Learning the recorder

I decided on a whim to learn music. Having zero knowledge and forgotten everything from school, I had to start from scratch. I wanted an instrument that seemed easy, not expensive and small. If I abandoned after 2 days, it wouldn’t matter. I set my eyes on the recorder.

Some resources to start with:

  • this video is a good overview of the recorder itself
  • FAQ from American Recorder Society

Getting an instrument

The first step to start learning the recorder is to get one… So I began reading quite some stuff online and watch some Youtube videos:

The first choice is to decide what type of recorder to play: Alto or Soprano. Lots of people only recommend starting with the Alto, which has a lower pitch, so a “better” sound. As I had a few memory from middle school, the definition of “recorder” for me was a Soprano, which I decided to pick.

The second choie was to choose the model. I hesitated between:

  • Aulos 503B
  • Aulos 703B (Haka)
  • Yamaha YRS-302BIII (or variants)

In the end I went for the Yamaha YRS-302BIII and a bit later got a Aulos 703B (Haka) which I actually prefer to use.

Really starting

Not knowing how to read music, I started with the very good tutorial videos from Team Recorder. This channel on YouTube was my main resource to start. The videos were too fast at first and hard to follow. I used a playback speed of 0.75x speed, then went to normal when comfortable, following fingerings, learning to move along a song.
Those were the first videos I watched:

After a few days, I could (badly) play a few easy songs. At this point, I wondered if I wanted to continue or not, and decided to go on, as it was quite fun.

Learning to read music

It was not time to properly learn reading music. I used the following ressources:

I also use this fingering charts for Soprano which helped me a lot when mapping notes to music, especially with alternative fingerings.

At first I decided to skip the “complex” signs (trills, mezzo, …) and just to focus on note length and hitting the good note.
Now that I can read more fluently, like playing the recorder while reading a score for the first time, I am beginning to add more personalization to the music.

I also had lots of trouble hitting high notes. I did not understand I needed to change the air stream depending on the note. How to hit the high notes explains it much better.

Using other resources

An app

After a few days of watching and practicing with videos, I got the feeling that I needed something else to help me along my self-learning journey. I downloaded Tonestro to try and practice.
They have a subscription model with a free tier for 7 days. I practiced a lot during those 7 days. While not perfect, I decided it was a good investment to complement the videos, and subscribed.

But it may not suit everybody:

  • recording and playback is sometimes buggy
  • I expected a more in-depth “learning” part, and it was quite shallow for the recorder
  • it is only for the Soprano, so it cannot be used to learn the Alto (or I did not find it)
  • the number of songs in the application is a lot less that initially expected, if you are diligent in learning every day, you can finish (not 100%, but close to) the whole thing in one or two months

Book and paper

I also bought a book: J’apprends la flĂ»te Ă  bec, but I did not use it much.
What helped me better was looking for music score I liked online, for the Soprano and download it to practice.

Liking classical music, I also use a lot IMSLP: International Music Score Library Project to download music scores.

Breathing

  • when playing at first, I tried doing articulation / tonguing, but realized that I wasn’t really using a steady air stream
  • start slow and with the tongue so that notes are not “cut” from each other
  • synchronize it with moving the fingers and the tongue so that they are in sync

I spent a few days really focusing on breathing, tonguing and fingers synchronization. Although I got a bit better, it’s far from “perfect” yet. I decided to then focus more on rythm, as a friend told me being faster and having a better synchronization would also come naturally with time.

I didn’t succeed in doing circular breathing yet. Not that it does not matter much for a beginner.

Using a metronome

One of my biggest problem (still), is the rythm. A friend told me to download a Metronome App and try playing along the beats.
I found really difficult to try playing music while listening to the metronome at the same time. It seems like focusing on two things at the same time using different senses, and it is very easy to get lost between the rythm and the music.

First learn the music and play at your own pace without caring (too much) about being exact in the rythm. The goal is not to make a lot of mistakes, because I am not skilled enough to both read the music and follow the rythm at the same time when disconvering a new song.

I am getting a bit better, but still struggling a lot.

Scales

I found it very important to practice scales (Mandatory video). In that regard, the Tonestro App helped me a lot as it has dedicated exercise with different difficulty levels.

Lots of music uses some kind of scales in their composition, so having the reflexes in the fingers without thinking about it is very useful. It also helps a lot synchronizing the tongue and the fingers for a beginner.
Practice with C-Scale.

Other considerations

Taking it slowly

When I began being a bit more fluent when playing music, I wanted to be as fast as possible, like I did not care about the rythm. But for difficult parts of the music, being too fast is actually counter productive: I always made a lot of mistakes by going too fast, and I wanted to start the whole song again.

Instead, for difficult parts, it is more efficient to tear apart the difficult notes, the fingering and breathing, and play it really slowly a few times. Once it begins being a bit more automatic without errors, the speed can be increased.

Another problem I had, was to always play a piece of music “flawlessly” in one go. That means that I would start at the beginning when I did a small mistake. So I did not really focus hard parts of the music, but on the whole piece, and it was a bit useless. Instead I now try to focus on the difficult parts.

Taking breaks

It is ok to fail and not play without errors. I preferred focusing on a few different songs that I can enjoy, instead of traying to play a single one flawlessly and training the same piece for a few days (though I did that a t the beginning).

Just coming back to a difficult part after a few hours or days can make a lot of difference as I would have kind of internalized where I blocked and it was much smoother afterwards.

However, I still try to practice a bit every day, I still have not had long breaks without playing.

Recording myself

At one point I started to record myself on songs I focused on. The sensation when playing and listening to one’s own music is really different. At first I thought it was “ok” for my level, but then I could send the music to some friends for feedbacks, which helped a lot in identifying problems and areas of improvement.

Then after a few weeks and several recordings, I could see the evolution in style, speed and fluidity in playing the recorder. It gave me a sense of achievement that practice, in fact, helps a lot.

Moving to the alto

After about 2 months of playing the Soprano, I decided to get an Alto to try different sounds, I got an Aulos 709B Haka.

The Alto is really a heavier and longer instrument than the Soprano, and I have trouble holding it and reaching for all the holes with my hands. At the beginning it even hurt a bit. Taking it slowly every day and it gets better. I did not try to force myself holding it for a long time.

Learning the Alto meant relearning fingering, as it is tuned on a F, notes are different than on the Soprano. I first tried transposing, but did not succeed a lot… So I just decided to relearn the notes and fingerings, it was much easier than I thought. I used fingering charts for Alto.
Practice with D-Scale.

I try playing the two recorders everyday, but I prefer the Soprano a bit for the moment.

Conclusion

I started learning the recorder about 2.5 months ago. I really did not know if I would stop after a few days, getting bored or because of the difficulty. Surprisingly, I am still continuing and enjoying quite a lot. As a result, I play less games…
What really helped me at some point is recording myself and listen to what I played, to understand the problems, the rythm, … and most importantly see the improvements from one week to another!

I think the recorder is a fine instrument and quite accessible for self-learners, especially with all the contents now available online.
I try practicing about 30 minutes a day, and sometimes a bit more during the week end. The Tonestro App I mentioned earlier helps getting to some new music and reading music faster, while individual music scores I got help me better practice the technique on songs I like.

I even did a few duets with a friend.

Resources

I put back here links that I put above for easier access.