I won't hold it back . . . I LOVE my new recorder!

[mamakash]

I couldn't wait to announce my arrival of a soprano recorder. Thanks goes out to all the posts on recorder-like topics over the past few months. I finally broke down and bought one . . . I had wanted one for a while but never got around to buying it. You know the reasons. Time better spent on the whistle . . . and if one more fipple flute comes into the house . . . ah, explaining hobbies to spouse/parent/drinking buddies is never easy.
But I decided on the Yamaha YRS woodgrain series as it got favorable reviews. It's hefty and solid and really impressive for a plastic model. Sounds very nice. A Sweet whistle without the chiff. Nice solid tone.

Now that I own one, I don't think playing recorder is giving in to the dark side. I plan to respect both recorder and whistle, living side by side, and no fighting in the house.
The only thing I wonder about is this statement on my care instructions that came with the recorder . . .
"Yamaha recorders are musical instruments and should be used for their intended purpose only. Comply with these instructions to avoid persoanl injury and damage."
Yikes! My whistles have never carried a warning from the Surgeon General! Now I'm wondering if there is any possible use for a recorder other than playing?

[Redwolf]

I think that warning may be there because Yamaha recorders are the most popular school models, and thus often find their way into the hands of elementary school children. I can tell you that I've seen second graders do some awfully strange things with their recorders, including bonking one another over the head, slinging them around until the head piece comes off, blowing them hard enough to burst eardrums, etc. You just don't see parents buying whistles for their seven-year-olds in such quantity.

Enjoy your Yamaha. I've enjoyed mine for about 23 years.

Redwolf

[Kuranes]

Now I'm wondering if there is any possible use for a recorder other than playing?

American Pie is all that came to mind reading that.

I still have my old recorder from school that my dad tried to get me to learn. It's an old plastic thing, but it still works My son (2 1/2 yrs) loves taking the head off of it and blowing REALLY, REALLY hard into it.

I need some more practice on the whistle before I can safely trick myself into learning a completley different set of fingerings.

Which reminds me -- are there "tin recorders" -- most recorders are either plastic or wood. Whereas tin whistles are traditionally metal. Is there any reason for this? I imagine that a nickel-plated recorder might sound enough like a whistle to make it worth playing -- or is this some kind of unholy crossbreed that is best left to the imagination?

[Jens_Hoppe]

Now that I own one, I don't think playing recorder is giving in to the dark side.

You were bound to say that...!

[kevin m.]

Congratulations Mamacash! Ignore the legpulling that you're likely to receive for your 'cross fippling'.
The Recorder can be a very effective instrument- it has a large repetoire,After it's rennaisence/Baroque hayday,it was 're-discovered' in the 20th century and written for again.Whilst I don't think that it would be much good for Irish 'Dance' music,slow airs and Carolan stuff sound good on the Recorder (Carolan WAS a Baroque composer,after all).
I've recently purchased Alto and Tenor Recorders (an Aulos and Yamaha respectively)and enjoy the contrast between them and my 'F' and low 'D' and 'C' whistles.
I posted a take on my Tenor on 'tinwhistle tunes'/AKA 'Clips and snips' the other day,and there are other Recorder clips available there(notably,a link to Geoff Walker's site) that illustrate the sound spectrum of the Recorder family better than my feeble effort.They are listed in the 'Non Whistle' category.

[Raymond]

Ha ha to all you asterisk users!

[brewerpaul]

The only thing I wonder about is this statement on my care instructions that came with the recorder . . .
"Yamaha recorders are musical instruments and should be used for their intended purpose only. Comply with these instructions to avoid persoanl injury and damage."
Yikes! My whistles have never carried a warning from the Surgeon General! Now I'm wondering if there is any possible use for a recorder other than playing?

I have a plastic Yamaha too, which I love ( alto ). On the instruction/fingering chart ( in Japanese) is a little picture of a rather nasty little child holding the recorder in a clublike fashion and brandishing it over his/her head like a weapon. This charming picture has an X through it, so I guess they are telling you not to hit people with the instrument!

[brewerpaul]

Now I'm wondering if there is any possible use for a recorder other than playing?

American Pie is all that came to mind reading that.

This one time... at band camp... ROFL

[mamakash]

I have a plastic Yamaha too, which I love ( alto ). On the instruction/fingering chart ( in Japanese) is a little picture of a rather nasty little child holding the recorder in a clublike fashion and brandishing it over his/her head like a weapon. This charming picture has an X through it, so I guess they are telling you not to hit people with the instrument!

What the world needs is Wiffle Recorders.
Or Nurf Flagolettes.

Or just put a Mister Yuck sticker on 'em.

[Nanohedron]

. . . ah, explaining hobbies to spouse/parent/drinking buddies is never easy.

Tell me about it. A number of people, apparently all convinced that I'm a hopeless crank, occasionally during conversation approach me with ill-hid trepidation and ask, "So, um, are you still, um, playing the violin?" Usually I reply with, "Not yet."

Mamakash, don't you think you should have prefaced the title of this thread with "Rated GP (or R, whatever):"?

[mamakash]

Mamakash, don't you think you should have prefaced the title of this thread with "Rated GP (or R, whatever):"?

I don't know . . . do we need a preface? It's kinda like thinking that a Quinton Tarentino movie about The Three little Pigs is going to be . . .well, cute.
Shudder.

[Nanohedron]

Mamakash, don't you think you should have prefaced the title of this thread with "Rated GP (or R, whatever):"?

I don't know . . . do we need a preface? It's kinda like thinking that a Quinton Tarentino movie about The Three little Pigs is going to be . . .well, cute.
Shudder.

'Nuff said.

[Jerry Freeman]

I need some more practice on the whistle before I can safely trick myself into learning a completley different set of fingerings.

Try this. Keeping the thumbhole covered, use the same fingers on a C recorder that you use on a D whistle (forget the pinky). Instead of 0XX000 C natural, play OXOOOO C natural. You may find you have to partially uncover the thumbhole to get the second register to play well. As you get to the top of the second register, some fingerings change, but otherwise, they seem to match pennywhistle fingering pretty closely.

It seems to me, there's a pennywhistle inside every recorder.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[Rod Sprague]

Jerry Freeman mentions there is a whistle in every recorder. This is more literally true than people imagine, also, Kuranes wanted to know if there are tin recorders; quoting part of one of my past posts:

“One of my ocarinas, the slide whistle and the flutophone were made by Trophy Music. I found the fipple from their slide whistle well suited to experimenting with, so I got hold of Trophy Music to find out how much the fipples would cost independent of the slide whistle. They would sell them for 25c each, if I purchased at least 100 and paid shipping, so I ended up with 100 fipples (I have dibs on “100 Fipples” as a song title). I found tubing, including copper pipe, of the right size to fit their fipples, and made a number of nice pennywhistles. I found I could go as low as A with the fipples, but found Bb, B and C are good keys for copper pipe.

I built an instrument out of copper pipe that was in tune using the C pipe length and the recorder fingering. One of the secrets to placing the finger holes was to add the extra finger hole at the top, keeping the spacing of the lower holes the same as the spacing of the holes on a C pennywhistle. I demonstrate this to recorder players by taping the top finger hole and thumbhole and playing the six remaining finger positions as if the recorder was a C pennywhistle! I bet this would infuriate extreme purists of both camps! I’m going to build some of the whistles with recorder fingerings for the folk orchestra recorder players and the recorder group, as a subversive way to introduce them to the pleasures of pennywhistling. I’m also going to build “D with the lower C hole” pennywhistles for the rest of the folk orchestra.”

The only issue I found with playing a recorder like a whistle when I tape the “two extra” holes over is that the F is a bit sharp on Baroque (English) tuned recorders, so I finesse it into tune the same way I do when playing a C natural on a D whistle.

Also, a recorder can be played as fast as a whistle if you get the less intuitive fingerings down as well as you have your whistle fingerings down. The recorder is thought of as a slow instrument due more to the type of music usually played on it than because of any inherent slowness of the instrument. To help build speed on the recorder and make practice more interesting, I switch off between the whistle and recorder as I practice each piece.

Rod