Recorder Success From the First Note

• George Halley
• Posted 9/14/21
• 0 comments

There is no sound more recognizable than a class of third graders learning to play the recorder. Playing the soprano recorder is an experience that music specialists either look forward to or dread; but either way, it is a necessary experience for our students.

In my classroom, the spring semester for my third-grade musicians revolves around playing recorders. However, we begin the work much earlier in the year. Beautiful musicianship does not happen by accident and does not happen only in the spring.

The first day of recorder playing is an exciting day for every student. We have the privilege of giving eight-year-olds their first wind instrument. They are excited and want to make as much music as possible from the very beginning. As their teacher, we want the same thing — beautiful music from the beginning — but we must first teach the fundamentals.

After all of those are taught and re-taught until the cows come home, many students become frustrated, and it is no big surprise. When we give young students this wondrous instrument, we need to make it a playful and fun experience. Not a complicated checklist that will eventually involve playing music — but not today or even tomorrow.

After years of teaching the recorder this way, I had a realization that completely changed my approach to teaching the recorder. Begin preparing the recorder music in the fall. With this simple change, my students successfully make good sounds on recorders from the very first day they get to pick them up.

I use mi-re-do to teach beginning recorder, so as my third graders are reviewing the pentatonic scale taught in 2nd grade, I take time to highlight the mi-re-do patterns in the songs and choose fun games and activities that only use mi-re-do.

This approach will also work with a sol-mi system, if that is what you use. Some of these songs and games include “Dew Drop” (Figure 1), “Springtime Rain” (Figure 2.1-2.2) — a parody of “Hot Cross Buns” with a syncopated B section, “Frog in the Middle” (Figure 3), which is a mi-re-do game, and “Black Snake” (Figure 4), a game to work on dynamics and breath control.

These are fun poems, songs, and games that students enjoy and ask to do repeatedly, which will keep students engaged during the tough beginnings of recorder playing.

Figure 1

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Figure 2.1

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Figure 2.2

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Figure 3

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Figure 4

When we get to playing the recorder, the first day is all about exploration. They pick up the instrument and show me which side they believe is the top and bottom, followed by the front and back. 

After a couple of minutes, I demonstrate how much of the mouthpiece of a recorder to put into your mouth, using my fingers as an example. This visual allows all students to see that our teeth (my fingers) never touch the end of the recorder, and it should not go in past your teeth.

When it comes time for the first noise, I close my classroom doors (which are usually open, even during recorder playing on any other day) and let them play one long note, which sounds exactly how you would expect. After this first sound, I tell my students to play quieter and most, if not all, get what that means right away. 

The recognition comes from all our time playing “Black Snake” and working on dynamics and breath control. I do not have a long analogy for playing at the correct volume, I just ask them to play quieter, and they adjust.

After they get the first note out of the way and we are all playing quieter, we work on our articulation by playing the “Dew Drop” poem.  This poem is not new, so students know exactly how the poem goes and where their tongue should hit in their mouth to make a good articulated sound. 

That is the first day of my recorder playing. Students already know how to make a good, clearly articulated sound because they have learned the skills earlier in the year in a silly, fun, and playful way. This approach allows students to focus on a few new things while playing songs that are already familiar. 

Day two of recorder playing is when we learn our first three notes: mi (B), re (A), and do (G). By this point in the third-grade year, students have sung, played, improvised, and created many songs that contain this three-note pattern. 

To teach the individual notes, I have a short poem for each letter (Figure 5). We take this one letter at a time, but that is the only song I use to teach the first three notes. Students do not need complicated pieces, and to spend all class learning three notes, they are excited it USE the three notes to play music. 

After this learning, I play either “Springtime Rain” or “Frog in the Middle” on my recorder, and students instantly recognize it. At this point, students have played both songs on the barred instruments in the key of G pentatonic, so many of them will make the connection to B-A-G, and you are off to the races.

Figure 5

The beginning recorder unit should be as fun and playful as the rest of our teaching. For most of our students, this will be the only time in their lives they get the opportunity to play a wind instrument, and it is a very memorable experience for better or worse.

We as educators should choose to make it better. Recorder playing should be an easy transition for students from singing to playing, and it is best when it begins in the fall. Through the same songs, poems, and games, students love and use those familiar pieces to help students be successful right from day one.

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