To those who teach recorder, what order do you prefer to teach notes after the usual B-A-G with the left hand. In Recorder From the Beginning it introduces low E and D. I had my two on Indian Warrior this morning which they are beginning to understand. Another school of thought I know is to go upwards to C and D to give a complete doh-soh scale. I had wondered if I should write out tunes that use these notes or use another book temporarily, or just go with low notes.

I can see sense in both ways. Getting them using two hands as soon as possible has its advantages, and the fingering for upper C and D may confuse the little ones at first, but low notes are also harder to blow gently and cover the holes. As for reading on the stave, the pentatonic notes spread them out a little more.

Do people have views on this or is it one of those everyone is different things?

I've used both methods.

The plus side of GABCD is that there are hundreds of tunes you can use once they know these notes. That makes the teaching of other aspects easier - for example rhythm patterns, phrasing etc. - because they become very agile on a limited number of notes. You can do loads of repetition of the 5 notes without becoming dull.

The plus side of going down is that tone control gets better and they do like using two hands. They think it is very "advanced"! Also some of the tunes you can do are rather more interesting.

In the end, which ever way you go first, they will soon pick up the other notes. My beginners spend ages on GAB but the next step, be it up or down nearly always moves much more quickly.

I don't think there's a right or wrong way of doing this, although there may well be an approach which better suits a particular child for one reason or another (for instance, if they tend to over-blow then probably teaching high C and D first is preferable).

I use the Recorder From The Beginning books too. However, between learning B A G and moving onto E for Indian Warrior etc. I usually introduce them to some other pieces that go upwards to C and D. These pieces are usually ones that they learn from memory such as Once A Man Fell In A Well. This piece also gets them practising mini scales, running from G to D and down again. When we get on to learning E I spend a while on it as some really seem to struggle with it.

I think it depends partly on age (used as a proxy for co-ordination and finger control). Younger children in general find it harder to cover the holes reliably, so when teaching little ones (under 7s) I would always go upward first. Older children are less likely to develop bad habits with their right hand and more likely to develop good breath control if they go downwards first.