can you possibly answer a question ive had for YEARS like since I was 8 years old (I'm now 30) when I was a kid I had the bog standard black and white recorder every primary school kid gets to learn to play and it always sounded so horrible like a blown out whistle with a screachy whistley tone that was painfully to listen to yet my recorder teacher would play with her recorder which seemed to be around 10-20% larger and made of wood and yet hers sounded quite nice albeit slightly lower in tone she would never ever demonstrate with a plastic recorder why did hers sound better? was hers just better made or was she more practised in finger placement and breath control? i notice whilst still a little high pitched your playing doesn't sound that bad either why is this?
It's quite interesting to hear what one of those elementary school recorders sounds like when played by someone who actually knows how to play the recorder.
Indeed! I got one of these in third grade--same case any everything--and I thought it sounded atrocious. Now I know that it was me all along! Really interesting to hear it in the hands of a professional. That hornpipe really did sound better on the plastic one, but for what it's worth I think the modern experimental stuff did too.
My university had an early and baroque concert each semester which I made sure to attend every time (even when it wasn’t required for course credit). One time a professional recorder player did an entire concerto. It was magnificent and I have been in love 😍 with them ever since. I had no idea either. My first thought was, “they come in wood?!?!”
I'm a flutist and I played a vivaldi concerto for sopranino recorder in college. During my study of the piece I picked up a Yamaha sopranino recorder as well as a cheap plastic one, but not the clear variant (mine was a lovely light beige). It was fun to play on them now compared to years and years ago. Just having actually played music for 25 years they sound a lot better. Nobody in 5th grade is going to make anything sound good if they're just starting, haha!
@@qua7771 actually plastic is perfectly fine. You just need quality plastic like on the Yamaha 300 series recorders. With wood you need to oil it regularly among other special care and can’t play more than 30 minutes or your breath humidity with warp the wood. I love my big tenor and will beat you with it sir.
Of course, the wooden instrument sounds a lot nicer, but I'm quite impressed with what a $10 instrument can do, and it fares pretty decently at folk music!
I´m more impressed by the person who makes the $10 recorder sound like a profesional one. I'm almost sure it won't sound like that with average people. Sadly
Plastic recorders are overkill considering their price :) They are also very nice if you want to play outside as wooden recorders' sound is a bit altered with colder or hotter temperatures.
Normal people cannot tell the differences between these two. But ironically normal people cannot play the plastic one to make other normal people cannot tell the differences.
The thing I noticed most was on the high notes the two sounded almost identical, but but the plastic recorder made me want to cringe, where the wooden recorder sounded very pleasant. It was a really interesting effect to hear them side by side.
@@ame8710 Yes, he's not a professional. As in playing a recorder is not his job. That doesn't mean he isn't playing for fun and know how to play it as a pastime activity. XD
I didn't even know there was such a thing as a professional recorder players. I just thought elves who live in trees of enchanted forests play recorder.
@@Metal0sopher it only sounds a little better in headphones. In person the more expensive one has better projection, better resonance, and you can feel the sound in your body in a way you can never get through a video. You also get a clear sound from far away, unlike the cheap model. Thats the entire point. You need it to be able to sound good at the other end of an auditorium.
@@Metal0sopher That $1,000 price tag isn’t a rip off at all. It just isn’t for a hobbyist or tinkerer. It’s for someone who’s seriously invested in their music. Apple gets the same complaints about the prices of their products, but what people who don’t work in the manufacturing field don’t understand is that those marginal improvements are monumentally more difficult to achieve. The tolerances are an order of magnitude or two more sensitive, and the failure rate of trying to achieve them is also about an order of magnitude higher. Yamaha can churn out 100,000 of those cheap plastic recorders and only have to throw out a few hundred of them, but if you tried to make 100,000 of those concert recorders, you’d wind up throwing out about 20-40,000 of them (or more likely, just skipping the extra expense of detailing them and then selling them as a mid-tier semi-professional recorder for $1-200 when you realize half way into manufacturing it that it’s not going to achieve spec).
I do hope you manage to teachj your students that it can sound great and it is a real instrument.. I think most ppl never really lose that association of thew recorder with elementary school lvl.
It's really cool to see an actual professional recorder player. I never actually thought of the recorder as a serious instrument, I suppose that the fact that it's pretty much used in every school in existance to teach music didn't help, it's refreshing to see its just as a beautiful instrument as any other
I was always sad that my country stopped compulsory recorder lessons a couple decades ago. I never got in contact with playing an instrument as a young child. I just recently got myself a plastic Aulos recorder for not very much money, so I get to learn now.
My school had symphonic band but weirdly never did the recorder thing. It was literally just jump straight into renting or outright buying the usual symphonic instruments (trumpet, alto sax, clarinet, flute, trombone) or using the school instruments (bass clarinet, tuba, baritones, etc).
@@razrv3lc Same, my private school jumped straight from the kazoo to suddenly being the bell choir. I rang my little bell whenever I was told but it never really felt the same as being able to play music on my own, yanno? My parents were well off enough to afford piano lessons so if I hadn't known what that felt like, I'd have thought I hated playing music. Then I transferred to another school and got immediately stuck with the trumpet.... Normall kids at that school started on a melodian but I came so late in the year I had to play catch up. it didn't bother me not to be able to choose my instrument. I was like, "okay, I play trumpet now." But I never properly learned to play the recorder, even though I Did own one.
While her husband was playing the cheap recorder i was thinking "aww shes looking at him with so much love in her eyes" and then when he played the concert recorder she looked at the recorder the whole time with the same look lmao
the day where any type of plastic sounds even somewhat remotely as good as wood is still far away but in typical yamaha fashion the instrument you get for basically no money is amazing value
POM (Delrin) formed into solid blocks and then machined like wood really can sound convincingly like wood. I think part of it is that it is amenable to being worked with many of the same techniques as wood, so instrument makers already know what to do with it and can play to its strengths. However, it's not conducive to building cheap instruments, because it's just as hard to machine as wood. You can't just pour it into a mold and then sand things to fit, you have to start significantly oversized and then machine down to the final dimensions. That's why Saxscape used solid bar stock (I don't know if they still do) and then worked it on equipment designed for moderate hardness wood.
Synthetic reeds (legere for sax and clarinet, and the K.GE + Silverstein oboe reed) sound pretty much comparable to the really good cane reeds already I can't wait for plastic instruments to be made that sound as good as wood. It would make a huge difference in repair frequency, costs, durability, ease of use, and so much more
@@thewooddove2 this part. I was using a legere alto sax 3.5 reed a decade ago and liked the way it sounded more than a lot of wooden reeds. Legere is so impressive.
Give it time. It took me 4 years practicing daily for as long as my lungs and neighbours could bear it, to play something reasonably good (I started at age 15 or so). Then I discovered the fun to make own music. Then I got hooked 😊
it looks like u have so much fun playing the recorder omg,,, it seriously warms my heart!! like if i was in elementary school and i saw someone like this be so excited ab the recorder, it def would’ve inspired me to play it seriously 😭
@@Team_Recorder I get bullied for it not being a “real instrument” and “for kids” specially since I choose to pursue it as my own extracurricular venture. I like the way you hold the recorders passionately. It’s heals the hurt in my heart.
@@kishascape repeat after me Nobody has to live my life but me. So as long as I'm happy and not hurting anyone, their opinions do not matter. And if they disagree with that, they can go f themselves. Keep doing whatever brings you joy. You'll be the one stuck with yourself so you better make sure you're treating yourself well.
@@isaiahd9947 yeah whatever I didn't know it's really called recorder and I find that word rather insulting to such a cute instrument with a thousand of years old history. Why recorder though? A recorder is to record. That's still a flute to me. Recorder doesn't make any sense whatsoever
This video genuinely made me smile. It's so nice to see and hear a recorder played by a professional. And can I say that your non-professional husband can play it better than most people I've heard!
@dhouse Exactly XD I play the cello, and I just started 5 weeks ago... I can sure not until last week did I get rid of that screeching sound when playing the A string or all fingers on the D string 😂
My high school physics teacher said he was bringing in an oscilloscope tomorrow, and asks, "Can anyone bring a musical instrument tomorrow?" I asked "Would a recorder do?" He said, "It depends on what instrument you record."
I understand you teacher... english is not my first language, so when i saw for the first time the word "recorder" being used to talk about the musical instrument, i got a little bit confused lmao
Yamaha seems like a cool company. They make instruments in a variety of builds and price ranges, from cheap starter instruments for kids to some of the most beautiful sounding concert-quality instruments. The quality varies with price but the variance is intentional, and they don't make any junk. And their motorcycles are great, too.
I don't think the motocycle division deals very much with the instrument one tho, yamaha is a conglomerate, just like a how the watch maker seiko don't deal very much with seiko the tuner maker
Holy cow! I owned a professional instrument when I was at elementary school?!? I wish i knew it could be played like this! They should seriously keep having these in music lessons until end of high school so people really develop the skill to play it, not just for making noise in elementary
@@MrTrollo2 In my country all kids are taught to play the recorder, no other wind instruments. For other wind instruments you generally have to go to private or state conservatory
@@precursors in Germany, children often start with the recorder. When reaching an age of, dunno, 12-14, they usually switch to something different. But that's not taught in class, parents buy or rent the instruments and you learn in private. But there are bands and stuff, where you can play it once you reach a little skill. I never learned any wind instrument, only played some piano for a short period. So it's not mandatory at all to learn any instruments.
A professional is someone who does it for a living. He may know what he's doing because he's been taught, took lessons, or practised a lot (he does have a wife who's a professional, after all). Yet, he doesn't do it for a living, but plays recreationally. Thus, not a professional.
You'll find that often times when someone masters one instrument (John is apparently a professional saxophonist) they will tend to pick up other instruments very easily. Doubly so if the instrument is in the same family as the one they've mastered. Triply so if they constant casual contact with said instrument, say by loving with someone who plays it professionally. It's more than enough that John should be able to play the recorder to a high amateur standard, which I think is what we saw in the video. He can also probably play the guitar pretty decently, the drums, and the piano as well, especially if he sings.
@@tristanhnl Could you explain the word amateur in exactly the same way? You must have passed your Turing test decades ago. Are you 9 of 9, the famous Borg? I'd almost think you are a human been.
I wish so badly I could hear this in person! I actually thought the Yamaha sounded much more interesting with the contemporary techniques, despite that awkward screech right at the end. The resonant warmth actually worked against the concert instrument when trying to convey such dissonant notes. But, I am not a musician, and I put a lot more stock in how an instrument performs live than in recordings, so who knows how RU-vid is coloring my impression. They’re both fine instruments and I love this video.
Saying someone is a professional, simple means they seek to get paid to do it for a living. I've come across some professionals who were horrible in their craft and amateurs/hobbyists who excelled, and vice versa.
Never played a recorder. Never heard anyone ever play them. But it's extremely clear there's a massive sound quality difference. Thank you - very educational
I'm so stunned, first time watching a recorder being played professionally and the main thing that drew my attention was your embouchure. So it's supposed to just lightly touch the mouthpiece? Flashbacks to my peers in school sucking the mouthpiece like they're sucking a teat.
She had a very specific point to this video on what a professional instrument vs the more simple ones most people had in school. But it is important to note there are fairly good quality plastic recorders available too which she shows in other videos. Yamaha has their YRB-300 line, there are Aulos recorders which are very comparable with a range of quality, and Zen-on has a nice soprano and alto plastic recorder which I personally love. All of which are quite affordable, and can be played as much as you want without damaging the instrument.
These are fine instruments modeled after baroque originals. The real problem is convincing the student that they are superior to the $10-100 wooden instruments which are nowhere near as good (at intonation or tonal stability) as the plastic ones.
To hear something other than "Hot Cross Buns" played by an army of amateur children is a breath of fresh air. To hear something so elegantly played, by both professional you and non-professional adorkable husband was amazing. I love hearing the folk music on the plastic one, as I agree with your sentiments about it. That tinny, plastic sound works so well for that upbeat melody. This makes me want to find that wooden recorder I was gifted years ago from a musician in a band called Barley Wine... Makes me wonder what quality it could be!
OK, I've got to like this. John's hilarious. He also sounded amazing on your wooden recorder. I really think he should face reality, bite the bullet and spring the $1000.
I just bought my first recorder. It was about $30.00, and is made of maple wood. It is of good quality for the price, and I have much to learn. I have heard what even a cheap instrument is capable of, and I will be watching many tutorials, and putting many hours of practice in to get everything I can out of this. I would make faster progress on a trombone, as I have played that before, but $200 + dollars for even the cheapest one is beyond my current budget. As it happens, I just put in my first hour of practice on the recorder today, and I am pleased with the sound. I am also getting many squeals from it because my hand placement is frequently wrong. I figure that practice for at least 1 hour per day for the next year or so will have me competent, though I don't expect concert orchestra level. I just want to get to where I can enjoy playing, and have others enjoy hearing it. Also, I'm retired, and I want something to occupy my time and develop some skills. Something else to say here, the recorder is capable of nuances that are not apparent to the inexperienced player, and that is one of the things I want to learn. If you have picked this instrument for simplicity, best revise your thinking. If you are wondering why I chose a recorder made of maple, blame it on me gathering maple sap to boil down for months on end to make syrup out of. Nostalgia is a beast. @ 4:36 Your concert recorder sounds much better to my ears than the plastic one. That being said, the el-cheapo one is suitable for a student who may not have settled on an instrument for a musical career, or may not want to pursue music beyond high school. @ 7:15 I want to play Skye Boat Song. It's one of my favorite pieces. That's not the only thing I want to play, but I've heard it since I was a child. Over 40 years hearing it (Captain Kangaroo first time) and I've never played it. @ 12:36 I have much to learn before I make a decision on a more expensive instrument. That being said, I like my maple recorder over any plastic instrument of comparable price. Your husband does much better than I have. I don't know if he has played before, but today was only my 2nd day and I still have to learn how to hold my recorder, much less play it properly.
Came here after 2setviolin’s vid on violin VS recorder to see what an actually professional can do with a plastic recorder. What I’m getting is that I barely scratched on the potential of recorders back in 4th grade hahaha.
Twenty or so years ago I bought a cheap plastic descant recorder from a music store. It was made in Israel. To my amazement it had quite a full sound and even my inexpert playing didn't make it squeal or squeak. So I went back to the store and bought the only other two in stock. I still play them today. I've never seen this brand for sale anywhere else and even on-line searches draw a blank. Obviously I'm going to hang on to the ones that I have.
As a recorder player and an elementary music teacher, that was so interesting!! It was a lot of fun too. I would be very interested in a comparison with the better Yamaha plastic recorder like the YRS-312
I agree. It may well be worth saving $970(!) and go with the Yamaha Recorder (YRS-312B) made in Japan. It’s priced on Amazon at $29.99 and includes shipping. It even comes with a gig bag. 😊 The (YRS-312B) has the following: • 3 piece soprano recorder in the key of C, Baroque fingering • Made from durable and long-lasting ABS plastic • Clear tone and even tuning in all registers • Simulated Rosewood finish gives the appearance of a wood grain texture
@@christophertsiliacos8958 - Aulos make some pretty good plastic recorders too - I have a sopranino which is superb and their more expensive plastic sopranos are excellent too.
1. I have no idea what I'm doing here, I don't even play this instrument 2. As a non-native English speaker I could never understood why this thing is called a "recorder". Like it could record something.
@@0815Snickersboy its called block flute because of the block that guides the air.... Many plastic models dont have this block but in wooden recorders it has a very important function related to the moisture absorption also
You can just hear the difference between the basic wooden one and plastic one, as happens in our class. So there is a huge difference between these two. You're a very good player 💜
I also am impressed with the $10 recorder. I can definitely tell the difference, but still.... For a beginner, who thinks they may want to be serious about the recorder, the Yamaha is good, inexpensive place to start.
@@idraote Actually, I have purchased Aulos recorders for myself (soprano, alto and tenor) and really like them. I was thinking about my niece who started with the school version and seemed to really like it. I think she would enjoy the $10 version, then could work up the $$ range on Yamahas as she kept at it. That way, her parents (who have 6 kids) wouldn't be out a lot of money if she changed her mind.
@@juliestevens6931 I really like my set of Aulos (SAT) as well - I like my Aulos soprano much better than my Yamaha. - but now I have the loan of a wooden basset from Kung, and I think I'm ready to take the instruments to the next level. But I'm not quite yet convinced that _I_ would sound better on a factory-made wooden recorder than on the Aulos - and I can't afford the high-end bespoke instruments.
@@ke9tv I have lower end wooden recorders that I started with and thought they sounded better than plastic recorders....until I got my Aulos. LOL I am not good enough (yet) to even think about upgrading beyond the Aulos, but I can still appreciate the beautiful tone of the high end wooden ones. :o) I will have to get much more disciplined about practicing and pushing my boundaries (and applying Sarah's advice, tips and tricks) before I move up.
The main problem for me is that you can't push the instrument. If you blow too strong it's sounds strident and the wooden it sounds nice and you can do dynamics that can sound nice in a long end note
@@wryckbasak4555 I don't know if you can play along with the mollenhauer modern recorder, but they say you can play along with the piano, so it's a way louder than the baroque recorder
@@orlandopockets6372 I have Dream Soprano, Moeck Rottenburgh Soprano and a Alto from a brazilian luthier called Marcos Ximenes. I wasn't talking about the video comparission, except for the botton notes, you can overblow the wooden without cracking and sound awesome, the plastic you can't. You can play fast, but you can't blow freely. And the difference in sound is HUGE comparing the luthier with my yamaha 300 alto. Unfortunatelly I can't tell the same of my rottenburgh with my yamaha in sound, maybe because it is an older model or maybe the paraffin affect the sound of it, but to play it is still way better, especially in the winter
@@orlandopockets6372 recorder is not a guitar that you reach the notes with finger, you make the sound and the tuning blowing, including the dinamics (for playing louder, for playing softly you chance finger as well). There's some sheet music that tell you to play steongly in some notes. The piano you also can hit the notes sofly and harder without break the keyboard. Different instruments, different tecniques
I remember being really angry at this classmate because she played like shit but had the most expensive recorder in the class. Meanwhile I was the best player in my class but had the shittiest recorder
Lol😂. Ya that always happens. A person who novice at an instrument has the most expensive one. You should've asked for her recorder politely and showed her how to actually play it haha 😂. Ok that would've been rude😅
My teacher got everyone the same recoded, it was only when you proved you were actually good enough to join the recorder concert, did she get those members a better model
In my band, I’m the 1st chair flute player. I have an $800 piccolo because I complained for over a year about the one the school gave me to use (the head joint fell off all the time, my cousin and I had a joke about her running to get my headjoint if it fell off in a Marching Band performance) and my grandma felt bad for me so she surprised me and got me a birthday/Christmas gift by getting the piccolo. The worst flute player in our band showed up with a piccolo, and we asked her what type it was and how much. It was a $4,000 piccolo, and she can’t play it in tune at all..... It pisses me off.
Today I found my old wooden student recorder, and after 20 years I was able to play a song. Now I'm seeing this instrument completely differently. Such a kind sound. Great video!
Now, the recorder is generally thought of as a training instrument for children, but listen to it. In the hands of an expert like Joram Leifgrum... ♪ ♪ The passion is... breathtaking.
I'd have preferred a comparison between a $30 Yamaha and a $300-$400 Moelenhauer, which seems like it would be much more applicable to the hobby player.
Nice! The wooden one just flows like butter..the plastic one has more friction feel. But really very hard to tell. I guess in the right hands (or lips!?) both can produce lovely music!
I play the recorder as part of an amateur ensemble and this "$10" one (3x the price in my currency) is what I play! I love the pure sound of it, the fun appearance, and the easy maintenance. When I saw it in a store I was amazed that they can make transparent recorders now. What a time to be alive! Yes, the condensation builds up quickly, so I try to warm it up a bit before I play it. I made my own case for it that is nicely padded, to show it love and care. Thankyou for featuring my favourite recorder in your video!
I love your husband's take on it. Yes wood has it's amazing qualities but it doesn't mean that plastic can't be fun. Also just thinking about the amount of maintenance for a wooden recorder or if you live in an area that's just ridiculously humid and it's not practical to have a wooden recorder.
I remember being in the second grade and hearing a classroom of kids playing the recorder a few doors down. I've always been drawn to music whenever it's played live and I can get to it. My teacher walked me down the hall, and I got to hold one of those beautiful, smooth, plasticky recorders. It was like magic. I'm blind, and I was in the classroom for the tfew visually impaired kids in my school, probably the only reason I was allowed to do something so unstructured. It was a cool thing, though, and in my memory, those kids sounded incredible, even though they likely didn't in real-life. :) P.S. I like her husband. He sounds fun. They both do. I like the honest, laid-back approach to this whole comparison. It wasn't all stuffy and academic, or snobby. Thank you!
1. WOW, so thats what my recorder would sound like if i knew how to ACTUALLY play?! 2. Yamaha for the win- they make a darn fine series, and they DO make much higher quality plastic ones as well. 2. the 1,000 one sounds so rich and better, but... ah... i have 10 bucks.
I really wish I understood why it's called a "recorder" in English. In French, we just call it a "flute à bec", just a different type of flute. I think the term recorder is weird as the thing doesn't record anything. I can play it for days, it's not going to save a single note, while a voice recorder will let me playback something I said and a video recorder will let me rewatch a movie...
They're flutes, an end-blown flute, part of the fipple family if instruments. Did you miss Sarah's video on all the names the recorder has? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hJwCxX6L6UM.html She explains that it is called a Recorder from the days when people taught birds to sing songs as a way to play back music. You would teach the bird with the end-blown flute, and it will "record" the sound into the bird.
In Brazilian Portuguese we call it Flauta Doce, which directly translates to sweet flute... I really don't know the origin of this either haha... while flute a bec does actually have an understandable meaning
@@rafaellavrador4873 in Italian, too, it's "flauto dolce", same meaning. I'd say it's because the sound is sweet, if it wasn't for the fact that it's not sweeter than other kinds of flutes...
I don’t think I’ve heard a wooden recorder before. At least that I’m aware of ( or just played on its own) And the wood recorder sound very warm to me. I really liked the tone of it.
I’m a flute player but I played on a school recorder before I was allowed to start flute in 3rd-4th grade. I have never heard it from someone who knew how to play one in my 22 years of life! Awesome ❤❤
I remember I had this purple glittery recorder when I was 6 and I loved it so much played it everyday (probably very badly and annoying) but I had a friend round one day and she randomly threw it across the room onto the wall and it broke in half I cried so much, my parents smacked me so hard cause I said my friend did it and they didn’t believe me Now I stay away from them even though I think they sound so wonderful
Holy shit dude 🧍🏽♀️. Like, if you’re watching this video, I think it’s about time you get another glittery purple recorder. I wanna hear a COME BACK STORY >:D!
Whoa, I had one of those transparent blue recorders when I was doing the recorder unit in school ... 20 years ago. Glad to see Yamaha is still honoring the 1999/2000 aesthetic