If someone was looking to take up recorder as a beginner to lean to play it as an actual instrument rather than to bash through some school tunes, is there a recorder method you recommend for that? Perhaps with tone exercises, studies, scales, I don't really know, just something that progresses the recorder the way you would treat a flute, getting it nice rather than just making noise.

Thanks.

I'd suggest getting hold of "Treble Recorder Technique" by Alan Davis. Top notch book for any serious player.

If you can track down (secondhand) Hugh Orr's books, they are good - there are two for descant, two for treble.

This page has lots of info on 'adult' recorder methods - however the site is in the US, so finding these books in the UK may not be as easy!

I bought "The Modern Recorder Player Vol1" by Walter van Hauwe (pub. Schott) from the Early Music Shop. There are 2 further (more advanced) volumes. I have to admit it hasn't had a huge amount of use but that's down to me rather than it. It is "about" technique rather than being a tutor or studies book and I'm sure would be of interest to a player wanting to approach the recorder in a serious fashion.

For someone as musically experienced as yourself the best option would be adhoc lessons with a good Recorder teacher.

Like pushpull daughter tried several books and they help to a degree but there is so much technique for Recorder that a Teacher was the only thing that really helped.

I have the Alan Davis and the van Hauwe - and although I think van Hauwe is great, he's also trying to do everything at such an advanced level that you'd end up with a bit of mental overload in the early stages - it's a sort of "this is how we would do it if we could do it properly from the start" wishful thinking work - but actually reflects more the sort of thing likely to happen to an already advanced student having their technique picked apart by a new tutor at a higher education establishment. Sooo - I used Davis to get going, and think it is very good for that, and use van Hauwe as a bit of a guru book, or when I want to wallow in the realms of, "gosh I'll never manage that", like for example, playing umpty-nine bars of uninterrupted semiquavers without breathing, for which he has an obscure technique in book three...

Hi, sorry my context wasn't amazingly clear, people ask me about this when they find out I play recorder seriously (and that this phenomenon is possible!) but I draw a blank because I learned my notes and things from a recorder my mum left on a table in the living room. I must have been about 2, so I have no memory of ever not being able to play recorder!

I learnt recorder in a group of adult beginners, and we used Brian Bonsor's "Enjoy the Recorder" series. There are 2 descant books, 2 treble books, book 1 of each pair starting from scratch, and 2 books aimed at descant players making the switch to treble. They worked for us!

I would also suggest that you might benefit from some real contact with a good teacher rather than an advanced tutor book initially.

What a lot of advanced tutor books lack is a good number of exercises and tunes to accelerate the learning and experience. Therefore, I would recommend checking out the studies and collections used in AB exams.

For the recorder it also means familiarising yourself with the repertoire. The modern stuff can take some getting used to, so start with the renaissance and baroque first, and ease yourself into the twentieth century!

Let us know how you get on.