I just received my Aulos Haka soprano recorder (I was too cheap to buy a tenor when I wasn’t sure if I would take to the recorder). I’ve only had it about 2 hours now, but it’s a fun little instrument. It’s nice to be chromatic when you’re staring down at all those notes on a Bach or Handel score (I’d been muddling through on my keyless flute). It will take some time to remember some of the fingerings though!
Now, I need to add a few keys to my flute, or buy a baroque flute, and I’ll be totally in heaven…
Cran - the pitch would be milder with an alto, but I can’t handle different fingerings. When I play a D darn it, it should be 6 fingers down. Now the Soprano and tenor records do have a few different fingerings, but many of them match the baroque flute fingers I sometimes use on my non-baroque flute.
I had a alto recorder years ago, but sold it on a garage sale because my mind just doesn’t handle transposition well. Ergo, I have a high D whistle, now the soprano recorder, and a standard Irish/D flute…I’m just either too lazy or dense to handle much else!
Delighted to hear that you like your Recorder! However, I must admit that Descant wasn’t my first choice in my recent Recorder investigation (though I DO have an old Adler wooden Descant Recorder that cost about £3 twenty five years ago-and hasn’t been touched since!).
I think that you would find Alto or Tenor Recorders more stimulating-they seem to have more repetoire/posssibilities to my mind-the Tenor sound is very rich and fulfilling.
I could definately see a ‘trajectory’ to Baroque Flute as a result of your purchase. Enjoy!
Maybe not thinking of it as a “different fingering” would help. I used to play soprano, alto, tenor, baritone saxophone and flute interchangeably… As long as I didn’t analyze it. I had also been playing by ear for quite a while at that point. Just play along with whatever until that part of your mind learns to transpose for you.
Or not! Come to think of it I was the entire wind section in the high school orchestra. I had four or five stands with clarinet, trumpet, trombone, French horn, etc. parts in front of me.
I wish I could pretend not to notice the difference, but when I put the fingers down for a B on an alto, and it comes out as a different note, well, it hurts my wittle brain. I know I sound stubborn, but my mind has difficulty when the notes that come out don’t match the pitch in my head…
I love my soprano Yamaha . . . I was trying to choose between the soprano or alto, the soprano won. And for the same reasons you stated . . . I like to think of a soprano as a D whistle with an extra hole for the C. And I haven’t really used the last hole at all. I’m not musically gifted and don’t have much free time to play around with dramatically different fingering patterns. I’d prefer to hear a D, play a D, or hear a B, play a B . . . at least you can practice along with most recordings.
Well Eric I am sitting here messing around with my little Moeck soprano and I realy like this thing. I am now chasing an Alto and Tenor. If I can`t get my hands on a good wooden one I will probably go with either the Aulos or Yamaha. I did just get my hands on an old Angel Halo soprano for pennies and I must say it is sweat and I like the looks of it. I wish I had more knowledge of music to work with but I think it will come as I move deeper into the possibility of playing classical music. Anyway keep us posted on your recorder journey, I for one am most interested.
I’ve got a decent Yamaha alto and sopranino, plus my kids’ school sopranos. I’ve been thinking of upgrading a bit, and Brewerpaul set me onto a few websites that had discussions on plastic recorders, dream flutes, etc. Yamaha’s seem to rate pretty well.
There’s a place called courtlymusic.com that’ll sell you a set: Yamaha faux wood (woodgrain finish) alto and soprano for $49.95.
I found a place called aswltd.com that sells most conceivable “older music” instruments, including plastic aulos, zen-on, and yamahas. They claim Yamaha is the best plastic going, that the woodgrains are better than the other models, but that out of the box they have tuning problems, like most other inexpensive recorders, wood or plastic. They say they tune them to perfect pitch before shipping, and charge extra. Woodgrain finish Yamahas: Soprano $33.95, alto $52.95.
I have one of their Yamaha Sopranos, and like the sound and tuning. I have checked it against a tuner and I can get it right on. Is it worth about 30% more?
I’d like to think so, but I spent the money, so I am not the person to ask. It is a very responsive instrument, not for Irish Trad, but excellent in it’s own way.
It’s an interesting read if you have not seen it already.
I played through a book of basic Bach tunes, and all those with those nasty (to a keyless flute at least) tunes with flats were a blast to play. If only the fingering chart hadn’t been rolled up for so darn long - the music loses it’s rhythm when you have to use two hands to flatten out the chart to figure out exactly how to play that high B or Bb!
A good deal, and the Courtly Music folk are good people-- I live about 1.5 hr away. BTW-- they are not far from Lake George NY, and close to the Northway if you are heading up to Lake Placid, the Adirondacks, etc. Just check ahead of time for their store hours.
People, learning Alto fingerings is not really that difficult and is DEFINITELY worth the trouble if you intend to get into classical recorder to any degree. One approach is to get the same recorder method book in both keys. Work through it first in soprano, all of the lessons. Then, go through the alto book, lesson by lesson. The tunes and exercises will be the same, so you will already be familiar with them. I did this years ago using the Trapp Family Recorder books ( yes, THOSE Trapps) and by the end of the book I was comfortable with both fingerings.
Then, you need to learn bass clef for the bass recorder, and reading “alto up”, and viola clef for earlier music…
It’s an interesting read if you have not seen it already.
Right. One of Brewerpaul’s links led me to that, I think. Problem is, the article is 12 years old and everyone (Aulos, Zen-On, Yamaha) has come out with numerous new models. Zen-On and Yamaha both make well regarded woodgrains now. Most people seem to agree that the woodgrain models also sound better than the earlier models. I have an older Aulos soprano (from one of my kids) and it’s very comparable to same cost Yamahas.
Bottom line seems to be: they all make decent instruments for the price, but it pays to fork out the few extra bucks for the best plastic models.
Hey, everybody, I just came across a pretty thorough guide to buying inexpensive recorders–plastic and wood. It’s at aswltd.com, which is where don bought from, I believe. It seems to answer a lot of questions. I actually haven’t finished digesting all the information, but it seems very worthwhile. Here’s the link:
Well, instead of an Aulos or Yamaha, like I thought I’d order, I ordered a Mollenhauer Prima. It’s a hybrid–plastic headpiece and wood body–and, if you click the link below, you’ll see that it’s BUTT UGLY.
