Playing Recorder - What to Teach First?

If you've never taught recorder before, it can be quite a hair-raising ordeal. You imagine the beautiful dulcid tones that your students will make under your instruction, and then you start only to hear the shrill squeaks and squawks they make. What happened??? Or you start learning Beethoven's heavenly, "Ode to Joy" ruined by the unmusical sound of staccato-like ra-ta-tat-tats!

This school year I finally carried through with my intention to learn a band instrument. When I was in high school I thought it better to focus on piano only, so I passed up the opportunity to learn one and regretted it ever since I became a music teacher. My adult band teacher, Nina Falcos is wonderful! She is very fun and excited about passing on her musical knowledge. She even let me do a stint as the conductor and coached me. One night in rehearsal when she was trying to get us to play more musically, and not just note-by-note she said, "Music is what happens in-between the notes."

Well, the next day I tried it with my beginner recorder class. What a difference! Their playing became much more legato. We worked on dynamics and phrasing. Afterwards, I wished I had recorded them playing at the beginning and the end so they could hear their own transformation!

My conclusion: Don't forget that we are teaching musicallity first, the instrument is simply the vechile through which we blow! :)