[Ansteorra] buying recorders (was: iso dance)

[Jeffrey Clark]

As a point of comparison, during the course my studies I have bought one sopranino, 4 sopranos and 7 altos two tenors and one bass. I currently carry 3 sopranos and 5 altos, and I do 90% of my recitals/concerts/auditions on the alto.

The tenor and bass recorders are better off being replaced by a buzzy or a string, and it takes a fine amount of skill to play a soprano in tune, whereas the alto is more forgiving and has a richer tone to begin with. Also, most SCA venues are just unkind to the lower recorders anyway.

Alto recorders read in C. Don't try to think of them as being in F, just learn the alto as an alto and all will be fine. I routinely go between recorders in C, D, F, and G without a problem -- it's quite doable with a little practice and a little patience.

--AS Zorzi



On Feb 15, 2012, at 15:50, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> Several people have recommended a recorder other than a soprano, when being used in a group of people playing.
> 
> But I've seldom seen more than one or two recorders being used at an SCA event. What about when you have a single recorder player and perhaps a singer, making the rounds of the bardic circles? Which type of recorder would you recommend for them?
> 
> Thanks for the interesting thread.
>  Stefan
> 
> 
>