By this point in the third-grade year, students have sung, played, improvised, and created many songs that contain this three-note pattern. This approach allows students to focus on a few new things while playing songs that are already familiar.ĭay two of recorder playing is when we learn our first three notes: mi (B), re (A), and do (G). That is the first day of my recorder playing. Students already know how to make a good, clearly articulated sound because they have learned the skills earlier in the year in a silly, fun, and playful way. This poem is not new, so students know exactly how the poem goes and where their tongue should hit in their mouth to make a good articulated sound. I do not have a long analogy for playing at the correct volume, I just ask them to play quieter, and they adjust.Īfter they get the first note out of the way and we are all playing quieter, we work on our articulation by playing the “Dew Drop” poem. The recognition comes from all our time playing “Black Snake” and working on dynamics and breath control. After this first sound, I tell my students to play quieter and most, if not all, get what that means right away. When it comes time for the first noise, I close my classroom doors (which are usually open, even during recorder playing on any other day) and let them play one long note, which sounds exactly how you would expect. This visual allows all students to see that our teeth (my fingers) never touch the end of the recorder, and it should not go in past your teeth. When we get to playing the recorder, the first day is all about exploration. They pick up the instrument and show me which side they believe is the top and bottom, followed by the front and back.Īfter a couple of minutes, I demonstrate how much of the mouthpiece of a recorder to put into your mouth, using my fingers as an example. These are fun poems, songs, and games that students enjoy and ask to do repeatedly, which will keep students engaged during the tough beginnings of recorder playing. Some of these songs and games include “Dew Drop” (Figure 1), “Springtime Rain” (Figure 2.1-2.2) - a parody of “Hot Cross Buns” with a syncopated B section, “Frog in the Middle” (Figure 3), which is a mi-re-do game, and “Black Snake” (Figure 4), a game to work on dynamics and breath control. This approach will also work with a sol-mi system, if that is what you use. I use mi-re-do to teach beginning recorder, so as my third graders are reviewing the pentatonic scale taught in 2nd grade, I take time to highlight the mi-re-do patterns in the songs and choose fun games and activities that only use mi-re-do. With this simple change, my students successfully make good sounds on recorders from the very first day they get to pick them up. Begin preparing the recorder music in the fall. After years of teaching the recorder this way, I had a realization that completely changed my approach to teaching the recorder.
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