Part 1: The Teacher's Manual Itself Chapter 1: Introduction
... Recorder is the ideal first instrument for children, especially for a Kodály class, because of its long association with singing. Except for the voice itself, it is the least expensive and most portable musical instrument a child can have. Proper breath control and good posture are extensions of singing skills already being taught in the music clasroom. At the beginning level, the instrument is simple in both its basic fingerings and the simplicity of its embouchure.... This chapter discusses the value of early recorder study and explains the terminology used throughout the book.
Chapter 2: The Instrument
... The recorder is distinguished from its cousin, the transverse flute, by the whistle mouthpiece built into the instrument. This mouthpiece channels the air stream through a "windway" and against an "edge" where the tone is produced, doing automatically what a flute player must learn to do through coordination of the lip muscles. The windway is an air channel carved into the "block" (of wood or plastic) which closes off the top of the instrument's tube. This block is also called a "fipple." The "window" is the rectangular opening on the front of the instrument where the edge and the bottom opening of the windway can be seen.... This chapter describes the physical characteristics of the instrument, recommends minimum standards and desireable features for school instruments, and gives background information that is usually inaccessible to the classroom recorder teacher.
Chapter 3: Posture and Position
... Recorder playing can be divided into four basic elements which are discussed in detail in this and the three following chapters. The first includes the player's posture and the position of the instrument. Exactly the same posture needed for good singing, either standing or sitting, is needed for good recorder playing. The back should be straight but relaxed, and the shoulders, arms, hands and fingers should all be relaxed. Tension anywhere in the body can result in poor breath support, poor tone quality, problems with intonation, or fingers that are stiff and unresponsive.... This chapter begins the detailed instruction for the teacher of each of the basic elements and how to introduce those elements to the class.
Chapter 4: Breath Control
... The second basic element of recorder playing includes breathing and breath control. The breathing that produces a focused, unforced, non-vibrato vocal sound for children is the breathing that produces a focused, unforced, non-vibrato recorder sound. A student who can sing in tune and control the breath sufficiently to shape phrases can transfer those skills directly to the recorder.... This chapter continues detailed instruction for the teacher.
Chapter 5: Fingering
... The third basic element of recorder playing is fingering. Without a doubt, the recorder is one of the easiest woodwinds to finger. It is very "user friendly" and logical. As successive holes are covered, the sounding length of the tube increases and the pitch gets lower.... This chapter gives very detailed instruction on fingerings, cross fingerings, chromatic fingerings, and thumb techniques as well as an explanation of the different kinds of tablatures found in fingering charts and useable in the classroom.
Chapter 6: Articulation and Tonguing
... On all wind instruments, the tongue is used to articulate the beginning of every individual note and every group of slurred notes. Tonguing is especially important on the recorder, however, since it cannot produce the wide dynamic range possible for singers and other wind instruments. Instead, advanced recorder players use different articulations and subtle adjustments to the length of notes to give the impression of dynamic variation. These variations in articulation were emphasized in instruction books for wind instruments in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Beginners need not be concerned with complicated tonguing patterns, but once they become comfortable with the instrument they are quite capable of learning more advanced articulations.... This chapter provides information and instruction on tonguing techniques, some of them far more advanced than students will be using, but which the teacher should be aware of.
Chapter 7: Developing Your Own Exercises
... Good books of etudes, scales, and arpeggios are available. Several are listed in the Annotated Bibliography in Part 3. The purpose of this chapter is to show how you can develop exercises yourself, based on the song repertoire you are using, and to suggest some ways of getting your students involved in their creation.... This chapter provides examples of specific exercises designed to teach specific techniques, and gives suggestions on how to develop exercises of your own as they are needed.
Chapter 8: Ornamentation
... Beginning recorder players will not be adding ornaments to their songs (at least not on purpose!), but young players with a little more experience can be learning the basics, including the concept that improvised ornamentation was an accepted and important part of Renaissance and Baroque music. With the teacher's help, students can easily learn simple Renaissance ornamentation, filling in intervals and ornamenting candences. And they can learn simple Baroque ornaments: the appoggiatura, trill, and mordent, and the alternate fingerings they sometimes require.... This chapter is provides a graduate course in historical ornamentation for the teacher, along with very practical suggestions on introducing the concepts of ornamentation and improvization, and specific suggestions for specific ornamentation in some of the songs in the Songbook.
Part 2: Twenty-two Teaching Units
Prelude to the Teaching Units
... These 22 Units are deliberately presented as Teaching Units rather than Lesson Plans because every teacher's situation is different. The sequence was developed for fourth- and fifth-graders in a situation with 30-minute recorder classes once a week as well as music classes twice a week. It is assumed that at first you will alternate a class that is mostly singing with one that is mostly playing, and that as more fingerings are learned the class will become a mixture of singing and playing. Add review lessons at any time, of course. It is also to be hoped that students have individual instruments for home practice, and that they have recorder "homework" just like academic homework.... Units 1-15 represent about a year's work in an average program. Don't worry if you cover much less than this, or much more. A realistic goal is that by the end of the year, you should be comfortable integrating recorder into your singing program and at modifying the Units to suit your own needs and preferences. For Units 16-22, only the new note or skill is listed, because it is assumed that both you and your class are used to reviewing previous material as needed.
... This Prelude provides the teacher with a comprehensive overview of the Teaching Units, many specific techniques for introducing particular skills, and general advice that is immediately applicable in the classroom.
Postlude to the Teaching Units
... There are additional notes on the recorder, of course, and the high range can be extended, but at this point the student can easily master new fingerings using the chart that came with the instrument. The real go-getters probably already have!... Students who transfer to a recorder in F, such as the alto, will have to go through a period of adjustment. The clef will be the same, the letter names of the notes will be the same, and the sol-fa relationships will be the same, but the fingerings will be different. It sounds difficult, but a Kodály student who is used to moveable sol-fa and has been transposing songs into different keys on the recorder by thinking sol-fa will have an enormous advantage in making this transition.
... This Postlude provides practical advice on moving students beyond soprano recorder and into the world of consort playing.
Part 3: Reference Material
Annotated Bibliography
... A very complete bibliography, up to date at publication in 1994, for teachers who want to learn more about specific aspects of playing and teaching the recorder.Notes on the Songs
... Provides immediately useful texts, translations, game suggestions, and historical information on all 86 songs in the Songbook, as a help to the teacher.Index to the Songs by Unit
Alphabetical Index to the Songs... Provide a quick reference to help the teacher find the songs in the Songbook either by Unit or by Title.
