Hiyah,

I have been learning piano now for over a year and am hoping to take my grade 1 soon.

I rently found my old recorder and the music books to go with it.
I found that I was able to read the music quite easily as it was just the treble cleft and remembered a lot of the fingering.

The question I wanted to ask was is it OK to learn two instruments at once...?
Will learning the recorder harm my piano in anyway....?

I take structured lessons for the piano but with the recorder I am able to self teach. I was hoping to get myself through a few recorder gradings.

Does anyone have any opinions on this..?
I was thinking maybe I should wait until I am at least Grade 2 piano before taking up a new instrument.....?

Thanks Charmie

Most of the regulars on here play more than one instrument. The only hard part is getting enough practice on both. If you have the time then I say go for it!

I only have the time to play the violin/viola professionally, but otherwise I'm a multi-instrumentalist. If only I could find enough space in the day to fit in sufficient practice on the oboe, cello and flute......

Go for it Charmie!

I think that learning two very different instruments won't be a problem. If you were interested in two 'related' ones, say cello and violin or flute and oboe, you might have a problem, but not these two, esp. as recorder is relatively easy.

Have fun and have a toot for me!!!

Elisabeth
Starting cello early next year.......

Yes, the students in my school starts an instrument (normally piano first) and earlier and then after a year, some of them pick up another or even two more instruments. To be a starter, there's nothing wrong. Make sure that you really pay attention to these instrumnets in your lesson time and to practice at least 20 everyday for each instrument as a beginner will be very nice.

I suspect our recorder colleagues won't like the suggestion that the recorder is "easy" - yes, as played by school kids it's probably one of the easier instruments to get fairly swift results on, but to play really properly it's as hard as any other instrument.

I can "play" recorder (and do) but everytime I look at the scales for recorder exams my legs go to jelly - and for some of the pieces too.

Great to start the recorder (it would complement the piano nicely) but please do treat it as a serious instrument and work hard on technique etc just as you are for the piano. I'd want to encourage you to avoid getting sucked into the irritating trend around in some quarters of treating it as a "toy" that might get you through some grades quickly.

Will be interested to hear our recorder players' views on this.

All the best anyway.

Thanks for all the replies...I was hoping for these positive response......as it is always nice for someone to tell you Yes do something you enjoy...

Also I am really excited about learning a new instrument and also that it will help my piano as well.

I definetely do not look on the recorder as a toy at all..I still remember my childhood where I spent years learning to play and how difficult it was to get a beautiful sound out of it and all the hours I spent practising.....
I will admit that I find the recorder a lot easier to get going then the piano.

It was more that I found I still remembered all my learning and did not want it to go to waste and wondered if the two instruments would clash.

I practise every day at the moment....Piano for 1 hour a day during the week and more at weekeds and so far recorder for only 30 mins a day.....
This means it leaves me little time for much else and I have had to cut back a lot of my other activities...such as my karate training, which my sensei is not too pleased about.....

Also could anybody recommend any good tutorial books for recorder...?
The ones that I have are titled: 'The School Recorder Book 1 & 2'
They are very good but very old....from the 70's ....
I would eventually like to take and exam but can't seem to see any books for this
I can find ones for the prep test, scales and Specimen Sight-Reading Tests but none that have the actual pieces for exam...is this not necessary for recorder....?

Thanks again Charmie

Hooray for the Recorder!

The world needs more recorder players, go for it!

The ABRSM homepage (click on the link that says "Exams") has a .pdf document that lists all the exam requirements from grades 1-5 (descant) and 1-8 (treble), including the pieces.

Dolmetsch Online has an online method which I have found invaluable. Every now and again I go through the whole thing from the start - back to basics - it goes into lots of detail about almost everything you could think to ask about.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy yourself!

Hi Charmie,

What sort of pieces do you want to play? There's quite a lot of dance music available for easy recorder (folk dance, that is) and also some more modern stuff. 'Enjoy the recorder' and 'The Really Easy Recorder book' both by Brian Bonsor are worth a look. Easy Jazzy Recorder Book 1 (Geoffry Russell Smith) is excellent, but not particularly easy. Book 2 is by Brian Bonsor and is no harder than book 1.

Generalist music shops aren't terribly good for recorder music, apart from the school stuff. Online shops such as Chamberlain and Music-makers carry a lot of recorder stuff, or you can get mail order music from Saunders Recorders or Recorder Music Mail.

Have fun.

Yes, it is perfectly fine to learn 2 instruments as it will give you a better musical experience and provide you with more opportunities to play with other people. The only problems are that it can be expensive and time-consuming!

I did say 'relatively easy' and, of course, I meant that it's easy to get a sound on - not quite like flute and oboe etc where you can totally fail to even make any sort of noise with it!!!!!

Hope no-one took offense, 'cos none was meant.......

I've been playing piano for about a year now and just about to embark on Grade 1 like you, but I've just started violin too. It's nice to have experience on a completely new instrument, and also nice too see how much "further on" I am in comparison to violin! Although I feel guilty that my attention is now diverted sometimes from piano (which I think will always be my first love), although violin is growing on me!

Apologies Elisabeth that I failed to copy your comment "relatively easy" correctly and treated it just as "easy". I certainly didn't take it as an offensive comment but I also felt I must jump to the defence of the recorder as being no push-over if you play it seriously.

You're quite right, apart from occasional over-enthusiasm from the youngest beginners resulting in all sorts of temporary, strange whistling noises , I've never yet taught recorder to a beginner who can't produce a reasonable basic sound on the instrument by the end of lesson one. I've taught plenty of oboists who are left struggling until later lessons and, sometimes, what seems like forever!

Thanks for coming back on this - I intended no offence to your response either.

Take care
Oboist

Hey Oboist!

Well, we're just very un-offended people then aren't we??

Wish I could learn oboe too, my kid sister is interested and so I look forward to hearing her when she's got passed the duck stage!!!!!!!

Cue Peter & the Wolf

Wow - go Charmie! You've certainly got the dedication to succeed on two or more instruments. I'm finding learning the clarinet easier as I already play the flute (very badly!) and I think having experience with one instrument definitely helps when it comes to learning a second.

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks 'andante_in_c'

I have purchased 'Enjoy the Recorder' from Amazon, quite resonably priced and about to buy the other ones....Think I may wait till I get better before I try Jazz....

I have also looked at the web sites..thanks for those great music resources...

Charmie

Thanks 'Zauberfagott'

I have downloaded the PDF you mentioned and was wndering is there a book I can buy which contains all the music pieces for the Grades...?

I bought the ABRSM Grade 1 booklet for piano which contained the necessary sheet music but can not seem to see the same for recorder....

Charmie

I think they only do those for piano and violin.
You have to buy the music books separately.

Arrrrhhh......all has been revealed.....Thank you..........

Hi Charmie,

Strange that you should mention the recorder.

I too have just been re-introduced to it after a 20 year gap.

I was surprised at how quickly I progressed and and how enjoyable it is.
I am hoping to take my grade 5 in Descant recorder next year.

My husband is very pleased as he is Irish and very adapt on many instruments, including the Penny Whisltle which he has converted to recorder so that I can accompany him.

Some of the tunes are quite complex and test my skills.
I too thought the recorder an easy or basic instrument until I heard him play on it.
Now I am very eager and very impresed with it, also proud.

He wants me to take up the guitar after I do my Grade 5 exam and I was thinking about how difficult it would be to learn two instruments at once.

Everyone here has been really positive and so I will go for it.


Goo dluck Charmie and everyone else learning new instruments.

I'd say go for it, you should always take an opportunity to learn instruments!! (I always do!!!)

Now THAT is very true!!

(I do, too!)

No harm in it, one stage there I was doing flute, piano, recorder, bodhran and tin whistle :Dit doesn't effect anything except having enough time to practice them all - can be rough.

Good luck with it

That's the only problem, having enough time to practice. I started on violin a little late and soon realised that half-an-hour a day wouldn't be enough. I play the piano and treble recorder (a little) and have a bit of a fight about which to practice when time is short but I suspect that if I leave the violin for a few days I'll lose something.


Peggy.