 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2010-11-27 21:35
I have been idly considering adding recorder to the list of instruments I am almost competent at. My first exposure to seriious playing was when I was living with a family in Germany in the summer of 1975. The boy in the family,same age as I, was a serious student of the recorder, and attended a local Conservatory for lessons.
Can anyone advise me where a good place to begin searching might be? Info, pricing, various instruments? I would prefer not to go insane as far as pricing is concerned.  Still, I would like something a couple of steps above what they foist on the local grade-school kids in general music classes.
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
Post Edited (2010-11-27 21:36)
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2010-11-27 22:12
There was a good thread about recorders a few weeks back. The search function is your friend.
I'd recommend the 300-series Yamaha recorders. They can be had for $20-$70 depending on whether you want a soprano, alto, or tenor. They are plastic but sound just as good as the wood ones costing 10 times as much.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2010-11-27 22:23
I've got two soprano recorders. One has the traditional problem of changing pitch dramatically with loudness. The other is a Yamaha, and it is stunningly better. You can include dynamic variation in your playing and not go out of tune.
Bob Phillips
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Author: beejay
Date: 2010-11-27 22:44
It was I who touched off the last thread about recorders, I followed advice and bought a Yamaha for about £30 from the Early Music shop in England. I am extremely happy with it. The intonation is superb. However, the recorder is a darned sight more difficult than I had anticipated. I come back to clarinet practice with considerable relief.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-27 23:57
I remember being disappointed when I found out what a recorder was when I was young.
I thought it was a tape recorder or similar when a friend lost hers somewhere round her house and she kept saying 'Where's my recorder?'
It turned up and turned out to be one of those plastic Aulos descants in the mustard corduroy drawstring bag - and not the electrical gadgetry I assumed it was.
Every parent's (and not-so-tolerant sibling's) nightmare in the '70s - then they all gang up to play a round of "London's Burning"! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B000NCEQCS/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=340837031&s=musical-instruments
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2010-11-28 00:05)
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Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2010-11-28 01:44
Could someone provide a link for the previous thread? I looked back to the end of September, but could not find the thread. Also,trying the search engine provided a lot of (for THIS purpose) garbage dealing with recording DEVICES and records, not what I was looking for. I did find a good thread dating back to 2002.....
Thanks!
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2010-11-28 01:46
I got into recorder a little bit in my last tour in Iraq. Another soldier there had bought a set for his family and wanted to play them and get some familiarity with them before he shipped them home. So we found some recorder quartets/quintets and began hammering away at them. The fingerings are (in my limited experience) more similar to sax than clarinet, but easy enough to learn the basics.
And from everyone I've talked to, the yamaha plastic recorders are the definitive "bang for the buck". All the recorders can read treble clef, with the alto and bass using slightly different fingerings. But if you're familiar with sax it won't be a problem to switch between the two.
I think his set of 5 (two sopranos, two altos, a tenor and a bass as quartets tended to have different instrumentation) was around $250.
And look at local universities. I know here in Augusta, GA there's a recorder ensemble there that's open to the public. Maybe something where you're at too.
Alexi
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Author: alanporter
Date: 2010-11-28 05:17
I have just bought a tenor recorder, Yamaha plastic model, and I am very impressed with it. there are so many toy recorders around that many people regard them as all toys, but a serious recorder is a serious musical instrument. The low register is easy for junior school students to play, but the middle and upper registers can be a challlenge for serious musicians..I play sax,.clarinet, flute and oboe, and yet I don't regard recorder as "easy"
tiaroa@shaw.ca
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-28 06:38
How do the Zen-on plastic copies of historic (Bressan, etc.) recorders fare?
Are they pretty much the same as the more expensive Yamaha and Aulos plastic recorders or better quality?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-11-28 12:32
Though I'm not familiar with Zen-on recorders, I'm responding to the second sentence:
>Are they pretty much the same as the more expensive Yamaha and Aulos plastic recorders or better quality?
>
I wouldn't equate plastic Yamaha and plastic Aulos recorders. I'm an amateur, so please don't regard me as an authority, but I have some of each and I prefer the Yamahas. An advantage to both brands is that they're easily available in just about any music store, if you're buying new; and they're also readily available used, extra-cheap. YMMV, but I hear better intonation and tone quality on the Yamahas.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-11-28 15:09
Chris -
There have been big improvements in plastic recorders over the years. The first decent ones were introduced in the 1970s by Aulos. The tenor was an injection-mold copy of a von Huene and was, and still is, excellent, though prone to clog.
In the late 70s, the Aulos was supplanted by the Zen-on "Bressan" models. They're modern instruments and are only an approximation of the original Bressans. They play quite well, particularly if you take the shiny surface off with fine sandpaper. To do it right, you need to take off the head shell and do the same with the windway, but they're now gluing the shell on.
However, the introduction of the Yamaha "300" line has swept away all competition. There's simply no comparison. Every beginner should start on a Yamaha -- soprano for kids, alto for adults. In the workshops, every virtuoso instructor plays a Yamaha. (The reason is that serious playing is at A-415.)
The prices are so low that it doesn't pay to roll the dice on eBay.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-28 16:10
What's the main difference between a voice flute and a recorder?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2010-11-28 18:21
I'm a recorder player from way back , and even though I now also play Clarinet , Oboe and Flute I have never given up on the Recorder and have both the Yamahas and Aulos. Both brands play very well in tune but I have far less trouble with the Aulos as they have a larger slot and therefore less prone to clog up with condensation whereas the Yamahas have a smaller slot and constantly glog up even after they warm up. I think the Aulos can be played sighty louder also.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-11-29 11:49
>>Chris - a "Voice flute" is simply a tenor recorder in D.
>>
Some people also use "voice flute" as an alternate name for the toy that's usually sold as a song flute. It's plastic (the old ones were black, but they're available in many colors today) and superficially looks a bit like an alto recorder. It plays in the key of Off.
My kindergarten class in 1952 played song flutes. I'll never forget that noise. We sounded like a cage full of drunken giant rats.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2010-11-29 11:49)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-29 12:29
I missed out on recorder at primary school here in the UK as they only let girls play them - boys weren't encouraged to play musical instruments.
But when we moved to Canada in late 1981 they all played 'melody flutes' at the elementary school I went to there instead - these were one-piece transverse metal flutes with plain fingerholes and a flat metal mouthpiece that directed the air into the embouchure hole, so anyone could make a sound from them without having to master a true flute embouchure - pretty much a tin whistle but blown and held sideways (no idea who made them). After playing and just before the end of class, the headjoints were all dipped in a plastic bowl of pink sterlising fluid. Towards the end of the academic year (when I was in Grade 5) I pushed the headjoint cork down with a biro so it blocked off the embouchure hole and ended up miming on it since I wouldn't have been heard with the whole class playing at the same time anyway.
Are these 'melody flutes' still being taught in schools nowadays?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2010-11-29 12:56)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-11-29 12:37
Attachment: melodyflute.jpg (19k)
Just found a picture of one - this one has a proper lip plate, but the ones I remember were nickel (or chrome) plated had the mouthpiece like the one pictured on the tutor.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2010-11-29 12:38)
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Author: susieray
Date: 2010-11-29 21:49
I also have a plastic Yamaha Alto recorder and I love it. Don't have time to play it as much as I used to but it's a great instrument. I think I paid $30 for it a few years ago at the local music store.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-11-29 22:29
Chris -
Pretty much no music is being taught in U.S. schools these days.
When I was in the first grade, I started on the Flutophone. There was a mass Flutophone orchestra with every kid in the city, producing a sound that only a mother's ears could love (or even tolerate). An alternative to the Flutophone was the Tonette or occasionally the ocarina.
I switched to recorder in the 6th grade and started on clarinet in the 7th.
Ken Shaw
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