Recorder Materials
SoundStart for Recorder by Brian Appleby
SoundStart for Recorder is a collection of over 80 short tunes designed to provide beginning recorder students with stimulating practice material while gradually increasing their playing and reading skills. There are 27 tunes that can be played with just the three notes B, A and G.
New notes are then introduced one a time, with many songs at each level, until a range of nine notes, from low D to high E, has been covered.
Also included are fifteen Holiday Melodies which can be played using just the nine notes introduced in this method.
An important feature of SoundStart for Recorder is the play-along tracks, which provides accompaniments in styles that students find exciting and motivational. The tracks can be used for class playing, home practice, and performance.
$70
SoundStart for Recorder Digital Version
- Delivered by email as a pdf file. Contains all the pages from the teacher’s manual and the student masters. The accompaniment tracks can be downloaded from this page.
SoundStart for Recorder Part 2 by Brian Appleby
This is a series of lessons and songs designed to broaden the skills of recorder students who have covered the nine notes in the Key of G introduced in SoundStart for Recorder.
There are 25 new lessons, which introduce nine new notes, extending the range from low C to high F#, and allowing the use of the new Keys of F, C and D.
New rhythms, including eighth rests and syncopations, are introduced in drills and then incorporated into melodies.
Folk songs and traditional songs from several countries are used, as well as a number of original melodies.
There are also four full-page Extended Songs, and twelve new Holiday Melodies.
Play-along accompaniment tracks are included for each melody.
$50
SoundStart for Recorder Part 2 Digital Version
- Delivered by email as a pdf file. Contains all the pages from the teacher’s manual and the student masters. The accompaniment tracks can be downloaded from this page.
Fun Tunes in 6/8 Time for Recorder
6/8 time is one of the most natural rhythms for children. Many nursery rhymes and familiar tunes have the rolling, skipping rhythms that make up the basic 6/8 patterns.
Sometimes we avoid teaching 6/8 because visually, it is quite different than music written in more familiar times such as 4/4.
The fact that 6/8 tunes come very naturally and easily when taught orally means that getting students to read them is, to a large extent, a matter of matching up notation with familiar sounds. Students will then gain the skill necessary to take the next step, which is being able to read new and unfamiliar material by drawing on the vocabulary of patterns they have learned to recognize from familiar material.
This collection is intended to provide a wealth of such familiar material in 6/8 time.
The songs range from very easy to fairly challenging, so there is material for students at a wide variety of levels. There are also several pages of 6/8 rhythm sheets.
Play-along accompaniment tracks are included for each melody.
- Delivered by email as a pdf file. The accompaniment tracks can be downloaded from this page.