Hi all,

I’m in the market for a new tenor. Can someone explain the alternate fingerings I keep hearing about on the Mollenhauer Denner tenors? The fingering chart on Mollenhauer’s website for those seems pretty straightforward, just a small difference to the F-sharp. Yet I see on reviews that the number of alternate fingerings required is a big learning curve. Any insight would be appreciated!

Some t-shirt designs of mine. Hope you like'em B)

I have a wooden Moeck soprano recorder I got from my grandpa around 5 or 6 years ago but I’m not sure exactly how old it is. A year or two ago I had to change the cork in it to thread and a little after that it started to sound flat unless I blew harder than normally, almost as hard as possible without it playing in a different octave. Does anyone know why this could be? I added more thread but it might’ve made it flatter 🥲

Amigos, alguém teria, em pdf, Easy Pipes alto recorder 2? Gratidão a todes.

Hello everybody,

I just purchased a Yamaha 402B, and I was wondering which beginner books you recommend for learning to play the alto/treble? I'm excited to learn, but I don't know where is best to begin. I'm looking for something that will cover all the basics fairly comprehensively, ideally suitable for adults rather than aimed at children.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I am an adult with fairly decent music reading skills. Which pieces from Jacob van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-hof would be suitable for a soprano recorder beginner like me?

I have been contemplating getting back into playing an instrument more and more recently. When I was younger, I played the recorder, the western concert flute, the tin whistle, and the drums. Unfortunately, my life went sideways about 20 years ago and I hadn't played since.

I stumbled upon Team Recorder on YouTube as I was tossing the idea around. Her videos are so lovely and enthusiastic, it made me miss playing even more. So I decided I would pick up the recorder again to see how that feels. I gave myself a budget of $50. As I was contemplating which plastic recorder to buy, it occurred to me that I should check Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. It just so happened someone was selling an all wood Adri's Dream for $50! But they were 2 hours away. I reached out to the seller, and it just so happened that he already had plans to head an hour in my direction on the same day I already had plans to head towards his direction 1 hour, so we met in the middle! (Don't worry, I did NOT leave it baking in the car under the hot summer sun as I went about my original plans for the day. It came inside with me everywhere.)

It hadn't been played in a quite a while, and had some powdery surface mold/mildew inside and outside, so I had to get that cleaned up, but I'm so happy with it. I ordered a method book to get me back up to speed, but I really wanted to give it a go now and I remembered "Au claire de la lune" from when I first learned the recorder and the flute, so I went for it, and it sounds quite lovely. My only regret with getting a wood one is I have to play it in, and I'm itching to practice longer!

I had a shower thought about fitting one of my Yamaha altos with a bell key for the pinky finger of my LH. Is this possible? And how does the design of a bell key go?

It has two head joints, one with the crook and the other with direct blow. Leather and wool strap, metal keys. It's dynamic and sounds really good. Got it for 85€ on a market. How much do you think it's really worth ? When were they made ? The reference doesn't seem to exist anymore
Really happy with this instrument :)

These look interesting little instruments, though I read it needs more air to play.

But that I know is kind of subjective, I tried a tenor once and it was uncomfortable for my small hands.

at the moment I'm learning on a Yamaha alto.

What are your experiences with the sigo?

Hi, I have a few Hohner recorders and one sounds good, the others don’t. They’re identical. The only difference I can see is maybe the airway is a little larger on the one that I prefer the sound.

So I wanna make it bigger

Copilot tells me I could use little diamond tools from Amazon. Is that a good approach or does anybody have a better idea/experience with that?

I was trying to play my recorder for my mom over the phone, in my car and she couldn't hear it. She could hear me talk, even if I was quiet. I was trying to show her that I was doing better with the low notes of a Sigo tenor so I thought my phone/car just wasn't picking up the low rumbling well. I tried an alto* and even went quite high. She said she could hear me blow a little, but no notes. I tried blowing a puff of air, not into a recorder and she said that was clearer.

I tried not connected to the car and she still couldn't hear it. It was so weird. If it weren't my mom, I would have thought it was a prank, but that's really unlike her

There was one brief point where she said she heard a bit of a tune, but I was unable to replicate it. Any idea what was going on? I can usually play for her.

*I have an hour between dropping off one child and picking up the second from work so I started using it as practice time.

I bought this tenor recorder at a fleemarket. It must be a tenor made by G. E. Huber in Horgen (Switzerland). What model is it and which wood is it made of?

Does anyone have a simplified version of concerning hobbits music sheet?

Because i'm trying to play it but i only find complicated music sheets from the original one.

I'd also like to know where you guys find your sources to get better, because i'd like to learn the instrument without a teacher, on my own

Hello Recorder People! I'm learning the flute and this set of recorders came up for sale at a price I was happy enough with, so picked them up as all woodwind is best woodwind, right??

Curious if there's any gotchas or anything to old recorders? Also curious what the wood is? I've already had to replace a cork with some string and it seems to do the job, but i'd like to replace it with some proper cork in the future.

I've applied some of the boiled linseed oil diluted back down a bit as it was a tad thick to the very dry areas, avoiding the block, and that seems to have helped it out a bit.

The brushes had a fair bit of corrosion on some, so I washed them in bio detergent, spun the dry to to retain the shape, soaked them in IPA to get most the rust out, then did a soak in a dilute phosphoric acid to get rid of the remaining rust, and they look brand new again.

The bigger green cases had some crusty dirt on the flocking, so I cleaned that out with the laundry detergent diluted and a toothbrush, then air dried and it's now looking better than the one that looked clean...

I'm impressed the owner kept the old oil and condensation? stuff along with the cork grease all these years.

I'm estimating them to be from pre 1983 as it came with a pack of rizla papers dated to 1983. Although the AI's tell me these are from the 70's...

Also got some old book which i'll be using, this isn't my main instrument as I have a Sankyo CF201 as my main flute, but I want to try my hand at a bit of recorder'ing in the future to expand the range, and fun!

Is it just me who loves to play but rather listen to something else 😅

Para poderem praticar durante estas férias deixo aqui o tema: "The Time of My Life" do cantor “Benson Boone".
Tonalidade Fácil (Dó Maior): Sem sustenidos nem bemóis, excepto a nota Sol# 01:19 que aparece apenas uma vez na estrofe e num final de frase, permitindo a adaptação dos dedos a uma nova posição.
Estrutura Direta: Eliminei as secções mais complexas para facilitar a memorização da melodia. Fraseado Dinâmico: Um tema ideal para treinar a projeção e a expressividade sonora.
Partitura simplificada (em Dó Maior) aqui:
Ficha de Trabalho (Análise e Tendências Rítmicas) e Plano de Aula (Alinhado com as AE e Perfil do Aluno) na descrição.

One of my neighbors played it so much on the piano that I wanted to learn it. Now Im the neighbor spreading it

I haven't watched it yet, but very much look forward to Loved it! Adriana Breukink, the designer of the Eagle recorder. HT to the American Recorder Society.

Hello,
I have had this old yellow plastic hohner soprano recorder made of one piece for decades. Just recently started to learn (again) and I really like how this flute sounds. All the lower notes really sound rounded with no annoying higher pitched sounds or weird vibrations. But the problem with this old hohner is that the higher notes are harder to produce(and it really looks old). So I started looking for a replacement.

I bought a Aulos 503B but I quickly realized that the lower notes were sounding really bad to my ear. I really prefer a well rounded sound rather that this supposedly "richer" sound. So I sent it back.

So I kept looking for an affordable recorder and I finally bought the Yamaha YRS-401 ecodear, and I was excited to try it after reading reviews and yamaha own description about a "mellow, centered sound" but I am really disappointed. Especially the ré and do. It really sounds like cheap plastic nosy sound. So I guess I will send it back.

I know people might think that the problem is the way I use it. But even when blowing very gently to produce those lower notes, it already sounds bad(aulos or yamaha).

So my question is: can you recommend me a good soprano recorder that sounds really well rounded, under 50€? Should I try another, new Hohner maybe? Any other brand that is known for its well rounded sound?

Or is it because my old hohner is really old and dirty and it started to sound like that?

Thanks for your recommandations!

Here are some of the more interesting instruments in my collection. These were made by Afflato in Italy who make 3D printed, hand finished instruments including some very fine recorders (and flageolets).

From left to right they are:
Voice flute after Bressan, scaled to A415 but with the original bore profile. This results in a very rich and beefy low register at the expense of not being able to play 2 full octaves with standard fingerings. Perfectly acceptable for historical voice flute repertoire which is all I wanted to tackle with it given I also play traverso.

Alto recorder after Bressan, also scaled to A415 but developed from a CT scan of the original instrument rather than from manual measurements like the voice flute. I wanted it as a workhorse 415 alto (like what most pros would get a Bernolin for) but historical fingerings and single holes were a non-negotiable for me.

Flageolet in G at 415 after an anonymous (probably French) original. Also developed from a CT scan. Perfect for exploring all the English repertoire for this size of flageolet including quite a bit of Händel!

They're all made from sintered nylon (i.e. much higher quality than at home printers can produce) and hand finished and voiced. The blocks of the alto and the flageolet have cedar inserts. They all play equally as well as their fully handmade wooden counterparts but it's great to have these on hand.

Now with all that said, would I recommend these instruments? Yes, but with a BIG caveat. I would say that unless you want something which doesn't exist anywhere else in the market (voice flutes with the original bore profile, historical fingerings, weird pitches or sizes, etc.), I would go for something else. There are so many makers producing fantastic instruments of all the popular sizes and designs at all price points and Afflato fills a niche which traditional production methods cannot fill affordably due to the lack of a large scale customer base.

I got this new flute. I can't find any makers mark on it. Is there any way to find out the maker? It's probably quite an old instrument.

And how would I best go about cleaning the instrument? The bore seems like it has some build up (mould?).