Why Play The Recorder?

PART I

The "blockflute" (or recorder) is an inexpensive instrument that can be used to introduce beginning music students to basic theory and give them a classical music education. After studying the recorder, students may choose to branch off study another orchestral instrument, such as the flute, clarinet, oboe or bassoon, etc. The saxophone is also a logical next instrument for musicians who have studied the recorder, but any student can choose any other instrument or stick with the recorder and be successful.

At a cost as low as $5, a well-made, plastic recorder is much less expensive to obtain than any of the instruments found in a symphony orchestra. Because of this price-point, more instruments can be placed in the hands of more children, whether the instruments are purchased by parents, or provided by a school system or extra-curricular, community music program.

Widely taught to children in the USA, the recorder is a serious musical instrument. While embracing this truth and seeking to instill it in others, Block by Blockflute will be careful avoid some important, sometimes overlooked obstacles: the differences in tuning and fingering. Of the German and Baroque fingering systems, Baroque fingering makes it easier for recorders to be played in tune.

One way to identify a recorder with this fingering system is to find the noticeably smaller 4th hole on the front of the instrument; with the German fingering system, the 4th hole is larger than the fifth hole. Additionally, some Baroque recorders are designed to produce an A at 440 Hertz, while others are tuned to produce an A at 415 Hertz. These are just two examples; there are other frequencies to which manufacturers tune the recorders they produce.

These important differences must be considered when putting recorders into the hands of students, especially those who will be learning, practicing or performing together. Unfortunately, some recorder listings, like those found on Amazon or ebay, either leave out important details, or include a description that contains errors or confusing information. Other sellers combine their recorders with the German fingering system within the same listing as their Baroque recorders. An uninformed parent or educator, might order multiples from such a listing and end up with a mixture of instruments that cannot be played together.

Because of this, Block by Blockflute will only use recorders configured with the Baroque fingering system, tuned to A=440 Hz, that are produced by one manufacturer. This will assure that student musicians, in the classroom setting, or players in an ensemble, will be on one accord, always, as much as it depends on their instruments.

TO BE CONTINUED....