If you haven’t checked out “Stacking Skills for Success: Recorder – Part One”, read that before reading Part Two.
By now, you know that the only thing I enjoy more than teaching recorder is observing kids learn how to practice, problem solve, and succeed on their own with a little help from me.
These are life skills that, when generalized, will enhance and improve the way they approach interests and goals for the rest of their lives.
Here are a few ideas you might want to try with your recorder groups.
First Notes
The order in which I teach notes is:
B5, A5, G5, F5, E5, D5, C5, C6, D6, F#5, Bb5, C#6
(By the way, I introduced same sequential fingering pattern with flute, clarinet, oboe, and sax.)
We spent a HUGE amount of time on BAG.
When I introduce F, I simply add the right index finger. There is time down the road to fix the intonation by adding the ring and little finger.
First things first with the F: cement the idea of adding single fingers to descend.
Piano
I accompanied the kids on piano as much as possible.
The foundational harmony that piano provided was the perfect safety net.
Who is Practicing?
Every year, I would order several dozen cheap, colorful, and glittery recorders from the Oriental Trading Company and have them on hand at the beginning of recorder season.
By the time the kids knew how to finger the first seven diatonic descending notes, B5 to C5, it was clear who could play this little snippet of music without squeaking or missing a note.
Speed was not required, accuracy was.
At this early stage, reading those seven notes wasn’t the primary goal; making those seven musical sounds was.
It was a lot like playing a musical version of the basketball game named “Horse”.
Kids saw it as a challenge and always wanted a shot at playing those seven notes. Everyone got a turn at the end of our music classes to play that seven-note phrase.
Typically, the first day I did this, no one would be able to play it.
The second time I did it, there would always be at least one or two in each class that could.
They were the autodidacts.
They were the self-starters.
Maybe they were the kids with few toys at home and their recorder was their new favorite.
They were the ones that were probably going to be musicians throughout their life to some degree or another.
Once a child played those seven notes without squeaking, I would ask, “What’s your favorite color?”
“Red!”
I would then go into my closet, and come out with a sparkly new red recorder and hand it to them without saying anything.
They would typically ask, “Can I play this?”
My answer was always, “Not only can you play it, you can keep it, you've earned it. What you just did was very hard and I'm proud of what you achieved. Keep up the great work.”
Inevitably the class would spontaneously break into a round of applause. Now everyone wanted to be able to play those seven notes, and I was more than happy to give each of those successful students a sparkly new recorder.
Sometimes I would say to our star recorder player, “I have over a dozen guitars at home. You're doing pretty well with that recorder. You might as well start a collection of your own.”
Fourth Grade Band
If third or fourth grade students had any thought of playing a band instrument the following year, they better show some proclivity to recorder or I wasn't going to recommend to their parents to purchase or rent an instrument for their child.
The specter of not playing in band always got the kids attention.
“Why would Itell your parents to buy a $300 or $400 instrument if you're not going to be bothered to learn how to play a $3 recorder? I can't in good conscience do that. If you want to play next year in fourth grade, it would be wise to show me that you want to play this year in third grade.”
Fourth and fifth grade kids in band loved that I called them a “doubler” – they played two instruments. Their reading and playing skills always reinforced each other on both instruments.
Second Grade
I was always picking up my recorder to play little songs in all my classes but it was more important for kids to see other kids play.
Kids teach kids best.
I often arranged time for my recorder players to visit second grade music classes to perform for the younger students.
All the instruments we've talked about so far were introduced at the kindergarten level and supported through fifth grade to visiting recorder plyers were always a hit.
Recorder was started in third and continued in fourth and fifth grade. I spent a lot of second grade talking up recorder in third grade and how my students had to be ready for the challenge of recorder. That meant they had to be the best musicians they could be with the instruments they had in second grade.
Management
I made sure that every school I taught in had enough recorders for the grades that were going to be taking lessons.
I also built up the idea of purchasing a recorder for $3.
I would typically buy them in bulk out of my own pocket at Musician's Friend when they were on sale.
I typically bought ivory Lyons recorders for their superior intonation and durability. Don't buy clear or transparent instruments - they easily shatter.
Purchase slips went home with kids with a tear off at the bottom.
I told kids they should earn the money for their recorders if it all possible. Sometimes I would actually have a checkbox on the return slip notating “My child earned the money for this instrument by doing extra chores”.
The collecting of money and getting recorders in the hands of hundreds of students was a major troop movement and felt like something like on the scale of Normandy to me.
But it was that “one-to-one” connection, when I looked that kid eye-to-eye, the child handing over twelve hard-earned quarters and me handing them a new recorder, that bonded us on a deeper level.
Before we started recorders, I took all of the school-owned recorders home and washed them in my dishwasher.
As far as the school-provided recorders, every class had an old copy paper box in my room with the classroom's name prominently on it containing recorders in cases with the kids’ names on it.
The box stayed in the music room and were used during music class and recorder lessons.
Kids were allowed to bring their personal recorder from home to use in music class.
After the opening song, we would always take a short break and that's when I would assign recorder helpers to hand out the recorders to their classmates.
Once we went to stop time, everyone was seated and ready to go in front of the Smart Board.
Quiet Communication
A roomful of recorder is loud.
Don’t try to be louder.
The best classroom management is quiet management.
Use sign language whenever possible.
Most of my directions as far as when to play and when not to play were given with hand signals.
By now, they knew of “you touch, you take” so they were pretty adept at keeping their recorders flat in their laps.
If I put my two hands out, palms down, and gestured downward, that signaled recorders were to be in laps.
If I did the opposite, palms up, moving up, that meant recorders were to be in playing position.
Making a circle with my left thumb and index finger and putting my right index and middle fingers in the circle meant that recorders needed to be put in their cases. The opposite signal meant take their recorders out.
The Foundation: the Bottom of the Pyramid
The first three stackable skills are so crucial for student and teacher success on the recorder. This is really where the rubber meets the road as a musician.
If kids needed a bit of firm encouragement for practicing at home, I would remind children to be proactive, that while they might be in third grade learning recorder, fourth grade band was right around the corner.
Self-discipline allowed them to do the right thing at the right time at home without me looking over their shoulder.
I would tell the kids to not just play at home but to listen: listen to their tone because it didn’t matter if they had the correct fingers covering the holes if the tone was ugly.
When children came to school with something they learned at home on their own, it was an opportunity when I could look them directly in the eye and tell them this:
“You know what? You can put that same effort and thinking into piano or guitar and do just as well. The sky's the limit as far as you’re concerned. You've shown the world that you are a musician when you play recorder as well as you do.”
Recorder was the initiation to the idea that we are all responsible for our gains or losses. That’s a heady lesson, one that was painfully reminded to the kids with every squeak they made.
I couldn’t fix their problem.
All I could do was provide guidance and encouragement.
While some kids walked away from the challenge of recorder, some kids learned that solving a problem on their own was a sweeter victory than depending on someone else fixing it for them.
It is these life lessons that can make the difference in our music room.
For more recorder content, check out my “Recorder Hero” posts from the first ten days of August, 2022.
By now, you know that the only thing I enjoy more than teaching recorder is observing kids learn how to practice, problem solve, and succeed on their own with a little help from me.
These are life skills that, when generalized, will enhance and improve the way they approach interests and goals for the rest of their lives.
Here are a few ideas you might want to try with your recorder groups.
First Notes
The order in which I teach notes is:
B5, A5, G5, F5, E5, D5, C5, C6, D6, F#5, Bb5, C#6
(By the way, I introduced same sequential fingering pattern with flute, clarinet, oboe, and sax.)
We spent a HUGE amount of time on BAG.
When I introduce F, I simply add the right index finger. There is time down the road to fix the intonation by adding the ring and little finger.
First things first with the F: cement the idea of adding single fingers to descend.
Piano
I accompanied the kids on piano as much as possible.
The foundational harmony that piano provided was the perfect safety net.
Who is Practicing?
Every year, I would order several dozen cheap, colorful, and glittery recorders from the Oriental Trading Company and have them on hand at the beginning of recorder season.
By the time the kids knew how to finger the first seven diatonic descending notes, B5 to C5, it was clear who could play this little snippet of music without squeaking or missing a note.
Speed was not required, accuracy was.
At this early stage, reading those seven notes wasn’t the primary goal; making those seven musical sounds was.
It was a lot like playing a musical version of the basketball game named “Horse”.
Kids saw it as a challenge and always wanted a shot at playing those seven notes. Everyone got a turn at the end of our music classes to play that seven-note phrase.
Typically, the first day I did this, no one would be able to play it.
The second time I did it, there would always be at least one or two in each class that could.
They were the autodidacts.
They were the self-starters.
Maybe they were the kids with few toys at home and their recorder was their new favorite.
They were the ones that were probably going to be musicians throughout their life to some degree or another.
Once a child played those seven notes without squeaking, I would ask, “What’s your favorite color?”
“Red!”
I would then go into my closet, and come out with a sparkly new red recorder and hand it to them without saying anything.
They would typically ask, “Can I play this?”
My answer was always, “Not only can you play it, you can keep it, you've earned it. What you just did was very hard and I'm proud of what you achieved. Keep up the great work.”
Inevitably the class would spontaneously break into a round of applause. Now everyone wanted to be able to play those seven notes, and I was more than happy to give each of those successful students a sparkly new recorder.
Sometimes I would say to our star recorder player, “I have over a dozen guitars at home. You're doing pretty well with that recorder. You might as well start a collection of your own.”
Fourth Grade Band
If third or fourth grade students had any thought of playing a band instrument the following year, they better show some proclivity to recorder or I wasn't going to recommend to their parents to purchase or rent an instrument for their child.
The specter of not playing in band always got the kids attention.
“Why would Itell your parents to buy a $300 or $400 instrument if you're not going to be bothered to learn how to play a $3 recorder? I can't in good conscience do that. If you want to play next year in fourth grade, it would be wise to show me that you want to play this year in third grade.”
Fourth and fifth grade kids in band loved that I called them a “doubler” – they played two instruments. Their reading and playing skills always reinforced each other on both instruments.
Second Grade
I was always picking up my recorder to play little songs in all my classes but it was more important for kids to see other kids play.
Kids teach kids best.
I often arranged time for my recorder players to visit second grade music classes to perform for the younger students.
All the instruments we've talked about so far were introduced at the kindergarten level and supported through fifth grade to visiting recorder plyers were always a hit.
Recorder was started in third and continued in fourth and fifth grade. I spent a lot of second grade talking up recorder in third grade and how my students had to be ready for the challenge of recorder. That meant they had to be the best musicians they could be with the instruments they had in second grade.
Management
I made sure that every school I taught in had enough recorders for the grades that were going to be taking lessons.
I also built up the idea of purchasing a recorder for $3.
I would typically buy them in bulk out of my own pocket at Musician's Friend when they were on sale.
I typically bought ivory Lyons recorders for their superior intonation and durability. Don't buy clear or transparent instruments - they easily shatter.
Purchase slips went home with kids with a tear off at the bottom.
I told kids they should earn the money for their recorders if it all possible. Sometimes I would actually have a checkbox on the return slip notating “My child earned the money for this instrument by doing extra chores”.
The collecting of money and getting recorders in the hands of hundreds of students was a major troop movement and felt like something like on the scale of Normandy to me.
But it was that “one-to-one” connection, when I looked that kid eye-to-eye, the child handing over twelve hard-earned quarters and me handing them a new recorder, that bonded us on a deeper level.
Before we started recorders, I took all of the school-owned recorders home and washed them in my dishwasher.
As far as the school-provided recorders, every class had an old copy paper box in my room with the classroom's name prominently on it containing recorders in cases with the kids’ names on it.
The box stayed in the music room and were used during music class and recorder lessons.
Kids were allowed to bring their personal recorder from home to use in music class.
After the opening song, we would always take a short break and that's when I would assign recorder helpers to hand out the recorders to their classmates.
Once we went to stop time, everyone was seated and ready to go in front of the Smart Board.
Quiet Communication
A roomful of recorder is loud.
Don’t try to be louder.
The best classroom management is quiet management.
Use sign language whenever possible.
Most of my directions as far as when to play and when not to play were given with hand signals.
By now, they knew of “you touch, you take” so they were pretty adept at keeping their recorders flat in their laps.
If I put my two hands out, palms down, and gestured downward, that signaled recorders were to be in laps.
If I did the opposite, palms up, moving up, that meant recorders were to be in playing position.
Making a circle with my left thumb and index finger and putting my right index and middle fingers in the circle meant that recorders needed to be put in their cases. The opposite signal meant take their recorders out.
The Foundation: the Bottom of the Pyramid
The first three stackable skills are so crucial for student and teacher success on the recorder. This is really where the rubber meets the road as a musician.
If kids needed a bit of firm encouragement for practicing at home, I would remind children to be proactive, that while they might be in third grade learning recorder, fourth grade band was right around the corner.
Self-discipline allowed them to do the right thing at the right time at home without me looking over their shoulder.
I would tell the kids to not just play at home but to listen: listen to their tone because it didn’t matter if they had the correct fingers covering the holes if the tone was ugly.
When children came to school with something they learned at home on their own, it was an opportunity when I could look them directly in the eye and tell them this:
“You know what? You can put that same effort and thinking into piano or guitar and do just as well. The sky's the limit as far as you’re concerned. You've shown the world that you are a musician when you play recorder as well as you do.”
Recorder was the initiation to the idea that we are all responsible for our gains or losses. That’s a heady lesson, one that was painfully reminded to the kids with every squeak they made.
I couldn’t fix their problem.
All I could do was provide guidance and encouragement.
While some kids walked away from the challenge of recorder, some kids learned that solving a problem on their own was a sweeter victory than depending on someone else fixing it for them.
It is these life lessons that can make the difference in our music room.
For more recorder content, check out my “Recorder Hero” posts from the first ten days of August, 2022.
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