Learn How to Play the Recorder (for beginners)

1. Welcome & Introduction: Hello and welcome to this clause where you will learn how to play this amazing instrument called a recorder. My name is Mike and I made this class for you to give you a great foundation for playing this instrument. If you learn how to play the recorder, you will be able to play any songs and music you want, any style and genre. And finally, if you keep up your practicing consistently, you will in time be able to play with emotion, expression and use advanced techniques in your performances on this instrument. Let's have a look at the class overview. You will learn all the basics of playing the recorder. You will get practical tips, exercises, and examples. You will be able to improve your playing with advanced techniques. And finally, of course, you will learn how to play songs on your recorder. In this class, we will focus on the soprano recorder. But when you have learned how to play this, you can move on to other recorders if you want to, because they all share the same fundamental playing techniques, as well as advanced expressive options to add emotion into your performances. Now I want to welcome you to a new adventure in music, where you will learn how to play the recorder. So let's start your journey right now. 2. 7 Power Tips for Learning: Now I will give you seven power tips for learning the recorder. And I really want you to pay attention now because these tapes will be incredibly beneficial for your learning journey on this instrument. So let's start with number one, which is now, of course, you could use an external tool or device like this one. But I honestly don't use that anymore at all, because what I use and recommend you to use is an app for your smartphone. So install a tuner app. There are plenty of free ones and paid ones in the App Store regardless of which phone you use. Then what I want you to do is get into a habit of picking up your phone and starting up this tuner app. Every time you practice your recorder. This way you can shake habit in front of you as you play and see and check the tuning for every node you play like this. You have to start it. Of course. You want to be in-between these two lines to the left and right of the center, which is about plus, minus $0.15 of a tone. That is okay, then you're in tune. If you play harder blue hoarder like this, the pitch will go up. And if you play too soft, the pitch will go down. So that is something you need to get into the habit of using a tuner app. The second power tip is using a metronome. There are external metronomes. I don't actually own one. And even if I did, I still recommend you to like the tuner, use an app for it. So I have one, it's simply called metronome. This is keeping the rhythm the beach when you play. So you said it on, in most cases for four, which means you count the rhythms as 12341234. I'll set it at a very low BPM. So that is beats per minute, the tempo. So I recommend starting at two, at 60, for example, or something. Let's just check how it sounds in 120 with 44, like this. 12341234. When you practice rhythms, any rhythms, phrases for songs and so on. I recommend you to pick up the metronome app at a slow click account and start practicing to the beat. So in this case, let's use 120. Like this. Something like that. Gas to get into the habit of always having a tuner app available. And when you practice rhythms and songs, having a metronome is amazing. Number three is to use a mirror. So that's basically just go to the mirror in your apartment or house wherever you have a big mirror? Yes. To in the beginning, you want to see you once you do holding it up, the record like this, and see how the fingers move. If you are releasing some of the air. You want to see where the mistakes are and so on. Yes, to, at least in the beginning, using a mirror is actually good to see you. What you actually do. Number four is to always, and I mean, always had a fingering short for your recorder, meaning how you will finger the holes to get each note on the record. You will actually get fingering chart PDF in this course later on, which you can print out. And I have already done it. Let's see if I have it here. Yes, I've printed it out and I have it like this. And then you can keep it in front of you as you practice to get to each node. Each node have a label here, so you can check here, this is a primary color and how to play the note D, for example. Check the fingering here. Keep that available at all times as well. That's tip number four. Number five is in the beginning, especially for beginners. One of the more, one thing you will struggle the most with his breath control and birth control simply means how soft or hard you blow air into the mouthpiece to get to each node. So I really want you to focus on practicing your breath control. Let's say you play this nose, thumb hole closed and first top three holes Coast. Start practicing to blow a very balanced airstream. You want the node to node wiggle around in volume. But just like if you play it wrongly like this, that's bad. You want to get to practice getting a balanced, consistent loan tone for any note you play like this. Just a consistent line. Think of it like that on any node. It's actually much more harder than people think when they started playing. So practicing breath control is my power tip number five. Number six, and this goes for any music instrument, most beginners practice too fast, way too fast in fact, so what I just showed you with a metronome here, 120, that is crazy fast for a beginner. So instead, try something like 60 BPM or so in the beginning. Because that way you will get into habit of really focusing on what you do and do it correctly. So let's listen to 123460 ppm. It's a very slow, relaxing tempo. Let's play something like this. That way you can be way more aware on what you are doing. So you make sure you do it correctly. How hard you blow the fingerings, closing the holes. Every aspect of learning to play the recorder with a slow routine, making all things slow in terms of a temple and how slow you do it will improve your practicing a lot. Number seven finally, and this is also very important. Most beginners try to learn playing every note. Straightaway. You are going to learn how to play every node eventually. But when you play the second octave and you will learn this later on, you will have to have hold the sample. And that is very tricky because if you do it wrongly, you get those fail miserable sounds. So what I recommend is practicing and mastering the first octave first. Because that way the thumb on the back will always be closed. You can play all the notes of the first octave. So every practice or team playing scales, playing intervals, stick to the first octave until you've really mastered that before you move on to the second octet. So those are seven power tips for really improving your learning journey on the recorder. Let's move on in the next lesson now. 3. Why the Recorder is Amazing: Why is the recorder such an amazing instrument? Well, firstly, the recorder is actually a remarkably versatile instrument. It also has a lovely romantic and classical sound. But you can play any type of music you want on it. From classical music to folk music, to modern pop music and even film, TV and game soundtrack music, which is my personal favorite. Famous examples of the recorder used in popular music is an altar recorder in the Harry Potter soundtrack, as well as a base recorder used for the main riff in The Mandalorian Star Wars soundtrack. In the recorder family of instruments, you can also cover several registers in music with a different size recorder for each range. From the standard soprano recorder that most of us start on two. And also recorder, which is a bit lower and then even lower with the recorder as you can see here. And base recorder and so on even lower, which I don't have a currently, so I can show you, but there are several different types in different ranges of recorders. Furthermore, the recorder is one of the very rare open hole flutes that is fully chromatic. That means that as you can see, it has open holes all throughout, no keys that are in the way. And also, a chromatic instrument means that it is designed to be able to easily play all 12 notes in music. On top of that, you have over two octaves in range on a recorder. And this in turn means that you can play any song practically ever written in any style of music on these amazing instrument. And finally, the recorder is in fact capable of so much expression techniques, variation, emotion, and so on. Such as, for example, adding decorations, playing in LIGO to making slides, bends, and doing a vibrato. So yes, the recorder is a pretty amazing instrument. 4. How to Get Started: How to get started on the recorder. So let's begin with a quick overview of this instrument and how it works. So the recorder belongs to a family of wind instruments called fetal fluids. Just like the Irish tin whistle and the Native American flute. This means that you blow air into the mouthpiece and that goes over a fixed edge here, which splits the airstream, which produces the sound. However, the main difference, as well as advantage over the recorder compared to these other fluids in this instrument family is that it has more holes. And even if thumb hole, and this makes it possible for you to play all 12 notes of music with over two octaves in range or in short, you can play pretty much any music ever written in any style on your recorder. Now, let me demonstrate how you actually hold a recorder and how you cover the holes. So if you're right-handed, pick it up with your left hand and always start by covering the bottom hole here on the backside with your left thumb. If you are right-handed, then you apply from the top hole here, your index finger on your left hand, your middle finger on the second hole, and your ring finger on the third hole, the pinky on your left hand will never touch any hole. It will basically just be able to stabilize the instrumental, just be in the air like this. So that is your left hand. If you're right-handed, you played like this. Thumb hole. The thumb pair, index finger, middle finger, and ring finger. Three holes on the top side and the thumb holes or four holes in total. Then you take your right hand and just let it fall in place for the rest of the whole starting with the index finger. You can just place your thumb on the bottom so the pinky on the left hand will not do anything on the holes. And the thumb on the right hand will never do on a thing on the whole. So you have four fingers on each hand, covering holes when you play this instrument. So just place your thumb here and then fall into place. The fourth hole, or index finger on the right hand. Fifth hole is your middle finger on the right hand. And on the bottom two holes you can see they are actually separated into its smaller hole. And that is because you want to be able to play those chromatic notes, those in-between notes. So you can think of the black keys on a piano, for example. But you can basically think about them as being one bigger holes separated into. So this is whole number for continuing here. This is whole number five. And these two are whole numbers six. But it's cut in two holes here. And number seven, so think of it as seven holes, even though the bottom two holes or divided into smaller holes like this. So there's foliage in place, index finger, middle finger, ring finger. And then finally your pinky will actually be on the bottom hole. So thumb on your left hand on the sample, 123 on the top pair, 3 first holds and then for bottom holes with your right hand, with your thumb on the back. And then once you've covered everything completed and make sure you cover each hole, no air is leaking out. You can actually play and this will always be the lowest total regardless of recall or if you use a lower range recorder, if you cover all holds, that is the lowest note. You can play. Only a soprano recorder. That note is C, like this, so blow gently through the mouthpiece once you cover all the holes. So that is the note C. Actually, it is the note C phi to be specific because this is a high range instrument, the soprano recorder, which is the C above middle C on a piano keyboard. So that is how you hold and handle your fingers when playing this instrument. Now let's talk about Instrument Setup. Recorders are made from two or three ports. Two is most common here in soprano recorders if I bring my old so here you can see that it's one top piece, one main body piece, and one bottom piece below here. It's the same for my tenor and other lower recorders. It simply means that you push these tubes together so the mouthpiece to the main piece here, like so. But before you do, make sure to apply some grease on the joints here for lubrication because it should be very easy to go smoothly inside here. And this usually comes with your instrument. So be sure to apply that first, then screw it, screw it on like this. And if you have another recorder like an auto, you do it on the bottom piece as well. Apply some grace. And in the case of also ten over another recorders with a bottom piece. You can twist it to align the whole to better align with your pinky for better comfort when you play. So make sure to apply agrees, pushed it joins together. And then make sure that you align of the holes here with the mouth or the sound hole. It should be straight like this or the sample below and is straight line. So you can check it like this and make sure that the holes are directly in line with the center of your mouthpiece. Something you will need to make it a bit of habit of is to get rid of the condensation that will build up in the fluid as you play. This happens on tin whistles and other fluids as well. So what you need to do in order to get rid of that condensation is holding your fluid like this, then put your finger on to over the sound hole and then you blow hard through the mouthpiece that will push the moisture out of the flute, the mouthpiece here. But, but make sure that you truly cover it. Because if you don't cover it and then blowhard, you will get the piercing sound that will be damaging for your ear. Cover the sound hole, blowhard like this. Okay, so you will need to do that every once in a while, actually. So if you hear a weak or fragile note, even if you cover the whole correctly and low. Well, well, then try to blow out the condensation like that. Okay, so let's talk about cleaning and maintenance as well. Because it's actually easy on the recorder. You use really get a cleaning road with your instrument. Then you simply apply a piece of cloth and then slide it in and out into the instrument to get rid of moisture and dust inside the instrument. And I also recommend a microfiber cloth for cleaning the outside of the instrument as well. Finally, when storing the recorder, when you don't play it, make sure to avoid any direct sound, sunlight, as well as heat or cold as that will damage pretty much any instrument, especially instruments made of wood. It can crack, warp and so on. So it's best to remove the head joint as well and the lower joint, if it is a three-part recorder, when you store it to make sure that no moisture is stuck inside the joints when you store it because that could cause damage over time. Okay, so that is how to get started on the recorder. Now, in the next lesson, you will actually start playing notes on your recorders. So let's start the fun right now. 5. How to Play a Recorder: So how do you actually play a recorder? We will start with the very basics of how to play notes on this instrument and then build your skills from there, from a complete beginner and onwards. The short answer is, you simply place your fingers over the holes of the recorder to pick which node you want to play. And then you blow air through this mouthpiece here. There are really only two things that you need to be very careful about with the recorder. The first is how soft or hard you blow. You want to find a good balance too. Soft and the note will be very weak and fragile and to hoard and you will overblow and create squeaky nodes and so on. And the second is that you really covered the holes completely. Otherwise, we'll also create squeaky piercing sounds and failed nodes. Basically, however, you don't have to worry about shaping your lips and directing the air stream like you do on a side blown fluid like this. If you do it wrong on a sidebar on fluid, you will fail the nodes. So you only have two things to worry about to create nodes on the recorder, closing the holes completely on whatever notes you want to play and blowing a balanced airstream. So this makes the recorder a very easy to pick up and play for anyone, even beginners who haven't played any music instrument before. Now, let's practice playing your first notes on your recorder. So grab your recorder, then you press down three fingers on the three top holes like this. By the way, you always need to have the thumb on the thumb hole for the first octave. And that is what you will focus only as a beginner on the first Octane, on the recorder thumb hole and then 123. And then you blow a balanced soft air stream through the mouthpiece. And I recommend that you think of saying DO, DO or two to when you start each node. So try to play it and hold it for a few seconds, like this. Try to hold the balanced note, not too hard, not too soft. Balanced airstream in the middle. And try to wiggle the airstream so make it a balanced, consistent, long tone if you can. You just played the note G. Now, lift your bottom finger, your third fingers, you have these two. Again, the thumb hole will be closed all the way throughout the first section of this course, at least all the basics. And play again. You blow gently, not too soft, but be very careful to not blow to hoard. And you get that very annoying piercing sound. So now you started with g. You're playing a note a with these two tuples closed and the thumb hole. And finally you remove this finger, the second fingers you have all in the first finger and the thumb on the back. Tom whole. Congratulations, you have now played your first three nodes on the soprano recorder, G, a, and b. You can now practice these three nodes up and down, hold them for at least a few seconds, each try to get it balanced sound. Feel the difference between when you blow too hard and too soft and find that balanced, perfect balance, the air stream. And then you can also play them randomly, just creatively improvise on these three nodes. But the most important lesson here is to get that balanced airstream to make sure that you don't get squeaks. By covering the holes completely the ones you are playing for each node. So no air escapes through the side of your, of your fingers and get that balanced, consistent airflow as you hold each node, right? So let's move on to the next lesson now. 6. Playing your First Tune: So let's play your first tune on your recorder. But before we start, let's learn another note. If you close the thumbnail again, and then 123, and then with your other hand, 45, so 12345, all those holes, the thumb hole, and then you blow. You're playing the note E. Let's learn a simple tune with these four nodes that you have learned on your recorder. But first, let's learn an important lesson in music. What is that? All music can be thought of as a series of phrases, just like lyrics of a song or text in a book, the melody of any song or tune can also be broken down into shorter phrases. You can even sub-divide a longer phrase into even shorter phrases. And this is great news for you since learning a song phrase by phrase is so much easier compared to trying to learn it all at once. So an important lesson here is to always think of all music as connected phrases and use this to your advantage when you learn to play any song on your recorder. Okay, so let's practice playing a simple tune on your recorder now, play along with me using the nodes I will show you. And notice that I have separated this tune into shorter phrases. Okay, let's begin. So as you can see from this short, beside me, I have divided this simple tune into four short phrases. So let's start by going through each phrase one-by-one. And in the end, you will play this entire phrase. One is E, B and D follow along with the chart. And let, let's play the note E. B and G. Phrase two is actually repeating phrase number one, but I still chose to divide it into a separate phrase for learning purposes. So for S2, EB and G again, phrase three are the nodes a, G, a, B. Okay, let's play them. A, G, a, B. And then the final phrase, GE, that was D, and then E. And E again. Now I want you to practice this simple tune and played in various variations, playing styles until you get a feel for how you can play any tune basically, so you can play this slow if you want to. I recommend to start all the way slow, like this. First one. That is the normal, slow and steady way to play it. I don't recommend you to play in this style as a beginner, once you get used to these two and you can start to play it faster. In any way you want really like this. Or perhaps changing up the plain style as you go. As you can see, even if they are the exact same notes, there are infinite ways you can play them as a entire performance. So have fun and good luck practicing this, and I will see you in the next lesson. My friends. 7. Covering the Holes: Covering the holes. So one of the most tricky parts you will struggle with as a beginner on the recorder is learning how to cover the holes completely for each node you play. Because if you get any air leaking out of the tip of the finger of any note you play, you will get that super annoying, squeaky sound that we all hate like this. So you definitely want to avoid that. And even if you don't get that squeak, leaking air from any hole will change the pitch of the note so that you will play the wrong note. Basically, if you want to play this node. But a week, some air from it, listen to the pitch. It goes up. This is why it is so important when you learn to play this instrument that you are always extra careful to make sure you cover the holes perfectly for every node you play. Whenever you get a squeak like this, double-check where the leaking air is coming from, which hall and correct that finger to cover the whole 100 per cent. Very often it will be the thumb holes, so make sure to always press that and cover it completely. In other cases, when you get to squeak, it is one of the upper holes in my experience. So check the thumb hole or one of the upper holds the fingers and make sure you cover it 100% 8. Breath Control: Breath control. So something you will need to practice a lot as a beginner when you learn to play this instrument, is learning to control your breath pressure. Because if you blow too softly, the note will be weak and fragile like this. And if you blow too hard, you will either overblow the note into the next octane like this, or end up in that in-between place between the octane, which is neither the first octave or the second. And this sounds really bad and is part of that beginners sound on the recorder that we all dread like this. In most cases, this will be the problem for beginners that you blow too hard. So practice breathing gently and blowing very softly, but not too softly through your recorder like this. Finally, regarding breadth, pressure and breath control is that you want to learn how to keep a consistent, balanced Airstream for any node you play. Don't want to wiggle around on the page like this. Try to breed the medium soft to medium air pressure and hold that same air pressure through the node. So one practice routine you can do is play any notes you want to play and hold it out for at least five seconds and keep it as consistent as you can like this. It may sound super boring, but it is a very good practice routine because you want to find that balanced, consistent tone that sounds good. Note to porsche like you're overflowing. Not too weak and fragile of a note. If you're blowing too softly, but a good tone, and then keep it for five seconds in a consistent balanced level for that node. And you can do this for any nausea play. So go to the next one. You basically want to practice this both for your breath control and get good instinct for how hard you need to blow to get to each node on your recorder. 9. Finger Placement: Finger placement. So this is also something you will need to practice a lot when you learn how to play the recorder, which is learning the finger placement on the holes in order to play each note. And you will soon get a complete fingering show that you can use for practicing learning and simply as a reference when you learn to play any song. But first, I want you to understand a very important principle of wind instruments. So pay attention now with all fluids and wind instruments like the recorder, if you close all the holes, you will always get the lowest note. And it sounds like this. This node is C on a soprano recorder or receive PHI to be specific. The more holes open up from the bottom and going upwards, the higher the node will become like this. Why? Well, because you are actually reducing the air column inside the flute, which is what vibrates as you blow air into the mouthpiece and produces the nodes. And this, since it becomes smaller and smaller, this air column, the note will become higher and higher. Then in order to access all 12 loads of music on the recorder, you will also need to learn the cross fingerings so you can not only stick to releasing one note at a time across fingering is when you have a gap in-between here with the open hole like this. So this is a cross fingering, this is a straight fingering. So this, for example, is one of the cross fingerings you will need to learn. But again, pay attention. This is what you actually do when you do any cross fingering on any food, you're actually adjusting the lowest whole you press. So if you take this node, for example, 123, I want to get to the next one. As I showed, you can use the cross fingering by doing that, hold that hold on that hole. But you can always do a kind of shading of this hole. It's hard to see here, but I'm simply releasing some on purpose like this. As you can hear, the pitch goes up. And that is basically what you are doing with any cross fingering. You are altering the other way, the lowest whole, instead of doing this help holding or shading, you're applying, pressing some of the holes below that hole, which accomplices the same thing. And obviously it's much easier to do the cross fingering than finding the perfect angle to do this. But you can do the same. So that is what you are doing with the cross fingering. Now, learning all these fingerings, including all the cross fingerings for the specific nodes, will be one of the hardest things to learn on any instrument. But when you do, you will open up a whole other world on your recorder because you will be able to play every song ever written in any scale or any key of music. 10. Shaping the Notes: Shaping the nodes. You can actually shape the start of each node to play by controlling the attack of your airstream. From heart attacks for a more focused nodes start by articulating to or do like this. To softer note that x by doing more of a hu sound and you can feel it. If you hold out your hand like this close to your mouth, you will feel the airstream much more focused on the two would do. Compare to. So that can sound like this. Who? Softer attack? Compare it to a heart attack or do, which gets more and more pronounced attack for the nodes all the way to very smooth transition, smoother than who even called playing legato. By keeping the air stream flowing as you play the notes and then simply changing the fingering. So holdout for example, it started with two, then you hold. Obviously, you never say that to do who? You don't see it with. Your vocal cords. Just shape the air stream like you're saying it. So then you hold it out like this. And hold the air stream and then release or add another finger like this. As you can hear, a very smooth transition between those nodes because you're playing them legato. So I want you to practice this now to shape each node stored from the heart attacks to or do softer text with the goal of two. By keeping their stream. Slower, you put on or release a finger. The more, the longer that transition will be. Extremely slowly like this, you can even angle the node out like this. In words. Just keeping the iostream. So one exercise you can do now is to improvise once you learn these HOT tax and soft accents and legato smooth transitions is to improvise and add variation into some nodes with hold x and somewhat, somewhat legal to look something like this. Let's try to, to to, to who who are the go-to for the final loads. 11. Note Fingering Chart: Recorder fingering chart. Before I will show you the complete fingering Stuart, and you will learn to how to play old notes on your recorder. I have an important lesson for you to learn, which is that you only need to learn one fingering short for the recorder. And then you can use those same fingerings regardless of what type of record or you play on. For example, the standard Soprano, the altar recorder, or ten, or even if you have a base recorder or a soap running or recorded or any other type of Recorder. The difference is only that the starting node will be different, but the actual relationships and intervals between the nodes will be the same when you use the same fingering. Let me show you a practical example. If you learn the fingerings to play a specific tune on your soprano recorder, let's say the first nodes from the Concerning Hobbits theme from The Lord of the Rings. Then if you play the exact same fingerings on your altar record, retainer recorder or any other recorder type. You will hear that it is still the same, exact same melody, only lower or higher in range. And tone is a product. Because a soprano recorders starts on the note C5 as its lowest note. And also recorder with the same old no holes closed will be F4, lowest note, and the tenor will be C For also called middle C. If you have a base recorder that stores an octane below the auto, so F3 and so on. So let me demonstrate how it sounds to play this Concerning Hobbits theme from Lord of the Rings. And I will play them on my three types of recorders that I have. That was the soprano. Then if you have an older same fingering for this tune, then on the tenor, same fingering again, it's just lowering overall range and tone. Alright, now that you have learned this important lesson, pick up your soprano recorder because now it's time to play each note, the fingerings for each node in the first octave. So to the side of me you can see the fingering shot to play all the notes of the first octave, n second octave. But as you can also see, I have crossed out the second octave with a Red Cross because you should really ask to begin their mask that the first octave first, the only note I've included in the second octane is the C above the lowest C. So C, and then C an octave above. The reason for this is, you can also see it here on the chart. Finger ensured that all the nodes of the first octave and the C in the second octave, you to keep the thumb hole closed, because it is much more tricky once you, once you get up to the second octave, when you need to either release the thumb hole completely or even using half holding on the thumb hole. I want you to avoid that. Let's start with all the nodes and the first octave up to the sea and occipital lobe. So the first one, which is of course see the low C or C5 on a saponin recorder, close all the holes and for all of these nodes, keep the thumb will completely lost. Starting now, see five. Okay, so play along with me now. In the lowest note, you will need to use these smaller holes. You see the lowest whole his separating into two small holes, and the second one here as well. So to get to the C sharp or D flat, which is the same note as you can see here. You simply glide your lowest finger slightly like this, so that you only cover one, the first of these bottom two holes and you can see it from the short beside me as well. So again, The lowest is c. Glide it to the side, and C sharp or D flat, then to the d, then you release your pinky completely. Again. C, C-sharp. D. Play along with me now, because you're going to practice this fingering short lot and also use it as a reference for a long time until you really get to learn this by instinct, basically how your finger, each node, then these sharp, you're getting into this second hole now, this pinky, you can release it completely. And then the next one. Again, slide debates. You release the air from the second small hole here, from the bottom, like this. So from from D to D sharp or E flat, and then release it completely. So both bottom two holes or tan tandem holes at the bottom are released. Then you get to the e. Now we get to the first cross fingering which is denote if, as you can see from the chart beside me, your release, this one. So you have mother always closed 123 and the first finger on the left hand, then keep this open, this hole and these two tanned and bought them holes, those keep close. So this is the cross fingering to play F. Then to get you to the next one, F sharp or G flat. Another cross fingering, which is you release your index finger here on the left hand. You can start by only holding it like this. Tom Hall closed and then top three holes left-hand. And by the way, again, the left hand will never close anymore halls and those three, while your right hand, if you're right-handed, will close all either of these four holes in total. Okay, So now you play F sharp or G flat, those three, and then cross fingering like this. So Pinky is not here, index finger is not here. The middle finger and ring finger here. That is the cross fingering for F sharp or G flat. G is a straight, easy note to play to tumble, and top three, right hand is completely absent here. G sharp or a flat. Now another cross fingering, and this is the most tricky cross fingering, but you will learn a bit little trickier because I always recommend that you start fingering your left hand when you learn this, focus on the top three holes, what are they doing? Because the top three holes, that's what your left hand will be responsible for. Again, if you're right-handed, I always assume if you are left-handed, just think the opposite and you will of course, need a left-handed recorder, but top, two holes are closed here like this. Then you can see the cross fingering is actually quite tricky because it's skipped this whole then left or on the index finger, middle finger. And then for the top of these tandem holes, you actually positive calls only the first one. So basically 2.5 holes. So G sharp or a flat. This is a tricky note. However, in most cases, I actually just keep the third finger here completely close, closing the two of them. If you listen, try this on your recorder. In most cases you will get away with, it will be slightly more flat, meaning lower in pitch if you close all the three complete and like this compared to 2.5. But it's so slight that in most cases you can get away with compared to very slight difference. So personally, I most often just use all three, but you have to try this out on your recorder. It depends on the recorder, how soft or hard you blow and so on. But just be aware of that node then node number nine, G sharp or a flat that, that cross fingering to get the standard thing for these top two holes. And then 2.5 after you skip this whole gossiping and 2.5 close like that, then it's easier because you just release your right hand completely, only having the two tuples again and the thumb hole to get to the a. Then to dig into the a sharp and B flat, release the middle finger here and your left hand. So start here, only the top hole closed. Skip that one. The ring finger on your left hand causes the third hole. And then your index finger on the right hand closes the fourth hole, and that's how you get a sharp or B flat. A bit tricky again, perhaps the second most tricky. It depends, of course, but all these cross fingerings are tricky to learn how to play, especially in faster phrases. But that's how you get that node. And the next one, again, an easy one. Just fumble pass. First finger, index finger on your left hand, right hand is not doing anything. You can just balance. By the way, when you write down is, isn't doing anything. Anytime. It's not weird to play any holes. You can still use the thumb on the bottom and your pinky just below the lowest hole just to balance it better. The recorder, let's denote B. And that takes us to the final note. You will learn now from this fingering short, and this is the highest note I recommend you to play as a beginner, at least for the first week or so, until you become used to playing each node, which is the C above the lowest sea. This is just tumble is still with us here as you can see from the chart, the thumb hole is to the left of the fluid here because I cannot show the backside on the chart or the fluid. Then just released the first finger while you at the same time put your middle finger on your left hand on the second hole. And it sounds like this. I also want to recommend that you get into the habit of actually hearing the interval of a perfect octave. So playing all nodes holds closed. The lowest note, C, like this. Now then going in straight to the higher seed has seen the higher octave again, just what you just learned, which is second hole closed. All our other is open, thumb hole still closed, go back and forth. So those are all the nodes of the first octane plus the c in the second octane. Now, what I want you to do once you have played through these, is to actually getting to a practice routine every day where you play each of these node go starting with the lowest note and then go one-by-one upwards and downwards. Boring exercised scales and stuff like this is boring, but it is so good to train your muscle memory for how to play each note and you can start really slow, will be aware of that you cover the node holds correctly as the fingering shot that you cover them. Well, no air leaking out and so on. And be aware of your breath control and all those things. And just play, just play. Going up and down like this. Very slow. You can take a break, apply the fingering for the next one. You can check this in a mirror or just bring it up like this and watch down here. Going to the next one D. Play bit faster. But I want you to practice these very slow up and down. Once it gets to the highest note, keep it a bit and then go down again. When you get bored of doing up and down and up and down, you can keep this fingering shot in front of you. I've included a PDF that you can print out and I really recommend that you do it in this course. Print it out, have it always available when your practice? Then you can go away from doing scales up and down like this and simply jump around any interval to practice both your muscle memory for playing that fingering and also your ears and mind. Basically correlating, learning how an interval sounds. Let's say from a C to an F or C to G, for example. Holds closed and then releasing your right hand to get rid of g. You can practice that interval for awhile, perhaps from the e to the, let's say a sharp or B flat. So starting on E, which is check the fingering to the side here like that. And then what did I say to the sharp which is left-hand, releases that finger, cross fingering like that, and write down all the fourth hole like this. Again back to the e. And you can do this for any interval. Basically an interval is the distance playing one note and then going to another node in an interval can go from lower to higher node or from the higher to the lower node. In time, you will get. Basically train your muscle memory and your ear for how each interval will be played. And then you can eventually with practice, start to play tunes from ear without having any fingerings chart. Because you developed your muscle memory and your ear for how to play an interval. So good luck practicing with this fingering short to play each note, every node in the first octane plus the c in the second octet. 13. Simple Song 1 (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star): Now you are going to learn how to play the first simple song on your recorder, which is twinkle, twinkle little star. So let's go through all the nodes you will play in this tune and the fingerings for them, starting with the lowest one, see all holds covered. The next lowest note you will play in this tune is D, which means releasing your pinky completely, but all other, all holes are covered. Then we have e, which is really saying your index fingers so to bottom fingers completely. Then the first cross fingering here is F. So start by closing all holes and then releasing your index finger on your right hand. You have all but this whole cupboard like this. Then we have the note G, which is a simple because only left hand, all holes closed. The right hand does not cover any hole. And then finally we have the node a, which is the top two holes close and all of these are, the thumb hole will always be closed. So those are all the nodes. Get familiar with how you play all those fingerings. And then let's go through the tool. But first, if you haven't already printed out, printed out the fingering short, I recommend you to do so because you will use it a lot, not only in this course, but for further practicing and using as a reference when you learn any song on your recorder. Okay, so here are the music notes for this tune. I recommend you to pause this video with these notes in front of you and then also having the fingering short that you've printed out also in front of you and go through the nodes one by one. So you check those. Okay, So that's a C starting out, check the fingering short. Okay, so all holes closed. And then C again, and go to G, again, a and G. And then you do this for all the notes one-by-one. So you can get familiar with the node sequence. After that, you can start practicing playing along to this tune where I have a drum track plus a play along melody. It is fairly slow tempo that you should be able to play along too with practice. So good luck practicing the twinkle, twinkle little star on your record. 14. Simple Song 2 (Happy Birthday): Okay, so let's learn your second simple tune on your recorder, which is Happy Birthday. Let's start by going through all the nodes are the fingerings for the nodes you will pay in the student starting with the lowest one, which is C, All holds closed. D is releasing your pinky and your right hand. Then E, releasing your index finger. So going up here, then first cross fingering is F, which is all host closed, except you release your index finger and your right hand. Like this. G is top three holes calls to only the left-hand like this. Then you have node a is continuing by releasing your index finger and your left hand top two holes closed. Then we have another cross fingering, which is a bit tricky, which is B flat in this tune. And it's like this. You start by covering the top four holes and then you release the index finger and your left hand is to get this cross fingering. And you will even play the octaves of the sea. So the low C you have closing all the holes. Whereas the Octavia, second activity, It's only the second hole from the top, as well as of course, the thumb hole, which is always close. All these tunes here you will learn. Compare that to the low octave c. Now, play those, all those nodes. And let's check the notation for this tune. And what I recommend you to do is go through all the nodes one by one, by checking those nodes against the fingering shots. So you can see it's C, C, D. When you have a C, Then you have an F, The cross fingering, you know, and so on for all these nodes, however, also be aware that you have it a key signature here. And if you don't read notation, you can see this little symbol to the left side here, which looks like a b, which means that all nodes on that line, so all B's will be played as B flat, which is why you learn this B flat cross fingering. So the bottom row here, those two notes will be played as B flat. So be aware of that. Now. You can go through all those nodes one-by-one, the fingerings. And then I have a track here with the drums and melody so you can have it as playback and play along with your fingering sought available. So good luck practicing. Happy birthday on your record. 15. Simple Song 3 (Jingle Bells): Now it's time to learn your third simple tune on your recorder, which is Jingle Bells. And this tune has few nodes, but it is played fast around with rhythms. So it can be tricky. Starting, let's go through all the nodes you will play. So starting with F, which will be the lowest note, and you know the cross fingering for that one. Now you have g, which is top three holes close to only left-hand. A topic through holes close. You have a B flat in this tune as well. So this little tricky cross fingering here. First third, fourth hole closed. Then high octane C, which is this 1. Second tuple, ghost and family, of course, obviously. Okay, so let's just quickly check the notation here. And just like the previous tune, you have a key signature with the B flat. So all nodes that are on the line for b, the nodes called B will be played as B flat. So you have some of them here in the tune. I will add some arrows here as you can see them. But all those nodes will be played as this cross fingering for B flat. So you can go through all the nodes one by one using your finger in short. And then once again, I have a backing track with only drums and the melodies you can play along. Practice this tune. This will be a bit tricky, perhaps a struggle because of the faster rhythms of the notes. But I will, I think you will manage with good practice. So good luck and have fun playing Jingle Bells on your record. 16. High Notes: In this lesson, you are going to learn how to play the second octave on your recorder. I have chosen to include this high notes techniques in this advanced module because it is actually a real struggle for beginners to play the second octave. And the reason for this is that you don't use your thumb hole completely close, but actually need to angle out your thumb a bit to release some of the air. It's called a helpful. And in that short here you can see that it looks like a half hole, but in actuality it is just shading a bit to release some of that, which will push the node up into the second Octane. Okay? So let's go through all nodes one by one in the second octane, and I will have it in the chart beside me. So you can see I have made a frame here in the chart. We are going to focus on these nodes from C to the high B in the second octave. And I will actually even include the high C. So the C in the third octave, I rarely play and you want rarely, you will rarely play that high, to be honest, but I will include it in any case. So this see the lawsuit. All host closed root node of your recorder. So starting with the first node in the second octet, which is the octave above the low C. And that is still using the thumb hole closed. And on the second hole closed. Then going to C sharp or D flat. So a half step above. Now you start to actually release the thumb hole completely while you hold the first, second hole here on the recorder. So again, C and then C sharp and D For D-flat. Go into the D. Still thumb hole is completely open. Then just closing the second hole from the top. And then D sharp or E flat is still sample completely open, as you can see from the shore. And then you close all the holes except the top one and these two lower ones like this. Then for all the rest of the nodes, you will need to use this half holding or shading the thumb holes. Let's start by doing that. Tried to find a position here. And let's try to get this high E. So all holds one to five. You don't cover these bottom two tandem holes, ISA call them. But you need to release some of the air on the thumb if you don't want. But store to release its close it completely, including one-to-five here, and then slowly release some of the air by angling out your thumb. Like this, if you can see just angled slightly to start with closed. And when you agonists that will push that note into the high octave. So as you can see from the chart here to the side of me, the low E is actually exactly the same fingering except you cover the tumble completely. So start closed, released some of the air while holding all the rest of the fingers intact. That pushes the node into the second octave. So that is the first node where the half hole or shading, thumb hole, the high E. Keep that position with the thumb, angling like soul so that you can release some of the air. This will take a lot of practice. That's why I've included it as an advanced technique to play these high notes. But keep that shading and then you release the lowest toll, but you add that whole below. So the first tandem holds, play the high F. So again E. And then release the lowest total and add the one below, or these ten of them hole here. Then you release this. So you have all top three holes closed, but add these fifth hole with your middle finger on your right hand. Still, you need to adjust the angle here. Feel that some air escapes there. If you don't do it. If I had covered the tumble, it is still in the first octet. When you practice, I want you to really be aware of how much you angle, how much area is. Let's escape from the sample. Try to angle a bit lighter as the higher you go, the more aware you need to be of that angle and then high G. And if you check again here, many of these nodes have the exact same fingering for the first, second octave. The difference is that if you cover the thumb will completely and the top three holds, that is logi. And then if you start to angle out your finger, the thumb, then you push that note in the second octane. So many of these nodes and fingerings for the second octave is the same, or at least very similar to the first octane. Except you need to learn this thumb hole angling technique. That was high D, then a G sharp, a flat. And you can see a pattern here that you go up, you release finger, and in most cases, just add one or two below. So in this case it's like this. First whole second hole, and then fourth hole and the angling of thumb. Without angling the thumb, you can practice all these nodes and the higher octave is with the half-halt tumble by starting, having it completely closed and then slowly angling it out to release some of their until you hear that high note. So it pushes it into the second octet. So that's D sharp or a flat. Release these fingers so only 1.52 pulling the thumb hole is a, then you get to the a sharp or B flat where you still have this here. But this is actually a special cross fingering where you add the fourth, fifth and this turn them all here like so. And of course, half holding the tumble at fry when you play this note triangle in your thumb a bit back and forth to fully close to almost open. I feel that you really not hair falling. Perhaps you let a quarter of the whole be open so your cupboard three-quarters or something. It's not an exact formula for this. You need to develop a habit for finding that perfect sam hall angling. So that was a sharp or B flat, 12456, this first animal. Then you go to the high B, you'll lose the bottom finger. And finally, you will actually even play the high seas will see in the third octet by having this fingering on the be, releasing the second finger like so. And really just slight angle of the thumb hole to get that high C. Those are all the nodes in the second octane. What I recommend you to do now is practiced is going up and down from C. The first, see this one, all the way up to the high C and then back again, up and down. And always try to find the adjustments for this Tambo. That is the really advanced technique you are going to learn how to develop. It is actually very advanced. If you go from the first octet, then to note in the second octet in a phrase because you need to go from a completely closed thermal to these angled sample. So good luck practicing the high notes, the second octave notes on your recorder now. 17. Decorations: One of the best techniques you can use on your recorder to add spice, variation and expression into your performances is what I call declarations. And this applies not only to recorders, but tin were souls, Native American flutes, any open hole style foods, basically, a decoration is basically a fast spice or variation that you add, basically as a grace note, just as a parsing to add basically the decoration. Let's say you play G a, and then you hold on a, you can do a declaration called a tab, where you tap on the whole quickly below while you keep the air stream flowing on this a here. So now if I do this tap decoration like that, the opposite is when you cut the airstream by doing a cut, which is the hole, this node, and then go to this node by tapping or cutting this just what you're playing the a. But you don't go into be your actually quickly, rapidly lifting a finger and then back again. So basically the bounds on that. But it's the same here, u bounds on it by tapping quickly. You can do them in a variation where you start with, for example, a cat and then go back and undo tap. Which is basically another variation of this. And you can do it not only on the actual node you're paying like here, going to the catch on that hole or a tap on this one. You can actually cut, for example, here, higher-up, not on the lowest or the whole blow. So if you cut here, some holes doesn't really work. So let's try another one here, okay? And a different one here. Let's try, let's say this node and cap this one. You're always say if he, if he had the lowest or tab just below. But as you can hear, these gets a bit of a Native American food style declaration. Even try cutting the thumb hole. Perhaps. Some of them will work as I showed you, like the top pole here. They didn't really work. You in this experiment with these other variations and coolers for spice, when you do that, cuts there. But the main way is to cut the lowest hole on the finger of your blade here quickly and then bounce back again or tap on the whole bill. So I want you to practice this by playing various phrases. When you play a tune, it's not written in the notation, the music notes, these declarations. You will need to find where you, where you want to add them yourself. So let me demonstrate this by just improvising something here, I will use both types as decorations. And as you can see, sometimes I've even bounced twice, tap or cut twice, basically creating a kind of a pulse for that declaration. Alright, so that is adding spice and variation with decorations on your recorders. So have fun practicing this. Try it with various nodes. Tried also by cutting, for example, a hole above the lowest you hold and even perhaps tapping several holes like this. Not only this one. To add that expression and variation on your recorder. 18. Legato: In this lesson, you are going to practice how to play melodies in a Lego. So playing style only recorder. Legato means to play two nodes with a transition that is smooth in between them, which sounds very lyrical and beautiful, and of course it's smooth. So let's compare this with the normal way, which is to play staccato, and that means to have the notes separated. And you do this by tonguing either, for example, a hard time seeing like to do or who, meaning you repeat the tiny break the Eric's team, who, who were 22 for each node you play. So going from G to a, like 22 or two do. Whereas when you play with Legos, so you don't break the LSTM, you keep it flowing. So even if you start with two to keep that air stream and then slowly release the finger to go up playing legato from D to a and back again. You can do this even slower. You can sculpt the legato transition by how fast or slow you add the finger or at least the finger. You can even slowly amulets outwards or inwards. This, instead of only up and down like this. I recommend that you start practicing illegal to own these nodes actually because I find it's easier up here. So going from G to a, keep their steam blowing the same consistent tone. The next practice or exercise I want you to do is to play up and down the scale with his legato styles. So starting from the bottom, see, sliding your beefing here backwards and keep the airstream. It sounds a bit worse down there on the lowest holes, and it's the same for all recorders to play legato. So I recommend perhaps doing is the capital there because you're all going to be aware of once you practice all these intervals going up and down, That's some sound better. In most cases, it's safe to say that if you only change one finger, for example, this one up or down, then the God who would sound good when you go from a cross fingering or two-way cross fingering, that will be trickier. So from this one, for example, this one, you will get a strange noise or sound like, which is not very flattering. So in our case, when you stumble upon one of those intervals where the Goto is really difficult in some strange just do is to couple there. So to break their extreme value chains to fingering and you do it to do or any tiny there. So do these legato. You can also do it with several fingers. Sometimes it works. So for example, going from all close to a G, we can do with all fingers like this. The more holes to change, the harder it will be to get a good sounding like Aalto, but even a cross fingering like this to the G here, F to G. You can do the golden fashion. I also have another tip for you is when you play the go-to, you need to be even more aware of your breath controls or how hard or soft you blow. In most cases, I would say if you go from a normal G20 or let's say this F to G with a staccato. So to do, you can blow in the fairly balanced pressure. But when you are going to do any notes, legato, especially in the lower range here, be blue or even softer. So be very careful with air pressure. It's easy to get a good sounding legato that way, especially in the lower notes. Alright, so play all the interval's going up and down, at least for the first octave. And not only up and down and scale one node by node by trying various intervals. Let's say like I showed you, Let's do an E, for example, through G. Sounding pretty good, right? Try to do it slower and softer. Smoother legato by angling slowly in and out. If I blow to hoard, get an unfavorable sound. So lower their blood pressure again. And then you can even lower it a bit while you do the transition. When you feel you are opening up to that. When the transition is complete, the legato, you can bring some more air blow a bit harder again, so slightly go down when you do the legato transition. Okay, Good luck practicing in these advanced techniques. Technique only recorder called playing legato. And by the way, before we go, I wanted to also practice doing variations. So playing phrases where you do first and then go to legato, playing staccato two to two. And then adding the go-to when ever you feel like it. So staccato. And then they go to, and you will hear that earning all this variation is a lot of the magic of getting expression and emotion into your playing on your record. 19. Bends: In this lesson, you are going to learn a really cool advanced technique on your recorder called a node bend. Because just like you can bend a string on a guitar, for example, you can bend. 20. Congratulation - Now Play Tunes on Your Recorder: Congratulations, you have now learned all the foundations of the recorder or the basic techniques of playing this instrument, as well as advanced techniques to add emotion, expression and your own playing style into your performances. Now, in this final module, you will learn how to play some tunes and songs on your recorder. But first, check this learning tips. You already learned about this. What you need to always have available, like the fingering chart, the metronome and tuner, and the process of learning to play any tune. What you will get now is both video with the song on, with a playback track that I prepared, plus the nodes on screen. So you can play along to the backing track. But also for each of these tunes, you will get a PDF that you can print out or save to your computer with the nodes of the song so that you can go through this learning process of playing any tool that you already learned about. So having the fingering chart metronome tuner, going through the tune node by node to see all the nodes used and the fingerings for those nodes, and so on. And once you feel ready, you can play the video for each tune and try to play along to it. This will of course take a lot of practice because the tunes here, or in full speed, the tempo and BPM. So you will make lots of mistakes. If you struggle with it, you can always go back to the PDF and just play it note by note. Setting your metronome at a very slow BPM and go through all the stages in this learning process. So I wish you good luck with continuing to learning these songs. And if you want to learn even more songs, there are so many places you seem to go to Google and search for a particular tune or song name, and then music sheet or music notes, and find the particular song and then start to learn that on your recorder. I wish you good luck and great fun on your continued journey and adventure on the recorder. So keep on practicing, keep on playing, and keep on learning tunes on this amazing instrument. My friends.