again thanks for all of your advice.

Went in on Monday this week (yes, our school was open in the snow) but only had 3 out of 7 of my group.

Luckily - 2 of them are the left handers. By the end of the lesson I 'think' I have managed to change their hands around - will see next Monday! the promise of stickers worked wonders!!

Only one more to change next week - he could be more of a challenge.
It would be nice if I can change them all over in the next few weeks. Success - hopefully!

Thanks again.

Sarah

Well done!! Go for it the last one will probably be less resistant if the others have already made the change.