I’ve started playing the treble recorder and am really enjoying it. I wanted to play an instrument so I could play popular classics and show tunes for my own amusement.
Being a total novice I thought sheet music was sheet music but I now realise that sheet music for the treble seems few and far between.
Does anyone know what I need to look for so I can play on the treble? I’m particularly after popular/famous classics and show tunes.
I have John Pitts “Treble From The Beginning” and “Concert Pieces For The Treble” which has a few songs (love Les Mis!!) but I want more!!
Maybe be on the look out for easy show tunes arranged for clarinet?
You’re right that music is music! So long as the range of the piece of music doesn’t exceed how many notes you can play on your instrument, you should be right as rain!
Even if a piece goes too high or too low, there are tricks you can use to rein in the madness: you can play the super high notes down an octave & if a note is too low, you use an alternative “in key” note to replace it.
Or you can play the alto with soprano fingerings. The notes won’t be the same, but it will sound fine, I think. The melody will just be moved a few tones down.
You probably want to learn how to read the sheet music with the proper fingering, and not simply play soprano/descant songs, but have it sound a 4th too low.
Look for treble recorder or alto recorder free sheet music. There is a lot out there. You can also purchase books specifically geared towards alto recorder music.
Of course, learning both is best, but sometimes you just don’t want to wait around for the song you like to be “arranged” for treble recorder! The nice thing about learning the two fingerings is that it really doesn’t matter what instrument the arrangement is ostensibly written for. As with whistles, just play the music you like on the instrument you think it sounds best on!
Treble just has that sweet, not-too-high, not-too-low voice that lends itself well to just about any music you blow through it!
Sometimes you might have to play a “descant” piece on descant recorder. Other times, perhaps on treble recorder in C fingerings, or perhaps in F fingerings. Maybe even on a tenor in one or the other fingerings…
A “trick” I use is to copy the piece of music into ABC notation, see here http://abcnotation.com/ , have the software transpose as required, then re-print it.
Admittedly this means “something else to learn”, but having done so I find it very useful.
Most ABC software can generate sound and/or a MIDI file, so in the event of a particularly irksome passage I can use the computer to “play” the music for me, so’s I can get an idea of what it should sound like
Don’t know how available/unavailable it is now because I’ve had mine for a good 35 years, but the full thing (which I have) is/used to be three volumes and I’ve only ever seen selections as a single book. So curious to know exactly what you’ve ordered there?
Many complete volumes as in complete _Der Fluyten Lust-hof_s or complete volumes of selections from same? (I’d be surprised if there are more than a handful of complete editions.)
Yes, but that’s a selection. And jadphoto’s not the OP, but was merely suggesting a supplier and might just have been looking for a regular descant edition…
Book one of three. Or at least that’s how it’s being sold now.
I assume we’re talking about Der Fluyten Lust-Hof? Sheet Music Plus lists three separate volumes, and then several other books with the same title listed as “selections”. Not sure how that works.
I found what is presumably the full book on Amazon, but it was a 'bazillion bucks in hard cover.
I’m going to check out volume one and if it’s what I’m looking for I’ll order the other two.
My experience with Amazon was that the book(s) were either not currently in stock or were a lot more than I paid with Sheet Music Plus.
I’ve been reading about Van Eyck on the recorder forum and am looking forward to seeing what he’s all about. Although there are a few of his things in the Baroque Recorder Anthology and I’m enjoying those.
