Hi Sarah, I've just "found" the recorder! I'm 83!!! I started on the Soprano with a tutor book at home and after three weeks of pure joy I have worked my way through that book. By the way, I have a degree in music (violin) so am critical of my playing. So now I have branched out and have bought a Tenor Recorder (because I love the sound of them). It's an Angel instrument, factory-made, but with a very lovely tone. I have had surgery on my right wrist last year and I find that my right hand is very compromised. I'm working very hard to improve my stretch because I want so much to be able to play that instrument but so I hope that I will be able to make the grade. Thank you so much for your videos. I have found them most helpful.
I hope you will be able to play your tenor again!!!! I personally love the alto but I’m having a little trouble reading the treble clef (I play bassoon, it’s in bass clef). Don’t know what that little bit of info brings to the table but anyway.... 👍👍👍
Alex Alestareon A Bass recorder would be best for you. It reads in Bass clef, and as an F instrument the fingering is more like the bassoon than any other instrument.
I took up recorder at 73. Just got a kung studio comfort tenor due to previously injured fingers. I also tried the Mollenhauer Can't. Lovely sound but keywork actually caused pain. Didn't try the Moeck line of comfort tenors. All pricey but my plastic Yamaha is way to much of a painful stretch. My advice? Try them out. Even though they all have 4 keys, the design of the keys and spacing really varied. We're talking millimeters, but it made a huge difference.
Sarah, I'm attempting to teach myself the plastic Yamaha bass. My wife was excellent on sopranino, soprano, tenor, several Irish tinwhistles, and flute. Unfortunately, she passed on last December, from cancer. We had been married for 30 years. My "me time" is divided between my recorder and my ukulele. It is set to a low G (G,C,E,A) for a wider range, which I play fingerstyle. My wife, Tami, was also learning uke. We loved to play Lutheran hymns, and other Christian hymns and songs. Tami also played trumpet and bodhran (Irish frame drum). I miss her terribly! I haven't picked up my acoustic guitar in a while, but I have my work cut out for me for the moment. I do want to learn Irish tinwhistle as well. Tami loved her Susato best for tone. -Rik E. Northern Illinois U.S.A Thank you for your talented music!
The Diamond Clasher ok? Just because a cheap plastic one on amazon is for kids doesn’t mean they all are. I could find a cheap plastic piano on amazon, that doesn’t mean the piano is just for kids. Logic, ever heard of it?
It is like a breath of fresh air for your soul when you get to hear someone talk about their passion in life so proudly and affectionately. I'm thoroughly addicted
Yeah I got an extensive collection of knives. But I think Sarah’s recorders are much more family friendly…and less likely to scare the crap out of folks. 😂🤣
I live in Northern Ireland. Both my recorders are plastic but I have a special affection for them. My descant is by Moeck while my treble belonged to my daughter who played in a consort in school. They would have competed in music festivals. My love of the recorder stems from wanting to brush up on my sight reading. My music teacher in school was keen on baroque music. Our first piece was Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. That was 60 years ago. 😊
Hi I'm study recorder on Mexico City I only have 5 recorders: a soprano, a contralto, a tenor, a bass and one contralto of wood I love the recorders your recorders are so beautiful and amazing and the paetzold ones are so beautiful too
I have an antique Johannes Adler pearwood Alto that I love so much that I sought out one of their tenors. They both are wonderfully handsome instruments and have warm tone. I play a bassette made by Ideal of "West Germany" and it is made similarly to yours with the crook. I find that I like to use the crook for church services, but when i want to play longer pieces where moisture tends to build up in the instrument and fuzz the voice out, then I play it without the crook. Has a different almost "brighter tone color" in that configuration. I also play an original Meyerflute (German Flute) with the bone headjoint and African blackwood tapered body. I found this instrument at an estate sale in Washington State. I got it for a "song". . . . . i know. . . pun. . . lol . . . . They didn't know what they had. I paid a very small fraction of it's worth! It's from a collection that belonged to a long time player from the Seattle Symphony. He played for many years with them and passed away Summer of 2015 at 102 years old. When he bought the Meyeflute, he was a young man out of college and it was ancient then. He kept it in meticulous order, and I play it all the time. I have researched it's background and discovered that is probably from circa 1805-1815ish. It's hard to confirm though, as there is no absolutes with the early examples of Meyerflutes. I also play the Meyerflute at church. My church is a Richard Upjohn Gothic revival that was built in 1858. The 33 foot high vaulted ceiling makes for really sweet acoustics. Nothing compares to a well-crafted wooden flute. Metal flutes are nice, but this Meyerflute is silk. I get complimented on this instrument everytime I play it. Most of my woodwinds are antiques, for the exception of my pearwood Hohner soprano, which I bought new. That recorder took a long time to break in properly and after an entire year of playing it, I am satisfied with the tone. It has a rougher tone color, and to contrast that one, I found a Mattias Thoma model--a very old one when they were still being made in Germany. I actually prefer the tone of the Hohner and play that one when I'm doing solo work. I found some John Stanley German Flute solos that sound amazing on that recorder. For the age of my "second hand" recorders, they are in remarkably well preserved condition having been in storage with very little use over the years. I am mindful to almond oil them twice a year and meticulous with their care, as I play them everyday for hours at a time. Thanks for sharing your collection with us. It was very informative. I plan to get some larger basses down the line, but right now it's about the $$$ cha ching! Sorry for such the long dialogue, but it's fun to discuss the finer points of these instruments. I get pretty excited about them. I am currently trying to build a Recorder Consort here in Muncy, Pennsylvania. Take care! I subscribed to your channel, so will be looking into the rest of your channel as time permits! Brian Hess Muncy, Pennsylvania USA
Brian - what a fascinating "mini-seminar" on recorders! It was also quite interesting to hear about the 102-year old artist from Seattle Symphony. I was from the Seattle area and love the symphony and classical music, so I'm sure I may have seen him on occassion. I wish you great success in your efforts to form a group of recorder/woodwind players. I consider it a mission to keep classical music before the public in an effort to turn back the sludge-tide of modern "music". I fear for our culture, to be honest. Keep playing! Music is our joy! 🙌👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I also have the dreamflutes, a completely blue completely wooden soprano, and that same alto as you have there, my music teacher ordered me to buy them as a step up from the plastic yamahas, but they were quite expansive for a 10, 12 year old? So I played recorder on local flee markets and spared all the money my parents would give and then eventually after a really long time I had enough to buy them. I'm 27 now, I haven't had musical lessons in more than 10 years, but I still have them, and I don't think I'll ever sell them or anything. They still sound great, and I still like to play them. And also, I met Ariana Breukink at some point and now I have her poster, signed. I should hang that in my house somewhere 🤔.
Hi Sara, I am going to start a recorder collection too! But I only have few for now! I will catch up in a few decades....love you! I didn't know how much I needed a recorder collection until I saw your video. I really loved recorders since I was a young lass in high school..
I am so enjoying your recorder clips. Very inspiring and you are so enthusiastic. Have also just discovered comfort tenors and am about to buy a Knick Comfort Mollenhauer. So far alto is as far as I can reach. 150 cm height [me] and a bit of arthritis hitting me in my dotage. I wish these were available as a plastic model, I think it would make recorder ensembles more widely possible. Even people with long stretches have difficulty with the ordinary tenor reach and I cant see why we should be relegated to playing soprano. I do understand that putting 2 extra comfort keys on is expensive, but I would like to see a company do that as standard for ABS tenors. Otherwise its abstinence rather than discomfort.It was so useful to see you playing the Telemann Canonic Sonata. I have the third movement which I play occasionally with a friend, so good to hear your expression of it. I use musescore to help me learn by ear and sight, and while very helpful, hearing a live musician play and articulate helped me to move ahead more with the piece.Sarah, you mention several times about wooden recorders that you have played a lot getting a bit 'past it'. Could you elaborate on lifespans of wooden recorders please? I realise that you play lots more than most of us will, but I'd like to know that with care, I might get more than 10-15 years out of a 4-figure recorder.
Great and inspiring work you do. I hope it doesn't feel like work all the time as you deserve lots of joy and fun given how much you give to others. Peace
This video is literally in answer to a burning question I’ve had ever since finding your channel. I’m rediscovering the recorder after many years. Thanks.
Loved to hear the duet at the end. LOL. Funny... my son just bought a recorder at the dollar store the other day as a prop for some of his videos, and I took a liking to it myself. Now I’m here trying to learn how to play it. LOL. Needless to say, the dollar store versions sucks..I mean, it’s seriously flat...but now I’m looking on Amazon for a decent recorder for myself. In 5th grade, I played the Clarinet...so hopefully I’ll be able to learn this in my 40’s. Here’s hoping! I love your channel Sarah. Thank you for being such a good teacher. I am going to look through your videos and see if I can find any videos by you that start at the beginning basics. I will more than likely be a slower learner these days, but that’s ok. I’ll practice till I get it. 😆
Love your story and your videos. Just started watching today! I am 65 and play flute (seriously with 2 degrees but do other things for a living). Bought a Mollenhauer Cantos 2106 soprano (pearwood) about 10 years ago and did not learn how to play. Decided recently to learn because I love listening to recorder ensembles. Just bought a basic plastic Yamaha alto ($30 model for $16) to learn on. Before I bought any recorders I started collecting and playing Native American flutes. My favorite was made by J.P. Gomez, and it's in g minor.
Sarah certainly has a good sized collection! It is said, by the way, that King Henry VIII had more than 70 in his collection and was quite good at playing them.
I have played recorders since 2001 and it is a magnificent journey to keep them as part of your dayly routine. I have two sopraninos, one soprano, two altos and one tenor recorder.
I just showed this to my grade 3/4 music class. They could not believe how big the giant "Ikea" one was. they want to try it. Keep making these videos. We love them.
wow Sarah you are awesome with this instruments i just got the Yamaha YRS-302B Soprano Recorder, Baroque fingering, Key of C and i am clueless to playing it lol i had this in my music class back when i was in school in the 80s 90s but i was raised in a very bad time and place in nyc east ny brooklyn so i couldn't learn things like this i had to learn to stay alive lol but i always made music all my life tho electronically even tho i never learned music theory i can hear what i like as a start and build from there. after awhile of fighting to make music i found i luv not knowing cause it comes from a place of mystery, i think i am a real musician in the sense as in i hear music in me and fight to get it out with anything i have. this has worked for me well for almost 36 years out of my 46 on earth but i said when i turn 47 on april 26th this year i will do more live instruments not for recording them but to play them and master 1 i like this instrument indeed. it was great finding you you are amazing with this instrument i hope to be as good 1 day. i like this instrument because it is so small but powerful and wow sounding when played right is the key or in key lol i wish you goodness health and protection evils 1 luv Ameer/Reemabeats taurus age46 nyc check out some of my works if you wish soundcloud.com/ai-ri5
Hi Sara,I'm a french recorder student. I've recently bought a voice flute (denner) to a young recorder maker called Patrice Allain. I think he is great. For the moment he only makes altos and voice flutes. I love his instruments !!!
I love looking at all your recorders and seeing what the more modern woodwind instruments were developed from. There's clearly similarities to the flute and clarinet in all recorders in both design and fingerings, but the bassoon looks like the natural descendant of your bass recorder with the crook. I've always found it funny that, as a flute player, I can pick up a friend's clarinet or saxophone and have about a 60% chance of playing a real note if I only use flute fingerings, but the more I study both modern and ancient woodwinds the more I understand why that happens, lol.
The bassoon is a pretty old instrument, too. The bassoon's predecessor is the dulcian, which was manufactured in one piece, but already had a crooked mouthpiece. The dulcian was a contemporary of renaissance recorders. Double-reed instruments on the whole are very old, their origin is ordinary blowing on a grass stem between one's lips.
I love the Dreamflute. I have one too now. It's my first soprano wooden recorder and it sounds soooooo beautiful. Mine is fully of wood. btw, I love your videos.
I had not played for quite a few years but you have inspired me to get out my recorders and try practicing again. I have a Meister Werner Schneider tenor (Made in E. Germany) and a Moeck Tuju tenor in maple. (Found at a yard sale for $10), a Meister Werner Schneider alto and a Moeck Rottenburgh model alto in maple. A Werner Schneider soprano and a Yamaha tenor, alto, soprano, sopranino plastic set which are not bad at all. The bad news is that a few years ago I cut a tendon in the little finger of my right hand and cannot bend it . The good news is that the stiff, unbent finger sits right over the lowest hole on most of my recorders. LOve your videos!
My recorder collection: first generation Moeck Renaissance soprano, alto, tenor, bass; plastic baroques by Aulos (Garklein & sopranino), Yamaha (soprano, alto, tenor -- the higher-quality brown models), and Tudor (bass); modern Eagle alto. I also have an honorary recorder: a Kelischek soprano gemshorn, made of ABS plastic.
Sarah I am thoroughly enjoying your videos. I found you just today via a post on the Yahoo recorder mailing list (someone had asked about play along videos and the response today pointed to yours). My collection (seeing as I am a amateur who mostly plays in church) is clearly out of hand. My current #1 instruments are a Mollenhauer modern soprano in pear wood, a Mollenhauer Elody alto in satinwood and Mollenhauer Dream tenor in pear wood. I am playing against modern instruments and so like recorders with big voices. So far I have not used the electric aspect of the Elody except to test it out. That, hopefully, will come later. Backing these up are a Moeck Ehlert soprano in boxwood (with a bore size rivaling your Gnassi - it's great for playing the trumpet parts in some of the music we play in church), a Mollenhauer Modern Alto in palisander (but without the low E foot) and a relatively recently acquired Dream Edition tenor which refuses to be played in and needs to be sent in to von Huene to be checked out/fixed. For the short time it is playable in each session is has a more clear and defined tone than its pear wood sibling (which is also quite a few years older) as you'd expect. I also have a Kung Superio soprano and alto - both in palisander - and they are lovely but haven't been played in some time. My sopranino is an Aulos 500 series plastic. There are other plastics from Aulos, Yamaha and the now-discontinued Dolmetsch Nova series in the house. A Nova alto, in particular, gets grabbed spur of the moment when I just want to noodle. We actually have several of these - they were an amazing bargain at less than 20 USD when they were available. It's kind of embarrassing the size of this collection now that I type it all out......
very nice. they all have something different to tell. I use to play on three Moeck Rothenburg 440 recorders: two tenor Mapple (1982) and Ebony (2013), and an Alt boxwood (1981) (the last two with ivory rings). No keys. I sold them in 2014 because I stopped playing (see other comment elsewhere). My soprano was a Rothenburg like Mollenhauer pearwood. I gave it to my musician son (look for Bardaphe Trio). The sopranino is a Roessler, I still have it. Really cute one. All double holes, barock fingering of course. The three Moecks belong now to 'Respiro' , a group a musicians based in Kortrijk, Belgium
I bought a maple wood F Alto recorder from China (By Qimei). I'm not sure if it's going to be good. It's on the way. I didn't realise that recorders are so cool till I came across your RU-vid channel. I picked up my soprano plastic recorder from the toy box that was left in there for like X number of years. Tried a number of blowing techniques that you showed in your video, and now I'm going to move on to a more professional recorder!
Well, I must say I fell in love... ...with your Paetzold C bass recorder. The thing itself looks like an object of art. Damn good one. And there is the sound. These recorders are rather costly, I take it. Nevertheless, I would be more than happy to own one. Thank you for this and all that excellent stuff you put on your channel. All the best and Merry Christmas!
Hello! I bought an alto a couple years back, but I put it away. You videos have inspired me to pick it back up. I've played saxophone from elementary school through high school, so playing soprano recorder wasn't such a huge leap (as far as fingering). Playing alto is a bit challenging because music isn't transposed like saxophone sheet music is.
Thank you Sarah and Jon!..Very interesting seeing your collection of recorders....I have been to Greenwich in London for the old medievel instrument show..once and bought too much!..But bought a lot of old music books too though..Thanks for a great upload..
Awesome collection! Many years later, this video still gives inspiration (as promised in the "Which recorder should I buy" video I came from). Also, tell John, that's a cool bike!
Nice tour! I love playing different recorders. So many still to try... Money... One day i will make my own ganassi style one. It got me into woodturning as a hobby.
Sarah! amazing videos! you're the most inspiring recorder player. I was wondering if you could do a video of your Paetzolds? to hear how they sound playing older melodies and newer, and contemporary abstracts. great channel! happy summer!
Hi, sure! I do have a video about Paetzolds: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UTvSRe-7D4I.html There's not so much musical examples there, but if you scroll down my channel there are quite a few videos of me playing contemporary repertoire! Early music - that's a good one, I'll have to make some videos of that too :)
I have just started to play. Your videos are so inspiring and helpful and really fun. I have an alto by Aulos and soprano by Yamaha. I think these are good choices for beginner players as they’re really affordable and they’re plastic so they’re easy to clean.
Amazing Collection! I am not a professional... but, I love recorders... I just have 5, but my tenor is not good! I am a little jealous about your collection!!!
that was AWESOME!!! Love the contrabass "robots"! I play 2 plastic sopranos (yamaha German and some italian baroque toy) and a wooden yamaha baroque soprano. Hope to get a handmade historical specs by a Danish master soon
Hi Sarah, really enjoyed this video and the others too. Thank you for making them. I want to learn to play the recorder too and read your answer to a similar question below with interest and will follow your advice. Thanks again.
Very interesting video, thank you. I was intrigued by your comment that you played the Yamaha Tenor more than any other recorder - intrigued because I have read many commentators on other sites saying that tenors are hard to play because of the hand stretch, or that altos are better overall because they have a much larger repertoire. Do you play the tenor most because you play more of its repertoire, because you have more, say, altos so spread the time around more, or simply like it the most?
Thank god I found your channel. I've been looking for recorder youtubers and here you are haha. If you don't mind I'll ask a question: What alto and soprano model of any brand would you recommend that's below 500 £? Thanks!
I have three, one Aulos soprano (C), a Yamaha Soprano (C), the last one is an alto (F) also made by Yamaha. And, recorders are fully capable of playing contemporary music!
Great collection, thanks for sharing it with us! I recently got a Kung Superio Tenor recorder in plumwood. I tried a lot of other maker's tenors and the Kung played the strongest -- good for playing in quartetts where the tenor seems to get lost if you don't play out! My other favorite is my boxwood soprano by Aesthe -- beautiful tone and plays nicely in the high register. He's a Canadian maker (Boudreau) and Aesthe is his mass-produced line that he hand voices.
People out here (San Francisco, California area) really like the larger Kung Superios. Their bent-neck basses are really nice, as are the C-Basses and their giant Contra. Very easy to play and a nice sound. You should try them!
Just subscribed, thanks for sharing your beautiful collection. I'm new to the instrument, looking for lessons, and found this video encouraging. I have two recorders, an Alto in F, and a Tenor in C. I play the guitar, and feel this instrument to be an excellent addition to my composing.
Interesting video. I can only afford factory recorders - I've got quite a number bought over the years, from Garklein down to Bass (Basset). All A-440. I've got dream soprano & alto's - I agree, they're very nice instruments.
Great video Sarah. You've given me an urge to buy some instruments. I have several Blezinger's. My trans instruments are at 415 by Blezinger. I'll have to check out the square bass instruments. Love their sound.
+Bill Baumann Ah great, I loooove Blezingers! A colleague of mine a has a tenor by him, and I think I'll go for that if the day ever comes when my yamaha tenor dies. Do check out the Paetzold basses! And I think Coolsma have been making square basses as well.
They are very nice :) I haven't seen any bass and contrabass recorders before until recently. My mother used to have a Jupiter (wooden soprano, east-German). Later I got a plastic soprano, its title was already barely visible when I got it, but not Yamaha, that's sure. Recently I got a 70s-80s east-German soprano wooden recorder and I have no idea what brand it is. It only has a rectangular symbol above the the top hole, it's like a square with a gap on the left bottom part and the vertical line on the left has a "loop" on its bottom end going rightwards, like the bottom part of a big B. I really wonder what it could refer to and it has no title (just GDR at the thumb hole, which stands for German Democratic Republic). So I have two sopranos now, both German fingering. I used to think about getting an alto one and I really like the bass too :)
I have two soprano recorders, one wooden Zen-On and one plastic Yamaha. I love my wooden recorder, the sound is so beautiful. Your videos are great; keep them up! My name is Sara, by the way. :-)
Hey Sarah, have you ever tried to play a Bansuri? They're from India and they're made of bamboo. It's similar to a recorder but it's played horizontally like a flute. If you haven't, then maybe you giving it a try would make a great video. Just saying.
Hi sarah, you may don't know me I'm a recorder player myself. A tenor recorder player, I'm really expert of recorders but I don't play much, I love the when it plays baroque music because I love mozart and bach's music, but I practice all of it with my violin.
I got interested in recorders because they are cheap amd fit in my backpack, unlike my guitar or my bass. I got a German soprano recorder, then I bought that cheapest yamaha baroque soprano recorder, then after some time i bought a cheap alto recorder. I really like the alto recorder, unfortunatelly the F sounds too sharp, and I need to put a rolled packaging plastic, (I mean that thin transparent plastic found in some packages) on it to extend the tube and lowe the pitch, sounds better, a bit unstable though. I'm thinking about a a yamaha alto recorder, but my soprano recorder is a bit sharp too, not as bad as my alto though. I do these tests using a tuner, and blowing. If blow very weakly on the alto it's still sharp, and if I blow too much(without changing the octave), it gets close to F#. On soprano it happens with the C, but not as bad, I can just control the blowing, most of the other notes are ok on both instruments. So I think I will just enjoy what I have and thik about new ones in the long run.
I only have 3 recorders: a soprano, an alto and a tenor. I wanna get more but I don't have the money. But I really really love my tenor. It's from Mollenhauer.
Dear Sara, have you tried the new Yamaha in EcoDear? They seem to be better models of ABS. I read the opinion of some professional recorder players who believe a flute in ABS a better choice instead of a wood Industrial recorders. I wait for your friendship on FB :)
It is actually fun to subscribe by clicking John. Lol I only have a Yamaha tenor and a frankenstein sopranino (back in school we used our recorders as toys and well, my recorder has pieces from diffrent ones) By the way. What is the name of that instrument John is playing? It's fantabulous
All I have is my old Aulos soprano 103N from when I was in elementary school. I love it to bits, but I think it's time I get a more professional recorder for myself. I can't play C# or D# due to the lack of those double holes (I don't know what they're called). I'm also thinking of getting a tenor recorder. I'm not even studying recorder or anything, i'm a tuba player! I just really respect the instrument, and I like to fiddle around with it here and there.
Very interesting talk about recorders. You can obviously play very well. Why do I start to smile when you mention the labium? Hmmm, surely the makers could have come up with a better word?
Random question: Is it okay to start out cold turkey learning the recorder on the tenor? (Mind, I already have experience with the flute, sax, and clarinet families of instruments.)
2:05 wasn't there a flute that the mythical goat-pan creature used to play that had two pipes connected together ? Why doesn't that instriment exist anymore?
