Learn to love your scales!

What comes into your mind when you think about scales and arpeggios? Perhaps memories from childhood - being nagged by a teacher to practise? Or maybe even a degree of perplexity about exactly what they are?

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with scales. When I think back to my teenage years I realise I owe my music teachers an apology for my lack of application when it came to these fundamental exercises. Time and again I would spend the last two or three weeks before a music exam frantically cramming my scales and arpeggios instead of learning them gradually over a longer period, Fortunately for me, I had an uncanny ability to learn them at speed and I usually got away with this last minute feverish rush of learning. The downside was that I never really absorbed them thoroughly, so within a couple of weeks of the exam I’d forgotten them all again! My slapdash approach must have been infuriating, but those teachers I’m still in touch with seem to have forgiven me!

Of course the irony is I’ve seen the same situation from the other side of the fence many times during my teaching career, quietly trying cajoling my students to start learning their scales and arpeggios as early as possible…

What are scales and arpeggios?

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The first movement of Telemann’s Sonata in F major which is built upon lots of scale patterns.

Scales and arpeggios are the fundamental building blocks of music and all western music is created from these patterns. A scale uses neighbouring notes, while an arpeggio uses the 1st, 3rd and 5th steps of a scale to create a broken chord, where the notes are played in turn to create a melodic line rather than as harmonies.

Major and minor scales contain eight different pitches within each octave, arranged in a particular combination of tones and semitones. On the other hand, a chromatic scale includes all 12 notes - just as you would if you played every black and white note in order on the piano.

You’re probably most familiar with the concept of major, minor and chromatic scales, but there are many more types besides. Pentatonic scales have just five notes (sound just the black notes on a piano and you’re playing a pentatonic scale), modes are created from the patterns made by playing the white notes of the keyboard in different combinations, and jazz musicians have their own varieties of scales.

They’re not just a feature of western music either - in some musical cultures other patterns are used. For instance, Indian music is based on ragas - scale patterns which can include intervals even smaller than our semitone.

Why do I need to learn scales and arpeggios?

This is a cry many teachers have heard from their students in frustration! While they may not seem terribly exciting, learning scales and arpeggios helps your music making in many different ways. Let’s look at some of them…

They help you gain fluency

If we’re to play music with ease and speed, fluency is vital. Getting to the point where your fingers automatically find the patterns needed for each note at speed will allow you to tackle ever more challenging repertoire. If you have to stop and think about which fingers to move before each note (as a total beginner might) your musical lines will lack a sense of flow.

Improve your sight reading skills

Because music is made up of scale and arpeggio patterns, being able to recognise and fluently play these combinations of notes helps you read unfamiliar music more easily. If you want a comparison, it’s a bit like learning to read text. When we first learn to read we recognise the individual letters. Gradually we learn that these letters often appear together in particular combinations so we begin to recognise syllables and ultimately whole words and sentences. The notes of a scale are like the individual letters, while a scale is a long word or sentence which we take in at a glance through familiarity.

Coordinating finger movements

One of the big challenges of recorder playing is the complexity of the fingerings. Modern wind instruments have keywork to help simplify the finger patterns. Recorders lack these, so instead we have to play complex forked fingerings (for instance B flat on the descant or E flat on treble recorder). Shifting between neighbouring notes can often involve moving multiple fingers up and down simultaneously. We can use scales and arpeggios to practise this and make our finger changes neater and quicker.

Coordinating tongue and fingers

Not only do we have to coordinate our fingers, but our tongue needs to match the speed of our finger movements too if we’re to play a genuinely legato melody. Once again, scales can be a useful tool to help achieve this.

Building up speed

Want to play faster? In that case you need to practise the patterns which occur most often in music and gradually learn to negotiate them more quickly. What’s the best way to do this? Yes, you’ve guessed it - scales and arpeggios!

Practising double tonguing

Once you’ve built up some velocity, you might need to explore double tonguing so your articulation can match the speed of your fingers. Again, using simple scale patterns are a great way to work on this without having to think about reading complex music at the same time.

For music exams

Most adult recorder players have no interest in working for exams, but if you’re someone who’s motivated by exams, you’ll need to learn some scales and arpeggios as well as pieces of music. The syllabus for the lower grades may only include a few different keys, but by grade 8 you’ll need to know all the major and minor keys.

Have I convinced you yet?

Assuming I have, you might well be asking some of the following questions…

Do I need to learn all of them?

In an ideal world, knowing all the major and minor scales and arpeggios (plus chromatic and other patterns) is a desirable aim. But this doesn’t mean you have to learn all of them! For anyone even learning a carefully chosen selection is immensely useful.

If you’re not sure where to begin, start by looking at the music you’re currently working on. What key is the piece in? For instance, if you’re playing a sonata with a key signature of two flats, try learning B flat major and G minor - the two scales with the same key signature. The music is likely to work through both of these keys at some point and if you can play these fluently the patterns you encounter in the piece will come more easily too.

Realistically, unless you choose to play Schickhardt’s set of recorder sonatas in every key, most music for our instrument explores a limited range of key signatures. It’s unusual to see recorder music in more than three sharps or flats, so I would recommend aiming for fluency in these keys before you worry about the exotic realms of D flat major or G sharp minor.

Do I have to learn them from memory?

This is a much debated topic among students and teachers. For music exams you’re expected to learn the prescribed scales and arpeggios from memory, but as we’ve already noted, many adult learners have no interest in testing themselves in this way.

In order to play scales fluently from memory you need to be completely on top of the finger patterns, knowing precisely which fingers to move between each note. This requires what is often called ‘muscle memory’, although in reality our muscles don’t have memories. This process is actually achieved by generating strong connections between our brains and the nerve pathways used to send instructions to the fingers. To achieve that (I plan to explore this more in a future blog post) requires lots of repetition, and in my experience, the process of memorising such patterns definitely seems to be harder for some people than others.

Memorising scale and arpeggio patterns presents a particular challenge for players of wind instruments. With the piano or a string instrument, there’s a logical visual pattern as you work your way up and down the keyboard or fingerboard. In contrast, each note on a wind instrument of any type requires a different combination of fingers. Yes, moving between some of these is fairly logical. But I’m sure you’ve noticed how that logic disappears when it comes to cross fingers (particularly flat and sharp notes) or the upper extremities of the recorder!

An additional challenge we face as recorder players is the limited range of our instrument. Most woodwind instruments can play scales covering at least a two, and sometimes three, octave range in all keys. In contrast, the recorder can comfortably manage a handful of scales at two octaves, but for most intermediate level players an octave and a half is the limit. This means scales come in different shapes to maximise the range we cover, either turning at the top or the bottom of the instrument. Remembering which scale follows which pattern is an additional thing to learn and can add extra stress to the process.

For my Score Lines subscribers I created scale sheets showing some of these patterns, which can be downloaded from your Members’ Area. I’ve linked to the treble recorder sheet here, but if you’d like access to all of them please feel free to subscribe here - it’s free and there are lots of other exclusive goodies for you to download besides the scales!

While learning scales and arpeggios from memory is undoubtedly desirable, I would argue that playing them from music is probably just as useful for most amateur recorder players. One of the most important skills to develop is sight reading (I’ve written a blog about this here) and being able to recognise scale patterns and convert them into fluent playing is a great way to achieve this. As with most skills, do this by starting slowly and gradually building up some speed.

How fast should I play them?

As with so many things, it depends! If you’re using a scale to develop your tone you might do best to play it very slowly - perhaps four beats on each note. But if fast playing is your aim you’ll need to take a different approach.

When I first started having lessons with Philip Thorby, I spent about three months solely working on slow scales and other exercises as we focused on developing my tone and legato playing. Ok, this may sound rather extreme, but I was aiming for a career as a professional player so it was absolutely necessary. My technique certainly benefitted from this approach and I finally began to understand scales and arpeggios in a way that set firm foundations for everything I was to learn later. Taking this approach with even just one scale and arpeggio can be hugely beneficial if it helps you focus on the foundations of your technique.

The most important thing is to play your chosen scale or arpeggio correctly from the very beginning. If that means you start out playing each note at a metronome speed of just 60 that’s absolutely fine, as long as the notes are 100% right. When you can consistently play all the notes fluently and cleanly at that speed, gradually increase the tempo until you reach your desired tempo, checking at every point that you’re still maintaining the same consistency and precision. A metronome is a really useful tool here to hold you at one speed.

How often should I practise my scales?

I’m a big advocate of little and often. Having a huge practising splurge on your scales just once a week makes it difficult to achieve consistent results. A much better way is to programme in short, frequent practice times - maybe five or ten minutes every day. This way you remind your fingers of the correct patterns at regular intervals so they become habitual more quickly. Perhaps even keep a recorder out at all times (a plastic instrument can be handy if you prefer to put away your wooden recorders) so you can pick it up and play a scale for a minute or two every time you walk by.

Which variety of minor scale should I practise?

Minor scales come in two different species - harmonic and melodic. Harmonic minors use the same notes whether you’re ascending or descending, so they’re slightly easier to memorise. However, they also include an augmented second interval (the 6th and 7th notes, which sound vaguely reminiscent of a snake charmer’s flute), circled in red below, which is less commonly used in western music.

A Harmonic Minor

In contrast, a melodic minor scale raises the 6th and 7th notes by a semitone on the way up and returns them to their original pitch on the way back down. This is an added complexity to memorise, but these melodic shapes (hence the name) are more frequently found in the music we play. For this reason, if your plan is to practise them with music and you only have time to work on one type of minor scale I’d recommend the melodics as a priority.

A Melodic Minor

Using scales and arpeggios creatively

Most readers of this blog won’t be looking to become professional recorder players, so being able to play in every key with total fluency and at high speed is probably not your aim in life! But you can still use these patterns to improve your playing and have some fun along the way. Here are a few ways you could use them…

Vary your tempo according to your intention

If you want to improve your tone you need to focus on quality rather than speed. For this I would pick an easy scale (perhaps no more than one sharp or flat in the key signature) and play it really slowly. By simplifying the notes you free up your brain to think about breathing deeply and blowing freely, producing the best possible tone on each note. Perhaps spend four slow beats on every note before moving on to the next, breathing as often as you need to, always focusing on using the optimum breath speed for each fingering.

If speed is your motivation, again begin at a modest tempo but focus on keeping your fingering even and well coordinated with your tonguing. Perhaps use a metronome to ensure you maintain a consistent tempo. As you perfect each speed setting, switch up the tempo by a small amount and repeat the exercise several times. If you begin to stumble, take the metronome down by a couple of notches and refine your playing before moving on. Be methodical in your approach and you’ll be surprised how much progress you can make in a fairly short space of time. If you’ve built up a good turn of speed with an easy scale why not take the tempo back down again and try it with a more complex key signature?

Experiment with different articulation patterns

The music we play often contains a wide variety of articulation, from long tongued passages to intricate patterns, where small groups of notes need to be slurred here and there. It’s a good idea to begin by practising scales and arpeggios smoothly tongued, staccato and in long slurs as these all demand different technical skills.

Alongside these single technique scales I recommend you also practise patterns that require you to mix slurring and tonguing - you can see some of my suggested patterns below. These are the sort of patterns you’ll encounter in the real world and if you can apply them to your scales they’ll seem less scary in context. These are just a few of my ideas, but don’t be afraid to come up with your own variations.

Four varied articulation patterns you could try out

Be playful

There’s no reason why you must always play complete scales. Don’t be afraid to be playful and creative. Breaking a scale down into groups of four or five notes, running up and down, may help you really master the transition between specific fingerings more quickly. Once you’ve got that fluency you can then glue these small groups back together into complete scales. For instance, you could break up the F major scale shown below like this:

Breaking an exercise like this down into bitesize pieces is a recognised technique, called chunking. It’s immensely useful as a means of building up fluency and consistency, allowing our brain to focus more efficiently on small amounts of information.

Explore different note patterns

Bored with just whizzing up and down your scales as printed? Why not add some variety and explore them by playing the notes in a different order? For instance you could play each one in thirds like this…

You could follow the same principle with fourths and fifths too, although these are harder….

If you’ve learnt every key how about mixing them all up together? One of my favourite challenges is to go up one scale, then move up a semitone and come back down the next one - for instance upwards through F major, down via F sharp major, up via G major, down via A flat and so forth. The same exercise is possible with the minor keys too. If you can play both of these fluently you can award yourself a generous gold star!

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Major keys

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Minor keys

Finally, look for the satisfaction in a scale played really well!

You may not feel the need to learn scales in every key, and for less experienced players such an aim may be too ambitious anyway. However, there’s a satisfaction to be gained from playing even one or two of them really well, even at a slow tempo.

Scales and arpeggios can be a valuable opportunity to find a contemplative zone, focusing on a simple task done to the best of your abilities. I enjoy spending a few minutes at the start of a practice session playing scales really slowly, closing my eyes and listening to my tone. I focus on the quality of my sound, tailoring the speed of my breath and the strength of my articulation to suit each individual note. By doing this I reinforce the good habits I’ve learnt over the years, as well as warming up mind, fingers, tongue and lungs before I move onto more demanding music.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about scales and arpeggios. Are they something you avoid at all costs, or have you cultivated a love for them? Perhaps you’re still on your journey to becoming a zen scale-master? If you have tips you want to share with others or experiences you’ve found useful over the years please do leave a comment below.

Recorder tips from the real world

We like to think we’re all unique individuals, tackling life in our own special way. But anyone’s who’s worked as a teacher knows this is only partly true. Yes, everyone has a different character, but when faced with a class of pupils you quickly learn there are mistakes that everyone makes.

Photo by Dayne Topkin

I spend much of my working life coaching groups of adult musicians and, while each ensemble is unique, I find myself offering certain key pieces of advice to every one. Many of of you will be familiar with Walter Bergmann’s Golden Rules for Recorder Players - if you’ve been following the Score Lines blog for a while you’ll probably seen them in my first post, back in September 2021. While his advice is encased in pithy sayings I feel absolutely sure each one is founded upon an experience Walter Bergmann had while coaching amateur musicians.

Several people have suggested I share some of my own ‘Golden Rules’ here, so over the last few months I gradually jotted things down as they occurred to me. Now I can’t promise to be as witty as Dr Bergmann, but I can promise you’ll find yourself nodding in recognition at some of them as you glimpse your own bad habits.  No doubt others will occur to me as soon as I press ‘publish’, so this may yet become the first in an series of blogs, but for now I hope you may be able to use some of these brief pieces of advice to avoid some of the mistakes we all make from time to time. 

My collection of jotted thoughts fall roughly into two categories :

1. Aspects of musical notation and how we interact with it

2. Thoughts about playing style and ways to improve one’s performances.

With that in mind we’ll tackle them in that order.

Useful nuggets of notational advice….

Using language to help with rhythms

Some people find it very natural to translate rhythm on the page into sound, while others need a helping hand. It often pays to think of rhythms like multi-syllable words, rather than taking each note on its own, and words can help you remember the way these groups of notes work together. For some reason many of my phrases have a culinary feel. Quite what that says about me and my relationship to food is debatable, but it works for me! Here are some of my favourites, but don’t be afraid to come up with your own too.

Rests as silent notes

It’s easy to view rests in music as an absence of sound - a sort of musical black hole from which light, sound and matter cannot escape. I would argue a better approach is to consider them simply as silent notes. Play or sing through the following phrase and consider where the rests occur. RETYPESET MUSIC - PITCHES WRONG!!!

If you consider the rests as holes in the music, it’s tricky to know where to place the next note. But if you feel them as a silent notes - one which has shape and mass, but no sound - it’s easier to use them as a springboard for the notes that follow. Use this as your strategy when reading music, feeling silences as active rather than passive things and it’ll undoubtedly add rhythmic integrity to your playing.

Feel the dots!

Here I’m talking about the type of dots which appear next to a note rather than above or below them, making them longer rather than shorter.

When reading dotted notes, consider exactly how much extra length that dot adds to the note. Many times I’ve asked children how long a dotted crotchet is, only to hear the reply, “It’s one and a bit beats”. Ah, but how big is that bit?!  Knowing it’s precisely half a beat is important if you’re to place the following quaver with precision.

To place the following quaver accurately you need to feel the beats within the note. For instance this is how I would suggest counting the rhythm below. Actively counting the second and fourth beats creates a springboard for the following quavers. Do this and your dotted rhythms will be precise rather than nebulous!

Iron out the bumps 

If you’ve ever played under my baton you’ll probably know this is one of my pet hates… Assuming you’re following the advice I gave in the point above, you’re now actively feeling the beats within your dotted notes. That’s a good thing, but be careful not to audibly share your technique with the listener through your breath. Often I’ll hear a distinct bump on the dot of a dotted note, or the second note of a tie, rather than a seamless continuation of the pitch. This happens because you’re thinking hard about that inner beat, maybe nodding a little with your head, or feeling the pulse through your breathing muscles. This creates a lumpy sound which isn’t attractive and it’s an easy habit to get into. To find out if you do this, play a short passage with your eyes closed, or perhaps even record it and listen back dispassionately (the voice recording app in a smartphone can be handy for this) and you’ll hear it as others do. Once you’re alert to this bad habit it’s easier to avoid and your playing with sound much smoother.

The last will be forgotten first….

Playing in extreme key signatures is a rare occurrence in recorder music as our repertoire seldom ventures beyond a couple of sharps or flats. Of course, if you have a penchant for unusual key signatures, you’re welcome to explore L'Alphabet de la musique by Johann Christian Schickhardt which contains a sonata in all 24 keys! One thing I’ve noticed over the years is the way musicians, when faced with multiple flats or sharps, will almost always forget the last element of the key signature first. This rule seems to apply regardless of the key, so in E flat major the first flat to be omitted will be the A, and in E major it’ll be the D sharps that are forgotten first. I’ve no idea why this is, but I guess there’s something about the way our brains assimilate new information which must govern this. Whatever the reason, you now know to be wary of the last sharp or flat!

Short just means short

If I had a pound for the number of times I’ve had to remind recorder players about the true meaning of staccato I’d be remarkably wealthy! So often I hear recorder players beating the living daylights out of staccato notes, with a force worthy of Norman Bates in the film Psycho. But look up staccato in any Italian dictionary and you’ll find it simply means short or detached. Perhaps you want to make the conductor realise you’ve seen the staccato markings and are implementing them, but if you don’t want to offend our ears, please don’t make them heavily accented too! 

Short is a relative term

Following on from my last point, it’s worth noting that staccato doesn’t necessarily mean you should play the notes as short as possible. Instead, consider the context of your staccato notes. Quavers in an Allegro movement may indeed need to be very short, but staccato crotchets in an Andante may need to be more generous. If you like rules, perhaps aim to play notes about half the notated length as a starting point. But do listen to the result and see if it feels appropriate to the musical context. The mood and character of the music also has a bearing on the composer’s intentions and the acoustic of the room where you’re playing may come into play too. In the dry acoustic of a carpeted room staccato notes may need to be more generously proportioned, while a voluminous church acoustic might demand super-short notes because the echo will instantly lengthen the sound.

Just how long is a long note?

I often ask students how many pulses they need to feel while playing a minim, and about half of them plump for the wrong answer. Yes, a minim may be worth two beats, but where do those beats start and finish? Imagine your phrases ends with a minim, followed by a silence. That silence begins at the start of the third beat, which means the note before it should continue until the very end of the second beat. This means you must be aware of three beats when playing a two beat note if you’re not to short-change your listener. This principle applies to any long note which is followed by silence - unless, of course, your conductor tells you to do otherwise!

The arrows show how long each note sounds in relation to the beats of the bar:

Playing with style and panache

Just wiggle your fingers and blow!

If you’ve played under my baton at some point there’s a good chance you’ll have heard me utter this phrase. It may sound glib, but there’s a good reason for it. Once before I wrote about the human desire to play music perfectly, or else we’re somehow wasting our time. Now don’t get me wrong, striving for perfection is an admirable trait, but it can also tie you up in all sorts of knots. That determination to fit all the notes in can slow you down, bringing a stilted quality to the music. Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind, chuck your fingers onto the recorder and see what happens. It may not be pretty, but there’s a pleasure to be derived from playing with abandon and you might discover a level of fluency which surprises you. If nothing else it’ll reveal where you need to apply more focus in your next practice session.

Perfect your recorder player’s sulk

To create a warm, relaxed sound on the recorder you need to be relaxed too - any tension will soon be reflected in your tone. Before you start playing, take a deep breath and exhale with a deep sigh, allowing your face and throat muscles to go loose and floppy. Aim to retain this lack of tension as you play - allowing your face to adopt what my recorder teacher called a ‘recorder player’s sulk’. Smiling or frowning engages more muscles, creating a degree of tension in your face which can easily travel to your throat. For more tips on producing an open, relaxed tone why not take a look at the post I wrote about tone here?

Don’t forget to blow

When you consider all the things we have to think about while playing the recorder, there’s a lot of multitasking involved - reading notation, breathing, tone, fingering, articulation and more besides. As we become more proficient we learn to juggle these competing tasks, but every musician has limits. When I’m working with adult recorder groups I see this firsthand in two situations - when the music suddenly becomes much busier, or when the players are faced with lots of unusual accidentals. At these points both the quality and quantity of tone often suffer because the players’ brains are instantly distracted by the need to tongue more quickly or to interpret the notation swiftly. I’m afraid I don’t have a magical solution for this one, but self awareness is a powerful tool.

Next time you’re faced with an unexpected flurry of semiquavers ask yourself if your tone quality has suffered because you’ve forgotten about the need to support your breath momentarily. If your recorder is beginning to sound like a wheezy donkey you know what you need to do!

Play with positivity

If you lack confidence it’s tempting to play more quietly, believing you can hide among the massed ranks of players in your local recorder ensemble. In many walks of being a shrinking violet helps you blend into the crowd, but sadly this isn’t the case with recorder playing.

When instruments are manufactured they’re designed to be played at a specific pitch, so each note rings out at the right frequency. In contrast, when you under-blow some notes will sound flatter than others and many of the highest pitches simply won’t sing reliably. Added to that, your tone will be weedy and undernourished. The result? Your playing will stand out from the crowd much more than you intended, and probably not in a good way! It might sound counterintuitive, but use a firm, well supported breath pressure and you’ll find it much easier it blend in.

I often use the word gumption in relation to playing with positivity. What do you think of if someone is described as having gumption? In my mind it’s a person who has a positive, can-do attitude, who will go for it and make things happen. You won’t find them cowering timidly in the back row. Have this in mind as you play your recorder and I bet you’ll make a more confident sound straight away. 

Make your mistakes with style and panache!

Following on from my encouragement to play with gumption, you might be thinking, “But what if I make a mistake? Everyone will hear it!” Yes, that might be true, but we learn from our mistakes, so being able to hear you’ve gone wrong is no bad thing. Tentative recorder playing often leads to a mushy rhythm as you gingerly dip your toe into new musical waters. In my book mushy rhythms are never a good thing! It’s much better to play with positivity (gumption) because your tone and rhythm are both likely to be improved. You’ll also hear your errors more clearly and be in a good position to correct them. Now I’m not advocating making loud and proud mistakes in a concert situation - by that stage you should have practised the music enough to iron them out. But when rehearsing, own your mistakes and make them with style and panache!

Give yourself an improvement target

A strategy I’ve tried recently is to set ensembles a target when we’re rehearsing. For instance, I might ask the tenors to project their sound 56% more so a melody cuts through the texture, or perhaps I’ll instruct the contrabasses to play their staccato notes 48% shorter. The precise figure rarely matters (although a very specific number often elicits a chuckle from the musicians) but the simple act of providing a target usually puts us on the right musical path. Try this in relation to a specific task when you’re practising and you might find it does the trick. 

Tuning trumps dynamics 

The recorder may have a limited dynamic range compared to many other instruments, but it’s still entirely possible to play expressively. For really convincing dynamic contrasts alternative fingerings play an important role and I plan to write more about this in a future post. If you’re not yet comfortable using different fingerings for loud and soft effects it’s tempting to use breath pressure to create these contrasts. Yes, slowing the flow of your breath will make the notes quieter, but go too far and your intonation will also become flatter.

When faced with an extreme dynamic changes in a piece of music by all means experiment, but ultimately I would argue that intonation is more important than dynamics. It’s all very well playing an exquisitely soft passage, but if you leave your listener squirming uncomfortably in their seat because the music is painfully out of tune that positive effect is greatly diminished! In the long term make a point of getting to know some creative alternative fingerings so you can achieve dynamics and good intonation, but remember this will probably need to be a gradual process.

The holy grail of recorder playing - a true legato

One thing which will make you stand out from the crown as a recorder player is being able to sustain a genuinely legato melodic line, with a well supported tone throughout. If you can cultivate a rounded sound while playing with articulation which is super-smooth you’ll bring a new level of expression to your melodic lines.

The words I come back to time after time are singing and fluidity. Aim to sustain your breath and create a sense of connectivity between the notes, just as you would when singing a hymn tune, and you’ll be well on your way. Think of the breath you put into your recorder like a stream following a crease in the hillside and that’ll help you sustain right through a phrase.

I’ve written a whole blog about this topic, which you can find here.

Breathing is good!

Once again we come back to the thorny issue of multitasking. Breath is the lifeblood of our sound, yet when we get distracted by tricky rhythms and challenging fingering it’s so easy to forget this fundamental activity. Breathing is a vital thing to do, whether in every day life or playing the recorder, so don’t be afraid to stop, take a good lungful of air, and regroup - you body and recorder playing will thank you!

If you find it hard to make space to breathe while playing why not take a look at my blog in this topic? 

Get a head start with Baroque style

Most modern music is littered with instructions from the composer, showing you his or her creative intentions. In contrast, Baroque music can seem a bewilderingly blank canvas, with little in the way of expressive instruction. Tempting as it may be to just play the notes and rhythms, you’ll achieve a decent basic baroque style by using these simple guidelines.

In faster music (say Allegro or Vivace) look the notation and identify the smallest note values you have (perhaps semiquavers or quavers, depending on the time signature). These should generally be played quite smoothly. Now look for the second shortest note values - these can be more detached.

Bear in mind that this isn’t a rule, but merely a guideline which can be broken. If the second shortest notes are repeating pitches, or leaping around, playing them detached will almost certainly create the basics of a good Baroque style. But if you have stepwise (scale) passage you might choose to break this ‘rule’ and play them more smoothly. Be open to trying different things and  take every opportunity to listen to recordings of professionals playing Baroque music so you can learn from their example.

Be brave - sit in the front row!

Time and again I go to conduct an ensemble and I’m faced with a row of empty seats directly in front of me. Why does no one want to sit in the front row? Do they think I’m scary, or perhaps I’ll ask them to play a solo? Whatever the answer, I’m on a mission to persuade people that the best seat in the house is in the front row.

Ask any school teacher and they’ll tell you they always look to the back row for the troublemakers, but that’s not the reason why I recommend the front row. The recorder is a very directional instrument, so if you’re at the back of a large group (a massed playing session at a festival, for instance) you’ll hear very little of those sitting in the front row. However, those brave souls sitting right by the conductor get to luxuriate in a wash of sound from those sitting behind them. This creates a real sense of togetherness and gives them the confidence to play to the best of their abilities. Even better, if your ears aren’t as good as in your youth you’ll find it much easier to hear the conductor’s helpful advice. Go on, making it your new year’s resolution for 2024 to sit in the front row and find out for yourself that it’s the best seat in the house!

Eliminate the chiff

When we first learn the recorder we tend to start with a small instrument - perhaps a descant or treble. As we progress we expand our horizons, often trying larger recorders - perhaps the bass or even bigger. It’s easy to assume the techniques we used on the descant will work just as well on the low instruments but some of them need a little modification. I’m thinking specifically about tonguing. Using strong articulation on a descant recorder will often do little harm, but the same level of attack on a bass can create a very explosive sound - often known as chiffing. Think of the sibilant sound you hear when a steam train sets off. A nostalgic sound at a heritage railway, but in the context of a recorder orchestra it can wreck the mood and destroy any semblance of a legato musical line! 

Yes, there are places where this percussive effect may be desirable, but you do at least need to be able to turn it off at will. My advice is to make the gentleness of your tonguing inversely proportional to the size of recorder. On a contrabass you tongue should make the softest of contacts with the hard palate in your mouth, keeping further back from your top teeth, so it imperceptibly interrupts the airflow. Most importantly of all, listen critically to your playing and ask if your articulation sounds appropriate to the musical style. If the answer is no, you need to do something about that!

Make your intentions clear

My final thought is one that occurred to me while teaching online during the pandemic. Clarity is often lost via this medium, but I’ve since found the following a useful concept in person too.

Many of us were brought up to be well mannered we’ll have an innate worry about being tasteless and over the top, Being polite is one thing, but sometimes you have to exaggerate ideas to get your point across. Think of actors on stage. Instead of speaking as we would in conversation, they amplify their gestures and tone to project to the whole theatre. Don’t be afraid to do the same with your recorder playing. Whether you’re using varied articulation, contrasting dynamics or changes of tempo, you need to make your intent clear. In a concert situation, only a proportion of your gestures will reach your audience who may be sitting a long distance away. 

My advice is to imagine your listener is sitting with a copy of the score in front of them, pencil in hand. If your performance has sufficient clarity of intent they should be able to listen to you and annotate the music to reflect what they’re hearing. You could even test yourself by recording your playing and listen back with a clean copy of the score in hand.  Could you honestly notate the details you hear? If the answer is no, you know what you need to do! 

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No doubt I’ll come up with more ideas in the coming months, but that little collection should give you plenty of food for thought. Are there other topics you consider regularly when playing, or gems of knowledge you’ve picked up from other teachers? Why not share some of them in the comments below - it’ll be fascinating to learn from each other’s experiences.

Everyday Recorder Keep Fit

How often do you practise your recorder? Don’t worry, I’m not making a judgement about your playing or commitment to the instrument, but I am interested. For some people recorder playing is a skill they diligently practise every day, while for others it may be a fun activity they only do in the company of others. Of course, there’s a sliding scale of possibilities between these two options!

Bending the laws of physics

For many of us, simply finding the time to practise is the biggest problem - modern life makes so many demands on our time that it’s easy to neglect our music making.

I don’t know about you, but I often find myself wishing I could bend the laws of physics, creating the occasional 36 hour long day or 8 day week. Now I think about it, perhaps that isn’t such a great idea… Parkinson’s Law (coined by author Cyril Northcote Parkinson in 1955) dictates that work always expands to fill the time available. No doubt, if I had a 36 hour day at my disposal the boring stuff would still squeeze out the time for music making!

Of course, practice doesn’t need to occupy many hours every day – you can make gains in a short time if you know how. When I studied at music college I habitually practised for three or four hours each day. But when I emerged into the world of work I swiftly realised this was no longer practical. To compensate I taught myself to practise more efficiently, learning to achieve in 30 minutes what would once have taken an hour or more.

If you’re busy, don’t neglect the basics…

Inevitably we tend to focus on actually playing music - that’s the fun part of playing the recorder. But by neglecting the basics of technique you may compromise the quality of your music making too.

Below you’ll find a three step programme to help you hone your technique - think of it as a daily keep fit workout for your recorder playing. None of these exercises will take more than a few minutes, but if you do them regularly you will notice differences in your playing.

I’ve broken them down into three easy steps, each of which will take five minutes of your time. Now, you’re supposed to spend two minutes, morning and evening cleaning your teeth and I bet you spend those four minutes brushing without giving it a second thought. Just one of these steps takes only a minute longer. If you’re still thinking, “But I haven’t got the time”, just think of it as one of those non-negotiable tasks we all carry out every day without fail.

First things first…

Always have a recorder out and ready to play!

The simple task of assembling your instrument can create inertia, so why not keep an instrument out together and ready to play at all times? An inexpensive plastic recorder won’t take up a lot of space on your table. If it’s there, staring you in the face every time you walk past, you’re much more likely to pick it up and play!

If you have five spare minutes a day…

Let’s begin by thinking about your breathing and tone:

Step one… Spend a minute breathing deeply, really filling your lungs with air. Keep your stomach relaxed so it can expand as you breathe in. Initially, exhale freely, enjoying the benefits of all that oxygen. As I often tell the recorder players I meet, breathing is an excellent thing to do, whether playing the recorder or in every day life!

Next, try hissing as you exhale, gently squeezing your stomach muscles to control the speed of the air. Varying the strength of movement in your stomach muscles, you’ll hear the sound of your hissing change as the breath moves faster and slower.

Step two… Use the rest of your five minutes to play a simple scale slowly. And I mean really slowly – perhaps four steady beats on each note. Breathe as often as you need to - every couple of notes if need be. On every single note really listen critically to your sound.

Do you enjoy your tone? If not, try using faster or slower air (using your stomach muscles, as in step one above) until you can make a full, rich sound on every note.

If you have ten spare minutes a day…

The next step is to make your fingers neater. Practise all the items above, plus the following:

Step one… Break your chosen scale down into groups of five notes and play these groups up and down, slurring every note. Begin slowly, playing the notes as whole beats at a speed of crotchet=72. Really focus on the quality of your finger changes – make small, quick movements. Playing in front of a mirror is handy to check you’re not lifting your fingers too far from the instrument.

Step two… When you need to move several fingers together, use a mirror to check they’re moving at exactly the same time. You may need to be more proactive with the fingers you lift as these don’t have gravity to help them!

If you have fifteen minutes a day…

You’re making progress on your tone and fingers now, so let’s build up some speed too. Practise all the exercises above, plus these:

Step one… Using the same five note scale patterns you practised in the last step, gradually increase their speed. Continue slurring all the notes. Really listen to the notes (close your eyes – it’ll make you listen more carefully!) and ask yourself if they’re completely smooth and even. If your fingers begin to rush away, use a metronome to help you control the speed.

Step two… Now put your five note patterns back together into a complete scale and repeat the process. This’ll demand more concentration and will help you take stock of your progress.

Don’t forget to keep listening to your tone - aim to maintain the beautiful sound you honed in step one at the same time!

Make yourself a promise…

My challenge to you is to practise these exercises every day for a whole month. Now much as I would love to be able to check in with you all on your progress, that would require me to have days which last at least 96 hours! Instead, make a promise to yourself that you’ll stick with it.

If you can make these simple exercises part of your every day routine, you will see results in a month’s time. If you don’t believe me, why not record your first session? The voice memo app on any smartphone is all you need, or a cassette recorder for those who prefer more retro technology! After a month, record yourself again and listen back to both for comparison.

I’d love to hear how you get on with this. Why not share your experiences in the comments below? Or perhaps you already have your own daily recorder ‘keep fit’ routine - if you do I’d love to hear more!

Metronome - friend or foe?

Many musicians have a love/hate relationship with their metronome. It’s intended to help keep our rhythms on the straight and narrow, but used in the wrong way it can feel more like a musical tyrant. This week’s blog is intended to help you make friends with your metronome. Used in the right way, a metronome can be an immensely powerful tool, and I hope my words will help you understand some practical ways you can make yours work for you rather than against you.

What does a metronome do?

For those who’ve never used a metronome, it’s simply a tool that plays a regular pulse at a variety of speeds. These speeds are measured in beats per minute, just like your heart rate. There are many different ways you can use one, but we’ll get into that shortly.

The wind up mechanical metronome was patented in 1815 by Johann Maelzel under the title “Instrument/Machine for the Improvement of all Musical Performance, called Metronome”. This wasn’t the first such device, but earlier ones depended on the use of a pendulum and made no sound.

For those who are interested in the etymology of words, the term metronome comes from the Greek words metron (measure) and nomos (regulating/law). With this derivation it’s no wonder we sometimes feel our musical time keeping device is laying down the law to us!

Which type of metronome should I buy?

If you’ve never owned a metronome, the choice can be bewildering.

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Traditional metronomes tend to be pyramid shaped, with a small weight mounted on a metal bar which swings from side to side, like an inverted clock pendulum. These models are clockwork so you do need to remember to wind them up from time to time or your chosen speed will gradually slow down. They can be beautiful (in my youth I had a hankering for a classic mahogany one but never had enough spare cash) and produce a satisfyingly analogue clunk, but aren’t very portable.

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If you’re after a more compact option, there are plenty to choose from. For many years I used a small battery powered metronome which had a good, loud tick. The tempo on models like this is controlled with a dial or buttons and many have a light which flashes too.

When I was a student I had the ultimate in portable metronomes - a flat, credit card sized electronic model. This was super convenient to carry to college, but its high pitched ‘peep’ was less helpful when practising the smaller recorders or harpsichord as its sound got lost among the notes!

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These days most of us carry around a smartphone and there are many metronome apps available to download for iOS or Android phones. Some are free, others cost a few pounds, but this option offers the ultimate in portability in today’s world. If, like me, you always have your phone in your pocket you can quickly check a speed whenever and wherever you need to. I use a free app called MetroTimer, which makes a satisfying noise, like two woodblocks being knocked together.

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There are a couple of other options I’d not come across until recently. The first is a metronome within an earpiece. Korg make such a model and there are others too. If you find it hard to focus on the sound of the beat while playing, this may be helpful, although you could also use earphones with one of the smartphone apps. One of my pupils introduced me to this type of metronome and told me she finds it harder to ignore than the traditional type!

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Finally, while researching this post I learnt about yet another variety - a metronome watch which vibrates on your wrist to remind you of the pulse. The model I came across was made by Soundbrenner (costing around £100 at the time of writing) but there are other makes available too. This may be a little too niche for many, but it’s worth considering if you really want to feel the pulse.

Metronomes with benefits

You may find the simple ticking of a metronome is all you need, but some models come with added tools. The most common is the ability to have a different pitch sounding on the first beat of the bar. If you find you wander from the beat while playing you may find this helpful, although of course it might just be an added distraction! The app I use offers this option but I can honestly say I’ve never used it because I prefer the ability to repeat patterns without having to wait for the first beat of the bar.

Tempo guidance

Many metronomes have markings which bring the beats per minute together with the Italian terms you’ll often find in music. For instance, Allegro may be shown as somewhere between 120 and 160. You may find these helpful, but in my experience they often bear little reality to the music I find myself playing! The correct metronome mark is very context dependent, so don’t be afraid to ignore these indications if they don’t fit with the music you’re practising. It’s also worth mentioning that the definition of some expression marks (Vivace, for instance) has changed over the centuries, so the tempo your metronome suggests today may not be appropriate for a piece composed in the 17th century.

Tune up!

Some metronomes also play a tuning note - usually A=440. This may be handy occasionally, but the important thing is that you play in tune with the other members of your ensemble, even if the overall result doesn’t strictly adhere to an absolute pitch. I would also argue that if you really want to check the pitch of your playing across the whole range of the recorder, it might be worth purchasing a tuner (or a tuner app for your smartphone) rather than relying on just one note.

Want a metronome with a difference?

Another discovery while researching this is the plethora of metronome options on YouTube! If you want to make your practice time more funky, just search for ‘metronome drum beat’ and the speed you desire and you’ll probably find an entire drum kit at your disposal, like this one. Maybe not the ideal accompaniment for Bach, but for those who are ‘mature’ enough (I count myself in this category) it may remind you of the 1980s Hooked on Classics craze for “improving” famous pieces of classical music with a funky drum beat!

Why use a metronome?

There are two main reasons why you might use a metronome - to improve the regularity and evenness of your rhythm or to increase your speed. I’ll look at these two uses in more detail shortly, but first I have some useful exercises to help you make friends with your metronome.

Let’s make friends with our metronome

I’ve taught many pupils over the years who struggled with their metronome. Used in the wrong way, it can feel as if your metronome is a sentient being, actively working against you. Go on, admit it - you’ve cursed yours at one time or another, haven’t you?!

This often happens because we’re either not truly listening, or we’re being overambitious with our speed. If you struggle to play in time with your metronome try these simple exercises to help you really zone in on the pulse.

1. Set your metronome to a comfortable speed, say 100 crotchet beats per minute. Listen to the beat for a few seconds - and I mean really listen. Don’t get distracted by the other sounds around you, focus on the pulse and count along silently with the beat in your head: 1-2-3-4.

2. Now quietly tap along with the pulse - use your fingers on the table, or against the palm of your other hand. Make it a small movement rather than big hand claps. Close your eyes and listen to your tapping against the metronome. Are they truly together?

3. While we’re going back to basics - make sure you never tap your foot while playing with a metronome. Your foot is part of your body and if there’s any internal conflict you’ll always revert back to following your foot rather than the metronome!

4. Once you’re happy your tapping and metronome are matching neatly, grab a recorder and play repeated notes against the beat. Don’t try and play scales or melodies at this stage, but instead keep it really simple. Close your eyes and really focus on coordinating the movement of your tongue with the pulse from the metronome. Once your beat has settled, then double the speed of your tongue strokes to play quavers instead of crotchets. Are they absolutely even, or do they vary in speed? Don’t be afraid to experiment - play smoothly and staccato and try out different rhythm patterns against the beat.

Hopefully by now you’re really in tune with the pulse from your metronome. Now adjust the beats per minute, faster and slower and repeat the exercise. With each different tempo, take a few seconds to really listen to the beat before you start tapping or playing. So often I hear students jump in feet first without stopping to internalise the speed of the pulse first. If you haven’t done this you’re unlikely to play in time, at least for the first few beats!

As you vary the speed of this exercise, try to be aware of where your weaknesses are. At first glance, playing quickly may seem difficult, but slow music can be just as challenging. Tapping and playing against a slow beat takes great control, especially if the pulse is slower than your resting heart rate. Keeping a pulse of 70 beats per minute going consistently is one thing, but when the rate slows into the 40s and 50s the beats can seem an awfully long way apart. Try this same exercise at 40 beats per minute and you’ll quickly see what I mean!

Moving on from the basics

Having made friends with your metronome, the next step is to use it to benefit the music you’re practising. As I explained earlier, there are two main reasons why you might use one so let’s look at those.

Improving your sense of rhythm

One reason to play with a metronome is to improve your rhythmic control. Our sense of rhythm can be a very flexible thing, easily thrown by concentration (or lack of), or imperfections in our technique. Here are my top tips for improving the consistency of your rhythm and making the notes more even…

You don’t need to play entire pieces

I almost never play complete movements with the metronome. Quite apart from the danger of turning oneself into an automaton, there’s every chance things will unravel at some point, creating frustration. Instead, pick out a short passage to work on. Once you’ve made some progress then move on to the next section.

Really listen to your playing

Decide on the section you want to work on and play it with the metronome. Remember to listen to the pulse for a few seconds before you begin to really internalise the tempo. When you play, focus on your rhythms and ask yourself if the notes are genuinely even.

Try double time

If you find your fingers are rushing or slowing relative to the pulse it may be you’re struggling to judge the distance between the beats. If the pulse is slow your brain may find it easier to play evenly against a faster beat. Double the beats per minute and try playing against that instead. For instance, if you were practising at crotchet = 56, double the speed to 112 and play your quaver beats against that. This reduces the distance between the beats and can make it easier to play evenly.

For instance, this is a passage from Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor, RV108, which I recently performed in a concert. When practising, this passage threw up a few problems which I solved by using my metronome. To tidy up my fingering I used exactly the process I’ve just described, starting with a quaver speed of 96 to make sure my fingering was completely even before speeding the music up again.

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Don’t pick an overambitious speed

If you struggle to play in time with the metronome you may be stretching your technical abilities beyond breaking point. Attempting a speed which is too fast simply means you have more multitasking to do - feeling the pulse, getting around the fingerings, tonguing neatly, remembering the correct rhythms and more. As we’ve discussed before, humans are pretty bad at multitasking, so taking the speed down a few notches may well give you a better chance of success. We’ll look at how a metronome can help you increase your speed later. 

Tackle unevenness with different rhythms and articulations

Do your fingers get out of control during what should be even runs of notes? If so, try changing the rhythm from even notes to dotted rhythms. Then play the rhythms with the note values reversed, so the short note comes before the dotted note, like Scotch snaps. When you can master this, playing the simple, even notes will seem easier by comparison.

For instance, the example below shows the first bar of the same piece of Vivaldi, first with dotted rhythms, and then repeated with Scotch snaps:

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Sometimes slurring can bring challenges too. Your fingers are more likely to become uneven and uncontrolled when you slur. For some reason, using the tongue to articulate notes often helps control the finger movements. Slurring removes most of the tongue strokes and often induces unevenness in the fingers. Quite why this is I’m not sure, but I’ve seen it in so many pupils’ playing that it can’t be a coincidence!

When faced with long slurs, try breaking them down into smaller groups, slurring in twos, threes and fours. As you regain control, gradually lengthen the slurs until you can play long strings of notes evenly without the aid of the tongue. Focus on the quality of your finger movements, making them small and quick - use no more energy than you need to. If you can play every phrase even and slurred, tonguing the notes should be easy by comparison!

Here’s that same Vivaldi bar, this time with different slurring patterns. I used exactly these patterns while practising and once I could play all of these neatly and evenly, playing them all slurred or all tongued felt easy by comparison!

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Close your eyes

In problem areas, memorise short bursts of notes and practise them with the metronome with your eyes closed. Removing visual distractions helps you listen more carefully and notice unevenness sooner.

Break the music down

Never be afraid to dismantle the music, choosing short passages to work on with the metronome - perhaps even just a few beats - and repeat them lots of times. Playing long passages demands sustained concentration and by the end you may have forgotten mistakes made earlier. As you put these smaller fragments back together again, vary where you start playing from. If you can confidently pick up a piece of music from any note in any bar you’ll have much more confidence and security.

The need for speed

Increasing speed is another important reason to practise with a metronome. When faced with a new piece of music it’s so tempting to push the speed on too much too soon. Doing this increases the risk of introducing new mistakes and then reinforcing them. We all know how hard it is to break bad habits - so why not avoid creating them in the first place?

Identify problem areas

With any piece of music many of the notes will become fluent quite quickly, leaving you with a handful of stubborn problem areas. These are the areas you need to focus on with your metronome. I tend to remind myself of their locations with a pencil mark in the margin, but you may have your own favourite annotations.

Find your starting speed

It’s easy to be obsessed with the finishing line and reaching your ultimate speed, but for now put that out of your mind. Instead, play the short passage which needs work and find a speed where you can comfortably and reliably play it correctly well. It doesn’t matter if this initial tempo is stupidly slow - your aim at this point is for consistent accuracy.

Below you’ll see a photo of another passage from the same Vivaldi Concerto. Here you get a glimpse into my process, with a mark in the margin to show I need to work on this bit, plus a metronome speed of crotchet = 76. This is at least 20 notches slower than the final performance tempo, but this was my starting point - a speed where I could consistently and accurately play the passage without errors.

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Try subdividing the beat

If your chosen speed results in a really slow pulse, don’t be afraid to subdivide the beat into smaller units. For instance, if you’ve ended up at crotchet = 50, the beats can feel an awfully long way apart. So why not double the speed of your metronome beat and play at quaver = 100. This doesn’t change the speed you’ll be playing at but makes it easier to slot your notes in against the metronome.

Preparing to speed up

Play the passage with the metronome at this speed a few times and really focus on your technique. Check your fingers are finding the notes cleanly and without any feeling of being on the edge of your comfort zone. Is your tongue working smoothly and evenly to articulate the notes? You may be playing the music at half speed or slower, but that doesn’t matter - you’ll soon begin to increase your velocity.

Fool your fingers into going faster

Before you go any further, take a moment to listen to the speed of your metronome. Let’s assume you’ve set it to quaver = 100. Really feel the pulse as the metronome ticks. Now increase the speed a tiny amount. On some metronomes the next step may be 104, so select that and listen again. It doesn’t really feel any faster, does it? Now play your chosen passage with this increased metronome speed. Is it still comfortable? The chances are you won’t really notice this tiny increase in speed but you’ve already taken the first step towards your final destination.

Play the passage a couple more times to reinforce the new speed and then notch your metronome up another step - say, quaver = 108. Continue this process, incrementally increasing your tempo. When you reach a speed where your fingers and/or tongue begin to falter, really focus on their quality of movement and try to identify which finger(s) is letting you down before you go any further.

Break things down even more

When your reach a tempo where your fingers move with less ease, don’t be afraid to break the music down. You could divide the passage into single beats and repeat each one several times before moving onto the next. If you do this, it’s also a good idea to continue to the first note of the next beat at least some of the time. This way you have a connection between the beats and that’ll be helpful when you begin to slot things together again.

It may be the transition between just two notes that’s tripping you up, so practise moving between them, ensuring your finger movements are clean and precise. I call this process of breaking the music down into smaller units forensic practising. It may only take a couple of minutes to tidy up a short passage but it’s worth being thorough. By doing this you’re reinforcing the finger patterns you’ve learnt, building strong muscle memory.

Don’t accidentally gain speed

Always play your repetitions of these smaller units against the metronome beat. If you turn it off you’ll almost certainly speed up in frustration and undo some of your good work.

Putting the jigsaw back together again

When the individual beats are neat and precise again, begin to join these small musical units together once again - half a bar at first, then whole bars and so forth. Don’t be ruled by barlines either - you could begin mid-bar and play across to the centre of the next bar. This is all about removing barriers in the music so everything joins up fluently. If all’s well you can then begin to gradually increase the speed of your metronome again.

Build up speed in short bursts

The process I’ve described may seem complicated and tedious, but you may be surprised how effective it is. Don’t try to reach your ultimate speed in one sitting though. It’s better to do a short burst each day (or even a couple of times a day if you can), creating staging posts on the way to your final destination. At the end of each session, pencil the speed you’ve reached into the margin of your music. This gives you a sense of achievement and will remind you where you need to start next time. As you have success with this technique it’ll encourage you to keep going.

When you come back to the music next time you may find things have slipped a little. Say you’d reached quaver = 126 in one sitting, you might need to backtrack to 120 briefly and work up from there. This ‘three steps forward, two back’ approach is entirely normal so don’t be disheartened.

Changing down a gear

At some point there will come a point where your metronome’s quaver pulse begins to feel very fast. This is the stage where you need to halve the number of your metronome mark and revert back to crotchet beats. Before continuing further, do play the music through with your new, slower crotchet pulse to get used to the change. From there you can continue the same process and eventually you’ll reach your final speed.

Putting things back together again

Every so often I would recommend slotting the passage you’ve been practising back into context, playing through the whole movement, warts and all. Don’t fret if you still make mistakes. Doing this allows you to take stock and see just how far you’ve come.

After a few practice sessions you’ll arrive at your final tempo with the knowledge that your fingerwork (and articulation) is really secure. This process may take a little while but, in my experience, it’s a surefire way to conquer a difficult passage and increase the speed in a reliable way.

Quick tips to hone your metronome technique

Finally, a few handy hints which didn’t quite find their way in elsewhere…

Don’t overuse your metronome

While the metronome is a valuable tool, there are times when you should put it aside. Don’t get into the habit of always playing with the metronome, or you risk sounding like an automaton. The pulse is a framework on which we hang the notes we play. The major beats need to be in time, but for music to really sound fluid and expressive there needs to be some flexibility. A metronome doesn’t allow you to stretch individual notes or take a little extra time to breathe between phrases. Don’t be afraid to put the metronome to one side from time to time and focus on putting your humanity back into the music.

You’re human - sometimes you’ll disagree with your metronome!

Your relationship to tempo naturally varies day to day. If you’re tired you may play at a more leisurely pace, but after a really good night’s sleep you may be pumped up and raring to go faster. This is entirely natural, so don’t be afraid to increase or decrease your metronome speed a little if the two of you disagree sometimes!

Don’t run before you can walk

Never be afraid to reduce the speed of your metronome if you need to. By hammering away at a speed which is beyond the ability of your tongue and fingers you’ll just reinforce your mistakes and make it harder to unlearn them. Going back to a slower tempo helps you regain control and make your playing more secure in the long run - slowing down isn’t an admission of failure!

Close your eyes

When we remove one of our senses the others work harder to compensate. Playing short passages (or longer ones if you’ve memorised the music) with your eyes closed will focus your ears on your playing even more. If you’re playing with the metronome, listen critically with your eyes shut and ask yourself if you’re really in time with it. You may be surprised what you notice!

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Do you think you’ve found a way to be friends with your metronome now? Yes, you’ll no doubt curse it from time to time, but a metronome can be such a powerful tool when used in the right way. If you have your own tips for metronome practice please do leave them in the comments below - I’d love to hear your strategies too and we can all learn from each other.

The Technique Zone - Exploring the extremes

The recorder isn’t what you’d call an extreme instrument. Playing one doesn’t require huge reserves of stamina like a concert pianist or the astonishing coordination between hands and feet demanded from an organist. But the recorder has its own challenges - it’s an instrument which requires control and delicacy. Orchestral wind instruments have been developed and adapted over the centuries, adding keys and making tweaks to improve them. In contrast, the recorders we play most of the time are based heavily upon instruments crafted 250 years ago.

The nature of the recorder brings limitations – a smaller range than many other wind instruments, and weaknesses in the extremes of this range. Our low notes can only be played gently, while the upper reaches of the recorder are best played with a fuller tone. Good composers will write music which works with these limitations, making the most of them, but it’s still up to us to ensure we can play with confidence throughout the range.

This edition of the Score Lines blog is designed to help you learn to love your recorder’s low and high notes and I have tips and advice to get you playing these ranges with confidence and consistency.

Are there notes which fill you with dread?

Maybe you fret about playing low notes cleanly? Or perhaps your jaw clenches with nervousness as a top F appears on your musical horizon? We’ve all experienced moments when we’ve mentally crossed our fingers (doing so physically would be problematic), taken a deep breath and said a silent prayer to the recorder playing gods that a given note will speak cleanly. Go on, admit it, you’re quietly nodding in agreement, aren’t you?!

My aim today is to equip you with the tools to play the extremes of your recorder’s range without mental or physical tension, so you can play any note with confidence and consistency. I can’t promise instant results, but if you persevere you’ll get there…

A bad workman blames his tools…

There is a degree of truth in this old saying, but it’s worth giving your recorder a quick MOT, nevertheless. With a little care, all recorders will play low notes with ease, but high ones can be another matter. The majority of instruments are capable of playing the highest notes cleanly, but if you persistently have problems they may be exacerbated by your recorder.

The usual culprit is the thumbhole – take a quick look at yours now. Is it perfectly round, with clean edges? If so, you’re good to go. On the other hand, if it’s distinctly mis-shapen, with evidence of wear and tear on one side it may be time to give it some TLC. Worn thumbholes usually come about as a result of overenthusiastic thumb technique – digging your nail into the hole in an attempt to produce clean high notes. Of course, if you’re not the instrument’s first owner that may not be down to you!

Fortunately there’s a solution to this problem - thumb bushing. A good recorder technician will be able to add a small ring of hard wearing material (these days it’s plastic, although historically ivory was often used) to the edge of the thumbhole to restore the clean, round opening. I would recommend this if your recorder’s thumbhole is looking ragged – you may find it solves some of the challenges. Of course, I would also recommend you consider modifying your technique so the same thing doesn’t happen again!

While you’ve got your recorder handy, also take a look at the labium, the opening on the front of the headjoint, just beneath the windway. Is the edge of the labium clean and straight? A labium edge with dips or nicks will affect your sound, often adding a husky quality. Many years ago a pupil of mine had trouble with top notes so we sought advice about her recorder. On close inspection the repairer noted the labium had a distinct dip (created by years of jabbing a finger in there while blowing out excess condensation) and this had an adverse result. Sadly this particular recorder was beyond repair but it did at least explain the dodgy top notes.

Now you’ve (hopefully) given your recorder a clean bill of health let’s dive in and do some extreme recorder playing!

How hot is your breath?

Before we tackle our recorders’ extremes, let’s have a think about the breath you use to play these notes. This is relevant to both high and low notes so it’s a good starting point.

Hold your hand in front of your mouth and breath out gently, noticing the sensation you feel on the skin of your hand. Is the air warm or cool? If you’re exhaling gently the air will be warm. This is because it takes time to travel through your windway, picking up warmth from the blood vessels it passes over. This is the sort of breath you need to use for low notes.

Now blow out over your hand again, this time moving the air quickly. You may find it helpful to purse your lips to focus the stream of air and help it increase in speed. What do you notice now? The air is cooler, isn’t it? Because it’s moving more quickly it has less opportunity to pick up heat from your body and it’s still cool when it leaves your mouth. This is the type of air you should use for high notes.

Thinking about warm and cold air can be useful when you begin exploring the extremes of your recorder, because using the wrong type of airstream will make it harder to play these notes. If you want to relate these temperatures to the way you use your diaphragm, warm air requires just a gentle level of support, while cool air demands a firmer squeeze of the stomach muscles to acquire the extra speed. If you need a refresher on diaphragm breathing for recorder playing take a look here.

Logically, low notes shouldn’t be difficult. All you have to do is cover the holes and blow, right? Yes, that’s true, but there’s more to it than that! It’s important to consider the ingredients needed to create a lovely low note on the recorder. There are three required to bake this particular cake…

1. Fingers – this is the obvious one – if you don’t cover the holes fully the note won’t play.

2. Breath – you need gentle (warm) air for low notes

3. Articulation – tongue strokes need to be gentle

Diagnosing fragile low notes

If your lowest notes often split or refuse to speak cleanly you need to do some detective work to understand why. Let’s look at the three ingredients I mentioned just now…

Go gently…

Not completely sealing the fingerholes is a common problem, especially if you’re playing a larger size of recorder. Take a moment to make sure your bottom joint (assuming it’s adjustable – some descants and sopraninos have fixed footjoints) is in exactly the right position for your hands. I often have to make tiny adjustments to the position of the footjoint with my tenor and bass recorders. Without doing so the bottom notes become unreliable because I fail to seal the holes entirely. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t make a small pencil mark on the back of the middle and bottom joints to help you line them up accurately and get the position right every time.

Now play the lowest note on your recorder and see what happens? Perhaps that small adjustment made a difference. If not, try again but blow more gently – remember, you need to use warm air. If that made a difference, maybe you’ve been blowing too strongly. The lowest notes on most recorders are weaker than the rest, so they need to be treated gently.

Still no luck? Let’s try taking the third ingredient away and see if that resolves the problem…

Think about how you would clean a pair of glasses – trust me, this is relevant! I wouldn’t mind betting you bring them to your lips and breathe gently over them, creating a mist on the lenses which you them wipe away with a cloth. Am I right? I call this ‘hurring’. Now try your lowest note again but begin it by ‘hurring’ into the windway. By doing this you’re taking away the articulation – the breath comes straight from your lungs without interruption from the tongue. What’s more, the flow of air is warm and gentle.

If this approach successfully helps you produce clean low notes, now try reintroducing the tongue, articulating using a gentle ‘doo’ articulation. If you tongue too forcefully the fragile low notes will crack – don’t try too hard! Try moving the tip of your tongue a fraction farther back in your mouth, increasing the distance between it and your teeth and softening the articulation a little. I wrote about gentle articulation in relation to playing smoothly in this blog – you may find it a helpful refresher.

Relaxation is crucial

Hopefully these techniques will now have you playing low notes more easily. There’s one other element which is key for all recorder playing and that’s relaxation. If you’re tense your body works against itself, using energy which could be better employed for other things. This is particularly important when it comes to your fingers. Aim to keep them relaxed at all times, using just enough pressure to seal the holes and no more. Remember, if you’re pressing too hard you won’t be able to feel the vibration of the air column beneath your fingers – use this to guide you. I covered this in a recent blog about finger technique so do take a look here.

Scaling the heights

Now let’s consider the recorder’s highest notes. The pitch may be different but the principles are remarkably similar. Once again there are three ingredients to ‘bake’ successful high notes…

1. Thumb position – for high notes just one of your digits is critical – the thumb

2. Breath – for successful high notes you need a fast (cool) air flow

3. Articulation – this should be moderate – there’s no need for strong tonguing

Finding your thumb’s Goldilocks zone

The exact technique used to open the thumbhole to create upper register notes is a much debated topic among recorder teachers. Some teach their students to ‘pinch’, inserting the thumbnail into the hole to open it cleanly. Others prefer ‘rolling’, where you use the flesh of the thumb and a smaller movement. I won’t go into this in detail here (there’s plenty of material there for a blog post of its own), but if the technique you use works well then why change it?

The critical element to consider for high notes is how much you open the thumbhole. You’re searching for the Goldilocks zone - not too open, not too closed but just right! Look at most recorder fingering charts and you’ll see a half-filled circle to depict an upper register note. This may work for the first few notes, but once you reach two fingers with a pinched thumb you’re destined for failure with a half open thumbhole. Instead, open the hole just a fraction and your chances of success are much greater. Some recorders are more sensitive than others, so it’s often a case of getting to know your instrument(s) well and learning their foibles.

Of course, it’s all very well knowing your thumb isn’t in the right position but how do you know whether the hole is too open or too closed? Fortunately there’s an easy way to find out! It’s tricky to explain in text, so take a look at this short video clip where I explain the technique, complete with sound effects…

Don’t forget the breath and tongue

For many people getting the right thumb position while pinching can solve their problems, but it’s worth considering the other ingredients too.

In contrast with the lowest notes, high ones need fast, cool air to make them play. I find it’s best to consider the speed of your breath, rather than simply thinking, “I must blow hard!” Try to avoid bracing yourself for high notes. So often I hear players take a deep breath immediately before the high note which concerns them, before launching themselves at it with all their might. If the note comes out at all it’s likely to be overblown and tense.

Instead, your strategy is best compared to riding a bicycle up a steep hill. If you stop halfway up (the musical equivalent of breathing and bracing before a high note) it’s hard to get your momentum going again and the hill feels even steeper. You’re better off pedalling like fury at the bottom and the momentum you build up carries you up and over the summit. The musical equivalent is to breathe earlier and use your stomach muscles and diaphragm to get the air flowing swiftly before you really need it. This flow of breath carries you through and beyond the high note (providing you get your thumb position right) which will sing much more easily.

As for articulation, don’t tongue explosively. Use a moderate ‘doo’ articulation and trust that the breath and correct thumb position will do most of the heavy lifting. Providing your air stream is quick enough even the highest notes don’t require strong tonguing.

The elusive fourth ingredient…

Assuming you’ve found the right combination of thumb position, breath and tonguing to play your high notes there’s one more ingredient which will help you – a combination of confidence and self belief! If you approach high notes with a glass half empty attitude, assuming it’ll all go horribly wrong, there’s a good chance it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Playing tentatively often results in underpowered, broken top notes.

Instead, go into those higher registers with a positive attitude and total conviction - you’re much more likely to find the right speed of breath and articulation. Your tone will be fuller, the high notes have a greater chance of sounding well and you’ll gain confidence from your success. If it does go wrong, at least you’ll have given it your best shot and, as I often tell my students, if you’re going to make a mistake, do it with style and panache!

If a high note does fail, try to analyse what you did wrong – was your thumb position wrong, or perhaps you didn’t use fast enough breath? Use this as a learning experience and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You are human (a species not known for its perfection) and no one will ever come to physical harm from a split note!

Be persistent

My final piece of advice is to be persistent. Don’t get into a negative frame of mind and give up - that way you’ll never conquer your fears. Keep practising and those elusive notes at the extremes of our instruments will come to you. Here are a few quick tips which I offer to all my students, which are equally applicable whether you’re soaring through the upper register or plumbing the depths…

Relax! Tension is the enemy of all recorder players. Wiggle your shoulders to loosen the knots, take a deep breath and exhale with a big, soulful sigh. Allow your cheek and throat muscles to go soft and flabby so your breath can reach your recorder unimpeded. The only tension you need is in your diaphragm and stomach muscles!

Slow down and don’t try so hard. Human nature dictates that when we fail we tend to try harder and faster. This is almost always counterproductive, so instead stop, take a deep (relaxed) breath and begin again slowly.

Keep a recorder handy at all times. The best way to improve a skill is to practise it little and often. If that top F eludes you on the treble recorder, keep an instrument out at all times (a plastic one can be handy for this), preferably left in a room you use a lot. Every time you walk by, pick the recorder and play the note(s) which need practice for twenty or thirty seconds. Hopefully you’ll end up doing this multiple times every day and the frequent repetition will be so helpful. Sitting down for a long practice session can seem daunting, but these frequent small bursts are easy to fit in on your way to the kitchen or before you walk the dog. Trust me - little and often really does help!

These tips should give you the tools you need to improve your extreme notes on the recorder. Aside from the technical details, the most important things are confidence, a positive attitude and regular practice. Spend a few minutes every day making friends with your least favourite notes and they’ll become a strength rather than a weakness. Why not make a resolution to practise them for a few minutes every single day for a month and leave a comment below to share your progress? I’d love to hear how you’re getting on!