[Ansteorra] buying recorders (was: iso dance)

[Zach Most]

At Candlemas on Feb 4th there were five people playing recorders at various times.  The alto is extremely versatile.  The Yamaha 300s are an economical choice that will weather camping conditions well.  I try to only play wooden instruments at SCA events, but happy music from a plastic instrument is better than none at all, or a boom box.  You can get a great buzzy (double reed) sound from a Glastonbury pipe for a low price.  They're quiet, but not hard to learn on if your relative pitch is decent.

  Gaston



________________________________
 From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] buying recorders (was: iso dance)
 
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

On Feb 15, 2012, at 11:56 AM, Zach Most wrote:

> The Yamaha 300s are great.   Most ensembles have an abundance of soprano recorders, and the over all sound of the group tends to be better with all the parts covered, and the lower parts double covered.  Because of the frequency response of our ears, tenor recorders in particular are pretty quiet.  Their parts tend to be easier too.  The tenor is an octave lower than the soprano, so you'd only have to learn one mapping for a fingering to a note if you'd like to hop to playing a lead line later.  For these reasons I'd nudge you toward a tenor if you can.  Altos are great too.  They tend to have a pleasant voice, they're a great compromise since you can play lots of harmonies and many lead parts if you'd like, and they fit better for folks with smaller hands than a tenor does.  Alto and sopranino are an octave apart.
>   Gaston