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Alto b flat and F

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 9:14 am
by jeffrey armbruster
By far the hardest fingerings for me involve the lowest register on my alto Mollenhauer Denner recorder. The b flat and low f in particular. It's because of the stretch of my fingers--sometimes I don't cover all the holes completely; sometimes my top right finger gets pulled off of that hole. Also my finger dexterity is poorest by far when it comes to playing the bottom four notes.It's also true that this recorder is brilliant playing high notes--I'm really pleased to be getting a sweet singing tone all the way up to high f (I'm still relatively new and so is the recorder). It may be that it's less forgiving for these low notes.

Anyway is this typical? i understand that there are breath technical issues as well. I'm just devising some exercises and playing pieces over and over with this problem area.

Thanks! any advice is welcome.

Re: Alto b flat and F

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 10:14 am
by jeffrey armbruster
just to speak into the void: simple repetitive practice of these notes is paying off and it makes a world of difference being able to play down into them without having it mess up the piece! At last! playing has become more enjoyable for this.

My main instrument is guitar. Hand anatomy is funny. I have really good stretch in a few directions but very little in others. I think the bottom four notes of my alto engage that poor stretch area and I just have to limber it up. Maybe it will help with the same stretches on the guitar.