The Technique Zone - Make your recorder sing

August 02, 2022 in Technique

Do you make your recorder sing? No, I don’t mean singing into your recorder, but instead I’m talking about playing a genuinely legato, singing line. This is one aspect of technique many people find difficult. But if you can master this, your playing will really stand out from the crowd.

If you think about it, the process of playing the recorder isn’t so different from the way we sing. The breathing technique you use is fundamentally the same, as are the muscles used to control the way breath leaves your lungs and enters the recorder. The big difference is of course the way the sound is produced. When singing, your vocal chords creating vibrations in the air column, while on the recorder this role is taken by the instrument’s labium. Similarly, in both recorder playing and singing we use our tongue and mouth to articulate words or notes clearly.

This parallel wasn’t lost of musicians of the Renaissance and Baroque. In his 1535 treatise, Opera Intitulata Fontegara, Sylvestro Ganassi says the following about playing the recorder:

“…just as a gifted painter can reproduce all the creations of nature by varying his colours, you can imitate the expression of the human voice on a wind or a stringed instrument. The painter reproduces the works of nature in varied colours because these colours exist in nature. Even so with the human voice which also varies the sound with more or less boldness according to what it wishes to express. And just as a painter imitates natural effects by using various colours, an instrument can imitate the expression of the human voice by varying the pressure of the breath and shading the tone by means of suitable fingering. In this matter I have had much experience and I have heard that it is possible with some players to perceive, as it were, words to their music; thus one may truly say that with this instrument only the form of the human body is absent, just as in a fine picture, only the breath is lacking. This should convince you that the aim of the recorder player is to imitate as closely as possible all the capabilities of the human voice.”

As Ganassi suggests, it takes much subtlety of articulation and fingering to perfectly imitate the infinite variety of the human voice, but for today we’re going to focus on creating a genuinely singing legato.

What do we mean by legato?

Type the word legato into an Italian-English dictionary and it’ll be translated as bound, connected or tied. For musical purposes, connected is perhaps the best of these, as the term is used to indicate a passage which should be played smoothly - that is connecting the notes to each other as closely as possible.

Is this the same as slurring?

This is a misconception I often encounter. When a musical phrase is printed with a long, curved line above or beneath it, the composer is asking you to articulate (tongue) the first note and then continue the rest of the phrase without tonguing, creating a silky smooth effect. Yes, the result is legato, but a genuinely smooth phrase doesn’t have to be slurred. It’s this non-slurred form of legato I’m talking about today as it’s the type you’ll need most often when playing the recorder. For this type of legato you’ll be tonguing every note, while still connecting them as closely as possible.

Do you sing?

Now, I know many recorder players also sing - for instance in a choir, maybe in church, or perhaps just while you’re in the bath. Maybe you class yourself purely as an instrumentalist, but I’m still going to ask you to sing. Don’t be afraid - I’m not expecting perfect operatic tones - this is just a means to an end. If you’re not a natural singer maybe find a quiet room where you can hum a tune without being self conscious - no one else need listen.

Sing a familiar tune to yourself, or maybe just sing a few notes of a scale. What do you notice about the way the notes are connected? Do you sing each note as individual, separate sounds, or do you naturally join them up? I’m willing to bet it’ll be the latter… When we sing it’s very natural to connect the notes together, because singing is one of those things we do from a young age, whether it’s nursery rhymes or humming along to your favourite song on the radio. For instance, listen to this beautiful rendition of Scarborough Fair by Rachel Hardy and notice how smoothly she shapes the lyrical melody.

Now think about your recorder playing. Do your musical lines have the same feeling of connection between the notes? If you were to record yourself playing, would you hear the same degree of smoothness when you listened back to it afterwards? If you’re not sure of the answer, why not do exactly that? If you have a smart phone it’ll almost certainly have a voice memo app you can use - no fancy equipment is needed. Pick a simple tune so you’re not overstretching your technique - if you’re stuck for ideas, click here for Jacob Van Eyck’s melody Daphne.

Now listen back to your recording. What did you notice? Were your notes beautifully connected, or did you notice some lumps, bumps and gaps? It’s easier to be dispassionate and critical when hearing your playing once removed, isn’t it? Now you’ve made a recording I suggest you save it - it’'ll be useful for comparison later.

Let me show you what I mean by a genuine, singing legato on the recorder, with a movement by Bach from my CD, Helen and Friends. Notice how I connect the notes to each other to create a sense of line.

How do I create a singing legato?

There are three crucial elements if you’re going to playing a genuinely legato melodic line - breath, tongue and fingers. Let’s take a look at the effect each one has on the end result.

Optimising your breath

When you listen to the Bach Adagio above, what makes the sound smooth and creamy? It’s the constant stream of air, isn’t it?

The most important thing needed for a perfect legato is continuity of breath. If the breath is constantly interrupted the result is a choppy, inconsistent sound. There are many reasons why this might happen and we’ll explore some of those in a moment.

For now though, the important thing is to keep blowing, right the way through each phrase - no matter whether you’re tonguing or slurring the notes. Let’s try this out straight away with a simple hymn tune, St Clement. I suggest you begin with a smallish recorder - these versions will work on descant, treble or tenor.

Click on the music to download a copy to print if you wish to

Begin by playing the melody entirely slurred - just tongue the first note of each phrase and then let your breath and fingers carry you through until the next breath mark. But look out for the one repeated note where you will need to tongue once more.

Here’s my version:

Don’t worry if your version doesn’t sound quite this smooth and creamy yet - we’ll fix that in a moment. The important thing is to keep the air flowing at all times, even if things get a little bumpy at first. Slurring forces you to keep the air flowing all the time - this should also be your aim when you start tonguing again.

Another crucial consideration when playing a singing line is the speed of breath for any given note. If you haven’t already read my post about developing your tone, now would be a good time to do so as I covered all the basics to get you started. Of course, if you have read it there’s no reason why you shouldn’t return for a refresher! You can find my post on tone here - it’ll open in a new tab or window on your browser so you won’t lose your place here.

It’s important to remember your recorder requires a different speed of breath depending on where you’re playing on the instrument - bottom notes need slower, gentle breath, while high notes require faster breath to create the optimum sound. This is something you need to consider while playing any melodic line but it’ll be especially noticeable in a simple tune like St Clement. Listen to my recording above again and notice how I subtly increase the speed of breath for the higher notes than the low ones, to ensure I’m always making the best possible tone. Tailoring the speed of your breath for the range you’re playing in is an important part in creating a smooth, singing line.

To practise this breath control further it’s important to use easy melodies at first - try and do this with something fast and whizzy and you’ll be distracted by your fingers. Hymn tunes or slow folk melodies are perfect for this, but you could just as easily use simple, slow scales and arpeggios for the same purpose. If you’re a Score Lines subscriber you’ll find some handy scale sheets to download over in your Members’ Area.

Don’t let your tongue interrupt the flow

As you get used to this continuity of air flow while slurring, the next step is to introduce some articulation.

We often talk about using particular letters to articulate notes - such as D or T. I would take this a step further and add an ‘ooo’ sound after your chosen letter - ‘doooo’ or ‘toooo’. This gives a greater sense of the air flow and will help you get that longer, smoother feel.

Which letter should I use?

Say the word ‘doo’ to yourself and note the way your tongue moves within your mouth. The tip of your tongue lifts and makes contact, briefly, with the hard palate - that crinkly feeling ridge just behind your top front teeth. It’s this contact which creates the clean start to each note. If you now say ‘too’, notice how it has a slightly stronger effect. Both are valid for recorder playing, but for a genuine legato you need to minimise the strength of the articulation as much as possible, so I would use ‘doo’ for best results.

Minimise interruptions to the flow of air

Now experiment with this articulation (without a recorder for now), saying ‘doo’ in different ways - with a firm D and then with a softer, less explosive one. It’s this latter, gentler ‘doo’ you need to hone if you’re to play a really smooth, singing line. Try shaping your tongue in different ways and notice how the the articulation is softer and smoother when your tongue remains in contact with the hard palate for as little time as possible. It’s important to remember that all the time your tongue remains in contact behind your teeth it’s stopping the air flowing into your recorder, creating gaps in the sound.

It’s also worth experimenting with a ‘looo’ articulation. If you compare ‘doo’ and ‘loo’ you’ll notice you’re fundamentally making the same tongue movement, but the contact with your hard palate is even gentler for ‘loo’. If you find your ‘doo’ tonguing is still a little too explosive, try using ‘loo’ instead.

Now try the same tongue strokes while playing slow, repeated notes on a recorder. Focus on keeping the breath flowing at all times and ensure your tongue interrupts this stream of air as little as possible. Don’t forget to think about the quality of your tone too - it’s easy to forget this while you’re concentrating on your tongue!

If you can produce a line of beautifully connected. steady repeated notes (speed is not required yet) you’re well on the way to being able to play a singing legato line. To give you an aural example, here’s a simple recording of me playing repeated notes, each time the pitch changes I alter my tonguing, first from ‘too’ to ‘doo’ and then to ‘loo’. Notice how the gaps between the notes become smaller and the connection between them increases.

Keeping your fingers neat

One of the habits I frequently notice among recorder players is a propensity for their legato playing to suffer as soon as the notes get harder. As soon as we hit a fast passage, or one that’s peppered with accidentals, we naturally concentrate more on what our fingers are doing. It’s a simple matter of multitasking - there are only so many things we can think about simultaneously. What’s the result? A choppy sound, which has little sense of line or continuity. Listen to this example, an extract from one of Handel’s recorder sonatas, first played as I often initially hear it in recorder lessons, and secondly with more attention focused on maintaining a smooth articulation.

Now, of course, I was hamming that up a little for the microphone, but it’s still a fairly true representation of what I often hear! The scales are quite straightforward to play, but once the music begins to leap through arpeggios in line two, more finger movements are required (including a tricky cross fingering for E flat) and the brain naturally focuses on those more than their smoothness. That particular extract was from an Allegro, but the same problem can occur in slow moving music.

Don’t neglect the quality of your finger movements

Now go back to smoothly play the hymn tune St Clement again, but this time think about the way you’re moving your fingers.

With a slow piece like this, would you expect your fingers to move quickly or slowly between notes? If your instinctive answer is ‘slowly’ I’m afraid you’re wrong - your fingers must always move quickly, regardless of the tempo. I often pose this question to players I coach and there are always a number who fall into the trap I’ve laid!

Think for a moment about how much space there is between the notes when you’re playing really smoothly… There’s almost no space at all, is there? This means if you move your fingers slowly you’ll hear all sorts of blips and slurps between the notes as the change between fingerings takes too long. If instead you focus on making really quick, neat finger movements you’ll find your fingering is more rhythmic and it’ll fit neatly with your legato tonguing. For instance, listen to this second recording of St Clement, this time played with every note tongued as smoothly as possible. You’ll hear the transitions between notes are clean and the overall effect is almost as silky smooth as the slurred version you heard earlier.

The challenges of playing an eighteenth century instrument

The design of the recorder has more or less been frozen in time since the 18th century. Unlike the flute or oboe, our instrument hasn’t gained extra keys to simplify the fingering (aside from those added to ease long stretches on larger recorders). Because of this, we have to deal with more complex finger patterns for some notes - think of the awkward cross fingering we use for E flat (treble recorder) or B flat (descant/tenor). These forked or cross fingerings mean your thirds fingers (which are naturally weaker than the others) often have to work independently of the others. This is why music with lots of sharps or flats is harder to play on the recorder.

So often I hear awkward passages (be they fast or in difficult keys) being played less smoothly than sections where the fingerings are easy. I guess it’s an instinctive piece of compensation by our brains. Somewhere in our subconscious we know that if we create more space between each note (effectively playing staccato) that gives our fingers more time to get to that difficult fingering!

I don’t have a magic bullet for this problem, but if you find yourself falling into this trap don’t be afraid to slow the music down and tidy up your fingering. Once you’re able to negotiate difficult fingerings neatly and with ease, that then frees up more of your brain to think about tonguing smoothly too. While playing smoothly in slow music is simpler (you have more thinking time), if you’re aware of this potential pitfall you’re in a much stronger position to avoid it.

Developing your sense of line

So what can you do to improve your legato tonguing and create the mellifluous singing line we’re after? Here are my top tips…

Practise regularly - The best way to turn good technique into something you do habitually is to do it as often as possible! If you’re short of practice time, at least make sure you spend a few minutes every day playing really smoothly. Little and often will be much more effective than a big splurge of practice once a week.

Start with something simple - Don’t try and work on your legato lines with a Vivaldi concerto - you’ll get distracted by all the whizzy notes! Instead, pick a simple, slow melody or an easy scale and use that to really focus on the quality of your legato.

Build up gradually - Once you can habitually play your simple melody with a beautiful singing line you can then move on to something more challenging. Do it gradually, perhaps picking something a little quicker, or a piece with more complex finger patterns. Don’t push yourself too far too soon and don’t be afraid to take a step back to something simpler for a refresh from time to time.

Record your playing - Use the voice memo app on your phone, or another recording device, to record yourself from time to time. Maybe pick a simple melody and record yourself playing it once a week. After a few weeks go back and compare the recordings - if you’ve been listening critically to yourself and working diligently you’ll hear a difference.

Listen to other recorder players - Go onto the internet or your favourite music streaming service and search for professional performers playing. Really listen to their performances and analyse what they’re doing. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” You don’t need to imitate every last detail you hear in another recorder player’s performance, but you’ll learn a lot by listening critically to those who’ve spent a lifetime honing their skills to share with the rest of us. To get you started, here are a few recordings where the performers achieve a deliciously legato singing line, bringing their recorder as close to the human voice as Ganassi said we should.

~ ~ ~

Marion Verbruggen playing Amarilli mia bella by Jacob van Eyck

Piers Adams performing Dido’s Lament by Henry Purcell from Bach Side of the Moon.

The Flautadors playing Pavan No.13 by Anthony Holborne

Dan Laurin performing the second movement of York Bowen’s Sonatina for recorder and piano

Erik Bosgraaf performing the Sarabande from Bach’s Partita BWV1013

If you have tips of your own please do leave a comment below and share them with us. Maybe your teacher gave you a great way to play smoothly, or perhaps there’s a gorgeous recording you’ve discovered which you love to try and emulate when playing smoothly. Let’s share our ideas and work on this together!

How do you hemiola?

July 19, 2022 in Hints and Tips

Most recorder players feel at home playing Baroque music. After all, the period between around 1600 and 1750 was the heyday of our instrument, with composers like Handel, Bach and Telemann producing exquisite solo and chamber music for the recorder. However, there’s one rhythmic feature of Baroque music which often creates confusion and concern among recorder players - the hemiola. As we shall see, the hemiola wasn’t restricted to the Baroque period and can be found in repertoire as disparate as Susato and Brahms.

When conducting recorder ensembles, I often ask if everyone knows what a hemiola is when we encounter one. Usually, I see a handful of confident nods around the room, but these are invariably outnumbered by people who either look at me blankly or else suddenly find the floor immensely interesting! My aim today is to help lift the mists of rhythmic confusion, to assist you identifying and playing them with more confidence.

What is a hemiola?

Put simply, it’s a temporary change to the music’s regular rhythmic pattern, changing groups of three beats into groups of two. It’s always simplest to explain such concepts with musical examples so you can actually see them in practice. Take a look at this extract from Lully’s Bourgeois Gentilhomme:

The time signature gives us three beats in each bar. The first beat of the bar is the strongest, so the hierarchy of beats in bar one is strong-weak-weak. The same applies to bar 2. Now look at bars 3 and 4 and see how the rhythm changes. Instead of three crotchet beats we have three minim beats spread over two bars. With a note held across the barline, there’s no way to emphasise the first beat of bar 4, so instead stronger pulses occur every two beats, rather than every three. This is a hemiola.

This particular example is about as simple as it gets with hemiolas - all five voices play the same rhythm so the effect is inescapable. Unfortunately, not all hemiolas are so obvious. If you glance at bars 6 and 7 you’ll see a very similar rhythm, but here the highest voice deviates slightly from the pattern. The overall effect is still a hemiola but slightly less clear cut.

If you find it easier to understand this concept visually I recommend watching this video, created by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which uses different examples to help explain the hemiola further - including a juggler! The video also includes the Lully example I showed above, among others.

Why do we have hemiolas?

There are several reasons why a composer might wish to include a hemiola in his or her music - let’s look at them..

To add rhythmic interest

Shifting between groups of two and three beats brings an extra layer of variety and energy to the music. Brahms does this a lot in his music, sometimes bringing hemiola shapes into different parts independently. Recorder players don’t often get to play Brahms, but the same things happens in earlier music too. In The Fairie-round Anthony Holborne shifts endlessly between duple (2) and triple (3) time rhythms. Sometimes the parts shift between meters simultaneously, but often they work independently of each other. sometimes simultaneously. I’ve altered the colour of the notes in this extract to show the triple time rhythms in red, while the duple time rhythms are blue. Click on the image to see it enlarged. If you’ve ever tried to play the Fairie-round you’ll understand why it can be so tricky to put together!

To speed up the musical movement

When you create a hemiola you shift from having a strong pulse every three beats to one every two beats - this gives a sense of the pulse increasing in speed. I’ve added a drum line to the Lully example shown above, placing a drum beat on the stronger pulses. Notice how the speed of the pulse increases when the beat occurs every two beats rather than every three beats.

An aural guide to the music’s phrasing

This is perhaps the most important function for a hemiola, especially in Renaissance and Baroque music. While modern music can be hugely complex, early music frequently contains more consistent and predictable harmonic and rhythmic patterns. That’s not to say it can’t be surprising, but there are melodic and rhythmic features which crop up regularly - for instance trills at cadences in Baroque music.

The hemiola is one such musical feature and composers use it to flag up to the listener that we’re approaching the end of a phrase. Of course, it’s unlikely that you’ll sit there thinking to yourself, “Oh, there’s a hemiola - that must mean it’s the end of a phrase!”. But if you listen to music from this period often enough you’ll subconsciously sense the movement of the rhythm and harmony, feeling a sense of arrival as the music reaches a cadence.

The biggest clue is the rate of change in the harmonies. Very often there will be just one or two chords or harmonies in each bar. At the hemiola this alters, as the harmonies change more swiftly. For instance, listen to this short movement by Gottfried Keller and notice how the rhythm and harmony shifts up a gear just before the cadences. If you’re not sure where the cadences are, listen out for the trills which also occur then. If you’d like to follow the music as you’re listening click here.

Where do hemiolas happen?

Generally hemiolas occur in triple time music - that’s music which has three beats in each bar, say 3/4, 3/2 or 3/8. Let’s look at a few examples.

The first comes from Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks - a short extract from the Minuets. The music is in 3/4 time but two bars before the end of the phrase (look out for trills as these often occur at cadence points too) the harmonies change from mostly being one chord per bar to three chords spread over two bars - shown by the boxes.

If you’d like to try this example for yourself you can play among with my consort video of the minuet here.

Minuet from Handel’s *Music for the Royal Fireworks* - click on the image to see it larger

Now let’s take a look at a hemiola in minim beats - this time taken from Handel’s Recorder Sonata in D minor. If you look at the boxes, you’l notice the first first two beats (box 1) include notes which are predominantly from one chord - A major (A, C sharp and E). The second box contains two different chords, but the final one is once again made up almost entirely of A major.

Handel recorder Sonata in D minor, 2nd movement

As a further example, here’s a short snippet from another of Handel’s recorder sonatas - this time in C major. The time signature is 3/8 - three quaver beats (or one dotted crotchet beat) per bar. In bars 46 and 47 he changes this to have rhythmic groups of two quaver beats. The hemiola is clearest in the recorder part, where the silence on beat one of bar 47 means the emphasis inevitably shifts to the dotted quaver note on the second beat of that bar. This particular movement is littered with hemiolas just like this, introducing a delightful shift from the one in a bar feel elsewhere in the movement. You can listen to the whole movement below.

Handel Recorder Sonata in C major, 2nd movement

Of course, there’s no such thing as a rule that’s never broken, so occasionally you’ll find hemiolas in unexpected time signatures. In La Paix Handel writes in 12/8 time, but still manages to squeeze a hemiola in at the cadences! The music isn’t in triple time, but as the dotted crotchet beats each contain three quavers Handel can group those quavers in twos rather than threes, thus creating a hemiola. Take a look at the top three parts where I’ve added the boxes and you’ll once again see the beats grouped in twos - predominantly either crotchets or as pairs of quavers.

*La Paix* from Handel’s *Music for the Royal Fireworks*

Finding the hemiola in its natural habitat

Let’s take a look at the most likely locations for hemiolas…

Cadence points

In Renaissance and Baroque music hemiolas almost always occur immediately before a cadence. These are the points where the music comes to rest momentarily, giving a sense of arrival. If you’re not sure what a cadence is, think of them as the musical equivalent of punctuation in written text. When reading text aloud, the commas and full stops tell you where to take a moment to allow a point to sink in, allowing both you and your listeners a moment to breathe. A cadence has the same purpose, bringing a sense of pause or arrival in the music. Play through any of the examples I’ve shared so far today and you’ll feel this sense of arrival on the note or chord immediately following the hemiola.

When you learn a new piece of music, listen out for these moments of repose as they will guide your phrasing. If the music is in triple time (3/8, 3/4 or 3/2) or in 6/8 you may well find a hemiola in the bar or two immediately preceding these cadence points.

Take a look at this section from Andrew Parcham’s Solo in G, where I’ve marked two hemiolas. Both come at cadence points and if you try playing the top line you’ll no doubt feel that moment of arrival on the note immediately following the hemiola. The composer would almost certainly have expected the performer to add a trill to the final dotted crotchet of each hemiola too - as you can hear in the recording below. The Allegro begins 2 minutes and 27 seconds into the video.

Look for trills in Baroque music

As I’ve already mentioned, cadence points are often decorated with trills in Baroque music. These aren’t always marked in the music because composers generally assumed the musicians would be familiar enough with the musical style to know where they should be added. But some did take the trouble to notate them and you’ll often find places where modern editors suggest adding cadential trills. These can be an additional way for you to spot where a hemiola may be lurking.

Look at the whole score

Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give is to look at the whole score of the music, not just your individual part. Sometimes the hemiolas will be clear as day in your line, but, as we’ve seen in some of the examples I’ve shared, it’s often easier to spot the hemiola when looking at several parts together.

For instance, look at this extract from a Ronde by Tielman Susato. If you’re playing the top line, reading from a single part, you’d be forgiven for missing the hemiola entirely because both bars look like standard 3/2 rhythms. Cast your eye down through the score though and the hemiola becomes much clearer, with a two beat note at either end. Here the top line is simply providing rhythmic contrast, but the overall effect is definitely a hemiola.

Look for the rhythmic clues

Very often a hemiola’s effect is amplified by the use of longer notes, which have more weight or aural mass, as I like to call it. Look through any of the examples I’ve shared here and you’ll see time and again, how the composer fills one or two of the hemiola’s three parts with a longer note. This length and weight of these notes makes that section of the hemiola feel more significant, emphasising the fact that he or she is moving the musical stresses away from their usual position on the first beat of the bar.

For example, look at the last few bars of Telemann’s Concerto in C below - at the hemiola you’ll see I’ve circled the dotted crotchets in red. These notes will naturally draw the ear because they’re longer than the other note values within the hemiola. This brings the hemiola effect out effectively, especially if the quavers are kept detached and light.

Telemann Recorder Concerto in C, 4th movement

Look for consistency of rhythm through the texture.

As we’ve already seen, the hemiola rhythm doesn’t always appear in every voice, but often there will be some unanimity. Take a look at this Galliard by Anthony Holborne and you can clearly see a consistency of rhythm between the five voices. Unlike the Lully we looked at first, the parts aren’t entirely unanimous in their rhythm, but in both hemiolas several voices simultaneously have the same rhythm. Looking at the score, it becomes clear there’s a move away from the usual 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 rhythm to a hemiola pattern.

How do I play a hemiola?

Once you’ve identified your hemiola it’s very tempting to emphasise the start of all three sections to hammer the point home. Undoubtedly this will make your hemiola stand out, but it’ll likely lack subtlety!

A better approach is to think in terms of only emphasising one or two sections of the hemiola, which will result in a more subtle, musical effect. For instance, there are two hemiolas in this section of Purcell’s Chaconne from The Gordion Knot Untied. Both begin and end with dotted rhythms, which will naturally attract the most musical weight because of their longer length.

Ordinarily, the first beat of each bar would be the strongest, but here the aural mass of the dotted crotchets moves the emphasis onto the second beat of bars 52 and 59. Now you could also put some added weight onto the last beat of bars 51 and 58 to bring out the middle section of the hemiola. However, the result would be rather heavy and a better approach is to make the middle section of the hemiola light and less important. In this case I’d simply make the crotchets which fall within the second box of each hemiola short and light, creating a sense of lift and bounce. You can hear me putting this approach in practice in my consort video of this piece here.

Let’s take a look at another example, this time from Handel’s Recorder Sonata in B flat.

If you listen to this recording by David Antich you’ll hear the ensemble allow the longer notes to have some weight, but the cellist keeps the crotchets in the bassline light and separated, so as to minimise their importance and help highlight the rhythmic shift of the hemiola.

Looking beyond early music

As I said earlier, hemiolas aren’t restricted to the music of the Renaissance and Baroque - later composers used then too. One of the most famous appears in Leonard Bernsteins’s score for West Side Story and you’ll almost certainly be familiar with the shifting rhthms in America. But had you ever thought of it as a hemiola? You will now! Take a listen - the famous melody line begins around one minute and fifteens seconds into the video below.

Another example occurs in the opening bars of the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo. The solo guitarist opens the whole work with the rhythmic pattern shown below - a clear hemiola in 6/8 time.

As I said at the beginning, Brahms wrote hemiolas too and you’ll find them dotted about endlessly in his music. Very often he chooses to write hemiolas independently in different voices but in this example, from his Intermezzo No.1 for piano, he shows them very clearly together. Normally in 6/8 time the quavers would be grouped in threes (as they are at the beginning of the extract) but on the second system here he writes a series of crotchets - notes worth two quavers - to create a series of hemiolas.

Johannes Brahms Intermezzo No.1 for piano

Are the hemiola mists clearing?

I hope my explanations and all these musical examples have helped you to understand the hemiola better. Don’t be afraid of them, but just be aware of their existence when you meet pieces where the note patterns are grouped in threes. Take every opportunity to consult the score, as you’re more likely to see them there, and don’t hesitate to experiment with your phrasing and articulation in bars you think may be hemiolas. These fascinating rhythmic patterns don’t bite and they can bring more variety, light and shade into your performances.

Finally, if you have a trick for spotting or dealing with hemiolas which I haven’t mentioned please do leave a comment below so we can share our ideas and musical knowledge.

Behind the scenes with the Score Lines videos

June 21, 2022 in Musings

One of the questions I’m asked most about the consort videos I’ve been making for the last two years is, “How do you make them?”, closely followed by, “It must take you hours!”

There was a time during the first Covid lockdown that professional musicians everywhere seemed to be creating multitrack videos, often as a way to remind people we were still out there, even if we couldn’t play to a live audience any more. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon immediately as I was enjoying the opportunity to have some genuine down time at last. I soon became aware how much the people with whom I normally work (amateur musicians like yourself) were missing being able to play in ensembles. I too was missing my musical interactions with others and it struck me that maybe there was scope for me to create some resources to help others.

First steps

While I’ll happily admit I’m a bit of a geek, I don’t have any real experience of video - stills photography is much more my cup of tea. I didn’t want to spend hours editing and grading video content from a proper camera so I did some research about simple ways to make a multitrack video. I quickly hit upon an app called Acapella which can be downloaded to your smartphone. I found some helpful videos on YouTube by flautist Gina Luciani explaining how it works, so I downloaded the trial version and had a play. Incidentally, if you fancy trying this yourself, I believe the iOS version (intended for iPhones) is more fully featured than the Android version. Of course, there may be alternatives out there which work better on Android too.

Shortly before the pandemic I’d bought myself a pair of good quality wireless earbuds, to listen to music on the move, so I figured I’d use them to record my videos. Imagine my disappointment when I tried Acapella and none of the tracks quite knitted together - I was ready to throw the whole kit through the window! Consulting friends who are more technically minded than I me, I discovered there is a slight delay in the way sound plays through a Bluetooth wireless device - sufficient to cause my problems. Instead I went back to my old wired earphones and things worked much better.

One of my first projects was a recording of Holborne’s The Fairie Round - a classic of the Renaissance consort repertoire, with lots of fun cross rhythms. This worked moderately well and I shared the result (which you can see below) with friends on social media. This made me think perhaps there might be some mileage in exploring further…

Next step - figuring out what might be helpful to others

By this stage (May 2020) there were other musicians already creating play along videos for recorder players. Looking at these more closely, they all comprised just the music, with little or no indication of the speed or help to get started. I know from long experience that many players find the gestures of a conductor helpful so I pondered if it might be possible to include this in any resources I produced.

I decided to start with something simple - a trio of Bach Chorales. I’ll explain the process I now use to record in a moment, but for these I began by playing the music and then added a conducting track. In between each chorale I offered a few words of advice to camera about tempo and how you might tackle them. I then popped them on some of the recorder groups on Facebook, along with the music, and asked if anyone might find them useful. The response was very positive - much to my relief. The finished product was pretty rough and ready, but I could see there might be a demand for such offerings if I could come up with some more.

My next project was a Chaconne from The Gordion Knot Untied by Purcell - a piece I’ve conducted with many groups over the years. For this I began the pattern I’ve maintained ever since, with a recording of the music, plus a separate ‘Hints and Tips’ video. I figured the chat between movements would quickly become irritating for anyone who played along with any piece regularly, so it made sense to separate them. Whether everyone watches both videos is something I can’t track, but I know many people find my thoughts helpful and I do my best to offer some useful advice with each consort.

Gradual additions to the technology

When I began recording my videos I started with the Acapella app on my phone, mounted on the tripod I use for my photography, along with the pair of basic wired earphones which came with my iPhone. Since then I’ve made a few additions to my kit, with a Rode VideoMicro microphone (plus an adapter which allows me to connect the mic and a pair of earphones to my phone). This addition offers much better quality sound. It can also be adjusted to cope with a greater dynamic and tonal range. The recorder may not be an especially loud instrument, but its pure tone (especially the higher members of the family) means it's easy to overload the microphone. I now know to have the sound level adjusted to about one third of the maximum to avoid any painful high notes.

A close up of my phone setup, with microphone, adapter and cables. You don’t need anything other than a basic pair of wired earphones to get started if you fancy trying this yourself!

Another addition was a Rotolight NEO 2 video light which I bought second hand. I record my videos in from of our dining room window (much to the amusement of our postman as he passes the window), which provides good illumination from one side, while the left side of my face faces the darker end of the room. Using the video light provides fill light to lift the shadows and means I can record on dull winter days without it looking too gloomy.

My Rotolight NEO on a simple light stand to add illumincation

Figuring out the process

Learning how to get the best from the Acapella app has been a process of trial and error. Gina Luciani’s videos got me started, but from there I just had to jump in and play to get the results I desired. It’s taken lots of experimentation to find out what works best for me, the acoustic of the place I record and the sound of the recorder. Here’s a brief explanation of my process in case you fancy having a go yourself…

Setting up the Acapella app.

Once you’ve chosen your piece you need to select a layout and Acapella offers an impressive range of options. I general use a square layout for the multitrack videos, while for my Hints and Tips videos I go for a portrait format frame. As you can see here there are many options, but for my purposes I always pick a large frame for the conducting track (so you can see my gestures better) and smaller windows for the instrumental parts.

The next step is to pick the length of video. The trial version of Acapella limits you to 30 seconds (long enough to get a taste of whether you might wish to pursue this further) but the paid version (around £42 for access to all the bells and whistles for a year but you can pay monthly if you want to give it a try before committing) can accommodate videos of up to ten minutes - plenty long enough for my purposes. You can set a specific length of time (if you know exactly how long your piece of music is) but I tend to choose ten minutes and then stop the recording when I’ve finished playing.

Next you need to set up the metronome. No matter how rhythmic we think we are, it’s almost impossible to adhere to a perfectly consistent beat unaided. The ability to set a metronome pulse (which plays through my earphones as I record) is invaluable, although there are times when I curse it. More about that later…

The app offers you a choice of time signatures and metronome speeds from 60 to 180. On the rare occasions I need something slower (say 50) I’ll just set a speed of 100 and use it as a subdivided beat. When I’m recording the hints and tips videos I simply turn off the ‘play tempo’ option as I don’t need a pulse to distract me when I’m talking to the camera!

The final set up screen relates to the microphone. This is relevant whether you’re using the microphone built into your earphones or an external mic like mine. Even with a relatively soft instrument like the recorder, setting the microphone level to maximum will result in all sorts of distortion - as you may have heard in some of my early efforts. As you can see from this screenshot, I set mine at no more than one third, although I might increase this a little if I’m recording a piece solely on low recorders. To determine the right level, I just play a range of pitches into the microphone and watch the green on screen meter to check they don’t exceed what the microphone can cope with.

The settings lower down the screen relate to the monitor. This is the sound that plays through your earphones - both the live sound that you’re recording and the tracks you’ve already recorded. This is important so you can hear the tuning between the various voices.

Now it’s time to record!

With all the set up done, the fun bit begins. I tend to start with the bass line and work upwards, but it’s worth trying different approaches - you may find it easier to begin with the descant and work downwards. I’ll talk a little more about the challenges and how I deal with them later.

Acapella gives a countdown on screen to tell you when the microphone becomes live. Then it’s simply a case of playing in time with the metronome beat that’s audible through the earphones. If you find metronomes challenging, my top tip here is never to tap your foot at the same time - you’ll always follow your foot as it’s part of you! When you’ve finished, the app asks if you want to have another go, or if you’re happy. Pressing continue offers you a chance to listen to what you’ve just recorded. If you like what you hear, selecting the green tick triggers the app to render the track you’ve laid down, saving it and the allowing you to record the next one. From there it’s a case of rinse and repeat until you’ve recorded all the voices.

Tweaking the sound settings

The final step is to adjust the sound of the various tracks before you save your finished video. There’s a huge array of options, but I keep it pretty simple. My dining room has a relatively hard acoustic, so I add some reverb to soften the edges and a little hint of echo. A carpeted room would absorb the sound even more so might need a little more assistance to add a little bloom to the end result. The engineer who recorded my CD described this as adding ‘fairy dust’ - that magic quality which turns the dry acoustic of one’s living room into something more flattering! I’ve experimented with using even more reverb but in my experience that just feels too extravagant.

Export and share with your audience

Finally, it’s time to export the completed video and share it with the world! Once you’ve named the video you save it to your Acapella account (I tend to save mine as private files rather than public) and then you have an option to save it in other ways too. I export a copy to my iPhone photos, but you can also share it by email, WhatsApp or on social media from here. One of the options is to select Full HD output (the best quality Acapella offers) or 720P. While it would be wonderful to go for the quality of HD, I generally opt for 720P as the file sizes are much smaller for my subscribers to download them later.

To play or conduct first?

So far I’ve talked about the technical process of recording my videos, but I’ve faced practical decisions along the way too. The first of these is whether to record the conducting or playing tracks first. With a metronome to keep me in time one could argue that the playing could come first. However, doing this presents problems if there’s a tempo change in the music. Because of this I tend to lay down the conducting track first. I spend a few seconds showing my intended speed before giving a bar for nothing and working my way through the piece, conducting at the speed of the metronome best in my ear. If there’s a rallentando at the end I then have to ignore the click of the metronome and indicate the degree of slow down I’m after. This takes a good degree of willpower, but I’ve become quite good at listening selectively when I need to!

Of course one of the most challenging aspects of beginning with the conducting track is the fact that I’m doing so in complete silence. Normally I would respond to the players I’m working with, but here I have to know the score well and give the gestures I would expect to offer to a group of live musicians. From time to time our postman will walk past the window as I’m doing this and I’m sure he must think I’m doing some obscure form of tai chi!

A matter of intonation

The other big challenge when recording multitrack videos is that of intonation. Playing with other musicians in real time is always a game of give and take. You listen to each other and make micro adjustments to the pitch of notes, to make the tuning sweet and true. With multitrack recording this isn’t possible. Once the first track is laid down it’s an immovable object which doesn’t respond to later inputs. This is one of the reasons I begin with the bass line as I can then layer up the other parts on top to fit with it.

So how does one make sure the harmonies are true? This is where it helps to know a little about the way chords work. You may have heard conductors and teachers talking about adjusting the individual notes in chords to obtain pure intonation. This usually entails making the 5th (the G in a C major chord, for instance) quite bright, while the 3rd will need to be altered depending on whether you’re playing a major or minor chord.

A major third (E in our C major chord) will sound sweetest when played a touch flatter, while a minor third (E flat in a chord of C minor) will want to be fractionally sharper. Next time you play with friends try experimenting with this by playing a major chord and varying the pitch of the third - a little higher, a little lower. A really bright major third gives the chord a sour, grating quality. In contrast, lowering the third a little (you can adjust your breath pressure or shade a finger over one of the holes) will make the end result much sweeter and the third almost seems to melt into the chord.

This is the very process I go through as I record each video. For this reason I always record from the score if I can, as it enables me to identify the position of each note within the harmony and adjust its pitch accordingly. This takes a fair degree of mental gymnastics, but experience of conducting from scores and playing basso continuo from figured bass has taught me many of the patterns to expect. Of course, months of making these videos has also helped me learn the foibles of my recorders intimately. I now know where to ‘place’ certain notes using breath pressure or minor adjustments to fingerings to hit the mark. There are inevitably places where I don’t get things right for every single note but I’ve never claimed to achieve recorder consort perfection!

Getting it right first time

When we listen to professionally made recordings we naturally assume the performances we’re hearing are absolutely perfect. The reality is that most recordings (except perhaps ones made in live concerts) require some editing to remove small glitches and errors. In a post last December I talked about the way we expect perfection of ourselves – an expectation which is simply unachievable.

Professional musicians aim for perfection but we’re as human as you and that’s why we have recording engineers who can record snippets to patch into the finished performance to create the illusion of perfection. Sadly I don’t have a tame recording engineer to hand, or the skills to do this myself, and the Acapella app doesn’t offer this option in any case. This means I have to get as close to perfection as I can and accept that every video I produce will inevitably contain some imperfections.

As I record each track I am continually analysing any errors I make, deciding whether they’re absolutely unforgiveable (in which case I stop and begin again) or whether they’re small enough to be overlooked. When I was at music college my recorder teacher would admonish me for being ‘too neat and tidy’. He was looking for more spontaneity and freedom in my performances. I like to think I’ve loosened up over the years, but that tendency towards tidiness has proved to be a boon when recording videos! That said, there are inevitably times when I make stupid errors and have to record a track multiple times. If you imagine you’re the only person who slips into the wrong fingerings or makes daft errors don’t give yourself too hard a time – I do it too. I recall one contrabass part which I recorded five or six times because my brain insisted on sending me into great bass fingering!

I know from experience of recording CDs that if something doesn’t come good in the first couple of takes it will often get worse before it gets better. Think of those old TV programmes showing outtakes of famous actors fluffing their lines. They’re funny because generally they make ever more mistakes with each further attempt, so take 17 is usually much worse than take 2! Musicians are no different. Sometimes you just have to walk away, go and have a cuppa, and try again later. The same goes for my Hints and Tips videos where I sometimes find myself incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence. Fortunately, I don’t save the outtakes, so you’ll never get to enjoy my ineptitude!

Now you can have a go!

So there you have a glimpse behind the scenes of my consort videos. If you fancy having a go yourself I would encourage you to go ahead and try. You don’t need expensive equipment – a smartphone and the wired earphones that were supplied with it are enough to get you started. Yes, it can be frustrating when you make daft mistakes, but that’s all part of the learning process. Even if you never share the results with anyone else, I can guarantee you’ll achieve a greater understanding of your musical strengths and weaknesses and it’s fun too. I know some of you have already tried this and I was delighted to see some of my own videos being used as a starting point for further collaboration by my subscribers. I’d love to hear how you get on if you choose to jump in and have a go – do leave a comment below or drop me an email to tell me about your experiences or with any quesitons.

Trills without the terror

May 24, 2022 in Technique

Do you panic when you see a trill sign in your music? Does the thought of all those fast notes send you into a frenzy? If so, you’re not alone! It’s amazing that something so small and so frequent in the music we play can cause so much worry, but I’m here today to help you overcome your fears. With a little thought, time and practice your trills can become a thing of elegant beauty rather than sheer terror.

What is a trill?

Fundamentally a trill is an ornament – a decorative addition to the music. At its most basic level, a trill is a rapid oscillation between the printed note and a pitch one step higher. It’s important to take the key signature into account, so you play your trills within the key of the music you’re playing. Therefore, in a piece with no key signature if your printed note is an A, you will alternate between that and a B. On the other hand, if your music has a key signature of one flat your upper note will be a B flat.

For the purposes of this blog post I’m going to focus on Baroque trills, as this is the type of repertoire where you’re most likely to encounter them. There are subtle differences to the way you play trills in earlier and later music – for instance whether you begin on the upper or lower note – but if you start with a sound understanding of the Baroque variety you’ll be in a good position to explore these later.

Let’s start by taking a look at the practicalities of trills – the hows, whys and whens. Then I’ll help you build up your skills so your trills can sound effortlessly elegant.

What is the purpose of a Baroque trill?

I said earlier that a trill is an ornament. This suggests it has a purely decorative function – like a porcelain figurine sitting on a shelf. In some music this is true, but Baroque trills have a more specific purpose – to create a sense of tension and release. In order to understand this we first need to know where to begin our trills.

You already know that a trill is made up of two pitches – the one notated in your music and the note immediately above. Which should you start on? Put simply, it’s almost always the upper note. So when playing the following phrase (from Telemann’s Sonata in F) you would begin the trill in bar 4 on a D and then alternate swiftly between that and the notated C sharp.

But why do we begin trills on the upper note?

This is where the concept of tension and release comes into play. Take a look at the same passage again, shown this time with the accompaniment.

If you study the chord beneath the trill in bar 4 you’ll see a chord which includes an E and a C sharp. By playing the upper note of the trill (a D) against this you create a discord or clash in the harmony. This creates a sense of tension, which then dissipates when the trill resolves downwards to the C sharp. This is the purpose of a Baroque trill. No doubt you’ll have heard teachers and conductors nagging to begin trills on the upper note – now you know why. It’s not because we’re trying to make life harder for you, but instead to create that magic combination of tension and release.

Where should I play a trill?

If you’ve played a reasonable amount of Baroque music you’ll have encountered places where your teacher or conductor tells you to insert a trill, even though it’s not marked in the music. Why is this? Is the composer being lazy in his or her notation?

Not at all! We’re spoilt with modern notation – composers today generally give very clear information about the way they’d like the music to be played. It’s not unusual to have very detailed articulation marks (slurs, staccato, accents and the like), dynamics and even the odd trill printed into our music. With early music (generally prior to around 1750) composers left these creative decisions in the hands of the performer. Because players were familiar with the style of the period they knew what was expected of them so there was simply no need to mark every last little detail in. This requires a lot of decision making on our part – a topic I talked about in an earlier blog post which you can find here.

When it comes to trills, the most common place for them is at a cadence point. A cadence occurs at the end of a phrase, usually accompanied by a particular combination of chords. Whether you have a knowledge of harmony or not, these chord progressions are so much a familiar part of the music that you’ll probably have an instinctive sense that you’re reaching the end of a musical sentence. At these points a trill will often be added to the penultimate note of the phrase, emphasising this point. For instance, listen to Dan Laurin’s performance of the opening movement of Handel’s Sonata in C. Note the way his trills occur just before the end of phrases. These are points where there is a moment of repose, before the music moves onwards. Think of it like the time you would take at punctuation points if you were reading a piece of prose aloud to an audience.

Sometimes these cadential trills will be notated in the music – perhaps by the composer, or as additions from the editor. There will be lots of other places where a trill might be appropriate though, so don’t be afraid to try putting them in. If you feel you’re approaching the end of a musical sentence pop in a trill and see if it works. What’s the worst that can happen? You might find it fits perfectly and, if not, you can try somewhere else next time. No one will suffer an injury from an incorrectly placed trill!

Which notes should I articulate?

With potentially lots of notes to play you may be daunted by the thought of getting your tongue around them. Fear not! Baroque trills are always slurred so you should tongue the first (upper) note and then your tongue doesn’t need to make contact with your hard palate again until the note immediately after the trill. It’s very easy to slither onto this final note in an uncontrolled way. This may be because you find it hard to coordinate your tongue with this single note. If this is the case, instead focus on the underlying rhythm beneath the trill. Let’s look at an extended extract of the Telemann again:

Take a look at the rhythm of the trill in bar 7 - a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver. You wouldn’t think twice about tonguing those two notes cleanly without the presence of the trill. Instead of worrying about how you’re going to coordinate your tongue stroke with that quaver, focus your articulation on the underlying rhythm as though the trill wasn’t there at all. Once your trill finger patterns have a little more control you’ll find they match up very easily. I’ll talk a little more about creating shapely trills in a moment.

Selecting your trill fingerings

This is an occasion when Occam’s Razor should come into play – a centuries old principle which decrees that the simplest answer is usually the right one. In other words, if you can play your trill by using the standard fingering for both notes, you should do exactly that! There will of course be some combinations of notes where this isn’t possible – for instance the trill which appears in bar 6 of the example above (the equivalent trill would be C to B on a descant or tenor recorder). Here it isn’t practical to shift cleanly and swiftly between the two standard fingerings so an alternative has to be used.

A very thorough chart, showing trill fingerings for all sizes of recorder, can be found on the Dolmetsch website here. You could perhaps print out a copy and keep it near your music stand or in your recorder case for reference.

Feeling overwhelmed at the number of possible trill fingerings? Don’t be!

Recorder music tends to be written in a fairly limited number of keys. This means the number of trill fingerings you’ll need on a regular basis is relatively small. If you’re just starting out with trills, get to know a couple to start with and use them whenever they occur in your music. Once you’re comfortable finding one or two of these in the heat of the moment, choose another one and add that to your repertoire. There’s really no need to bamboozle yourself with all of them at once – instead add new trill fingerings gradually and they’ll stick in your muscle memory more easily.

Making your trills shapely

It’s all very well knowing the theory of playing trills but the next step is making them feel like an integrated part of the music. Johann Joachim Quantz offers his thoughts on this subject in his 1752 book, On Playing the Flute:

“Shakes [trills] add great lustre to one’s playing, and, like appoggiaturas, are quite indispensable. If an instrumentalist or singer were to possess all the skill required by good taste in performance, and yet could not strike good shakes, this total art would be incomplete.”

If trills set you into a state of panic it’s easy to forget about ‘good taste’, instead throwing your fingers at them and ending up in a frantic mess. Take a moment to remember what I said earlier about the purpose of a Baroque trill. In music of this period trills are an expressive device, as much an a decorative one. Therefore you’ll achieve a more stylish result if you focus more on the shape of the trill and less on the sheer speed required.

Remember, the upper note of the trill is the moment where you create a discord – that moment of tension. This note is an appoggiatura - the Italian word for a leaning note. Sometimes the composer or editor will print this appoggiatura in the music (see bar 1 of the Telemann example above) but even if they don’t, you still need to play it. The longer you can spend on this appoggiatura, the more expressive the result. Not only that, but by lengthening the upper note you reduce the time remaining and therefore the number of wiggles you need to fit in. The result – a more expressive trill that sounds more musical and is easier too. I call that a win! Listen to these two snippets of me playing a short section from the Handel C major Sonata – the first with fast trills which have a short upper note, the second with longer, more expressive appoggiaturas. Do you agree that the second feels more stylish and expressive?

Speed isn’t everything

My harpsichord teacher, Maria Boxall, often used to remind me that trills don’t need to be like wallpaper. Imagine of a roll of wall paper – the printed pattern repeats at the same interval throughout its length. This is the wall paper equivalent of a fast, whizzy trill. Now imagine instead a roll of paper where the repetition of the pattern alters along its length. At the top of the roll the patterns are distanced from each other and their repetition increases in frequency as you move down the length of paper. This is a great image to have in mind as you begin a longer trill. You don’t need to jump in feet first, at full speed. Instead, start the oscillation slowly and gradually wind it up. See how much more shapely this makes it feel? I’ll give you some exercises to practise this later.

Again, Quantz has some good advice on this subject:

“All shakes do not have to be struck with the same speed; in this matter you must be governed by the place in which you are playing, as well as by the piece to be performed. …. In melancholy pieces the shake must be struck more slowly, in gay ones, more quickly.”

As Quantz suggests, you should always consider the mood and character of the piece you’re playing. A fast, energetic movement may demand swift, snappy trills, whereas in a slow movement a more leisurely approach might feel more appropriate. Again, here are two snippets from Handel’s C major Sonata – one a sonorous Larghetto, the second an energetic Allegro – notice how I tailor the character of the trills to match the mood of the music.

How do I finish a trill?

Now you have a better understanding about the way trills begin we need to consider how to finish them. Quantz offers this advice:

“The ending of each shake [trill] consists of two little notes which follow the notes of the shake, and are added to it at the same speed. They are called the termination. This termination is sometimes written out with separate notes. If, however, only a plain note is found, both the appoggiatura and termination are implied, since without them the shake would be neither complete not sufficiently brilliant.”

However, later he does later add:

“I would like to note in addition that if shakes are indicated above several quick notes, the appoggiatura and termination are not always possible because of the lack of time.”

So it would seem it’s case of “You should always play trills the way I specifiy, except on occasions when it’s not practical” - a wonderfully pragmatic approach!

Another option for finishing trills is to use an anticipation note - a brief anticipation of the note you finally land upon. In the first movement of Telemann’s Recorder Sonata in C we see him writing these anticipation notes into the music after the trills (notated here with a + sign rather than tr).

It’s worth practising these different endings for trills so you can call upon whichever is most appropriate in the heat of the moment. In Gudrun Heyen’s Advanced Recorder Technique, Volume 1, she offers these patterns as the basis for practising anticipation notes or turns at the end of trills. The three patterns are shown for a trill on a C, but you could replicate the pattern and practise is on any note to acquire the muscle memory for any key.

Developing your trill technique

One of the things people worry about most with trills is the sheer speed. As we’ve learnt, trills don’t always need to be super-speedy, but there will be occasions when you need some velocity. For those moments it’s important to hone your finger movements and practise them so you can call upon that speed when necessary.

Let’s begin with this simple exercise:

Begin with a steady tempo - maybe crotchet = 72. As you play, focus on the quality of your finger movements. You should keep your fingers as relaxed as possible, using as little effort to seal the finger holes as is absolutely necessary. Make your finger movements small too – don’t lift your fingers more than about a centimetre above the holes. Remember – the further you lift your fingers, the longer they will take to come back down again. You may find it helpful to play these exercises in front of a mirror so you can see your fingers from a different perspective.

Now focus on the evenness of your notes. Close your eyes and really listen. Taking away the visual element makes you listen more carefully. Remember, lifting a finger takes just a fraction more effort than lowering it as you are working against gravity.

Now do the same exercise on different notes, working up from the bottom of your recorder. Some fingers will move more easily than others – third fingers are often recalcitrant and moving your thumb quickly may prove troublesome too. This is because the joints in our thumbs work in a different way to those in our fingers because they have a greater range of all round movement. Once you can do this exercise on every note at this slow tempo, gradually increase the speed of your metronome to make your fingers move faster.

Spend a few minutes on these patterns each time you practise and you’ll soon find you gain speed and flexibility.

Now for some rubato…

OK, so you’ve got your fingers moving more quickly. Now we need to introduce the flexibility needed to create a shapely Baroque trill. Here we use rubato. This Italian word means robbed time – literally you’re stealing time from some notes and adding it to others to create a feeling of flexibility and spontaneity.

Now take the exercise we did just now, oscillating between two notes, but instead of precise, mathematical changes in tempo go for a gradual increase of speed. Begin really slowly and gradually move your finger faster until you reach your terminal velocity. Again, with some finger combinations you may find you get stuck, as a finger momentarily stalls. Keep trying, but be careful to maintain the feeling of relaxation in your digits. Tension is your greatest enemy when it comes to developing speed. While you’re at it, try the same exercise with trills which gradually reduce in speed, and finally trills which increase and decrease in velocity. If you can get to a point where you can do this with every finger you are in a great place to apply it to the music you’re playing.

Other trilling conundrums

One of the things I found hardest when I began playing trills was keeping an awareness of the pulse while playing a trill which felt organic rather than metronomic. Sadly I don’t recall how I overcame this stumbling block, but using a metronome will certainly help. Having an audible beat to play against will help you keep track of the number of beats you’re trilling for and in time you’ll be able to maintain this sense of pulse in your head against even the most flexible and shapely of trills.

Keeping your upper notes on the beat

Because we perceive trills as requiring masses of speed, it’s easy to panic about fitting everything in. Somewhere in our subconscious, a small voice tells us that if we begin the trill earlier it’ll give us more time to get all those whizzy notes in. You can’t deny the logic, but sadly it just doesn’t work! The end result is a trill which may begin on the upper note but it often comes so early that by the time the chord with which it’s intended to clash (thus creating the desired feeling of tension) comes along, the upper note is but a distant memory!

Remember my advice earlier about spending more time on the appoggiatura and less on the wiggling notes. This may help, as the appoggiatura then becomes a more significant note in its own right. In fast pieces though this will often not be enough to cure your impatience to get trilling. To conquer this problem a good practice strategy is to play your piece of music, inserting only the appoggiaturas and leaving out all the wiggly notes. Really focus on getting them firmly on the beat. Then once you’re happy, add back in some twiddles, while maintaining the appoggiatura on the beat. Even after you’ve done this you may slip back into bad habits, so never be afraid to go back and repeat the exercise periodically.

Learn from others

To finish off, the most important piece of advice I can give you is to listen to lots of Baroque music. YouTube is a fantastic resource and there are lots of wonderful performances to be found by amazing recorder players. Do a search for names such as Dan Laurin, Erik Bosgraaf, Pamela Thorby, Frans Brüggen, Saskia Coolen or your favourite recorder professional and you’ll find no end of sonatas and concertos which contain a myriad of trills for you to enjoy and inwardly digest.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Barsanti Sonata in C major:

Handel Sonata in D minor:

Mancini Sonata in A minor

Remember too that you don’t even need to restrict yourself to recorder music. The same principles apply to Baroque music played on any instrument so you’ll never be short of listening material. Really focus on how and where they play trills and gradually you’ll begin to understand where you could add them into your own performances.

If you have your own trill tips, perhaps shared with you by your own teacher, do share them in the comments below so we can all learn from each other.

Sounding pipes – musical explorations

May 10, 2022 in Music recommendations

What do you listen to most when you’re travelling? When I’m on the road I’m an avid listener of podcasts, but when I begin to flag music becomes my preferred choice. There’s nothing quite like singing along loudly to a piece of music to wake you up and make the miles pass more quickly!

On recent journeys I’ve taken to putting the choice of music in the hands of Apple Music (other music providers are available!), telling the app on my phone to pick the music for me. I’ve always enjoyed a very varied listening diet – one day it’ll be Bach, followed maybe by a Brahms Symphony, some Byrd polyphony or popular music by the Beatles or Robbie Williams. The app on my phone has been learning from this and when I put it in charge it offers me an equally eclectic mix. This has proved to be a wonderful ground for discovering fresh music.

I’ve made some amazing discoveries during these listening sessions and it struck me you might be interested in some of the gems I’ve come across. The result is a new series of occasional blog posts called Sounding Pipes, where I’ll share some of the (mostly) recorder related recordings I’ve encountered and enjoyed. Of course, those long journeys in the car are only the beginning. Sometimes I’ll seek out a piece of music again once I’m home, taking me down unforeseen paths to other fascinating repertoire, or reminding me of works I’d forgotten about.

I hope you enjoy these listening suggestions and that perhaps they lead you to new discoveries of your own. All of this week’s pieces are available on YouTube to watch or listen to, but wherever possible I’ll also include details of the albums they come from so you can explore further if you wish.

Happy listening!

J.S.Bach – Ebarme dich, mein Gott from the St. Matthew Passion

Lucie Horsch – Baroque Journey (Decca 2019)

This is where the inspiration for this series originated, as this piece popped up on my playlist, performed by Dutch recorder player Lucie Horsch. I first encountered this heart breakingly beautiful aria when I performed in a St. Matthew Passion on the Isle of Wight many years ago. I clearly recall the exquisite combination of solo violin and countertenor voice and it remains my absolute favourite from the most famous of Bach’s Passions. Purists may not approve of the way Lucie Horsch swaps the vocal line for a recorder, but it’s hard not to forgive this change when she plays it so beautifully.

Following the breadcrumbs laid by Lucie, I returned to Bach’s original scoring and made a second, even more amazing discovery. Searching on YouTube, I happened upon the Netherlands Baroque Society’s project, All of Bach. This project aims to perform and record the entirety of Bach’s compositional output, making it all available to watch free of charge – an astonishing prospect in every way! Among the pieces already recorded is a performance of the St. Matthew Passion from 2015. The whole Passion is available online, but the performance of Ebarme dich, mein Gott, featuring violinist Shunske Sato and singer Tim Mead is, to my mind, even more glorious than Lucie’s one. While there are no recorders in the original, I decided to share this with you too as I hope you’ll love it as much as I do!

Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger – Pavan No.2 on Seven Notes

B-Five Recorder Consort & Sofie Vanden Eynde (lute) – The Soule of Heaven (Coviello Classics COV92108)

I have to credit my Dad for pointing me in the direction of this particular recording. He heard this Pavan by Ferrabosco on the radio recently and asked if I knew it. While I was certainly familiar with Ferrabosco I didn’t know this particular Pavan and what a find it is! The B-Five Recorder Consort play it on a wonderful set of low Renaissance recorders and the lush tones are so enchanting. The addition of lute (played by Sofie Vanden Eynde) enhances the texture, balancing the richness of the recorder tone. Needless to say I’ve downloaded the whole album and it’ll be a welcome soothing influence after a busy day!

Sour Cream performing a selection of music for three recorders

Frans Brüggen, Kees Boeke & Walter van Hauwe

I discovered this video while rummaging on YouTube for recorder trio music. My eye was caught by the inclusion of Upon Ut Re Mi Fa by John Baldwine, but this 36 minute programme contains an eclectic mix. When this was recorded in 1981 at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, the centre had been open for just three years, designed by the then largely unknown architect Norman Foster. The building is home to an enormous art collection, spanning some 5000 years of human activity, and the music reflects this variety.

Sour Cream was formed by Frans Brüggen, Kees Boeke & Walter van Hauwe with the intention of commissioning and performing avant garde music recorder music, but their repertoire expanded way beyond that. Rather than being a straight performance to camera, the trio’s music is accompanied by an eclectic cinematic approach, using green screen techniques and even a surreal Monty Pythonesque section where they interact with the works of art and then fall asleep. I can’t but feel they had great fun making this! The music may not all be to your taste, but there’s bound to be something you’ll love. The final Bach Allegro (the Preludio from his Violin Partita in E minor) is an absolute tour de force of technique and precision.

If this quirky compilation intrigues you I suggest you explore Sour Cream’s iconic album The Passion of Reason (recorded in 1993/4 & rereleased by Glossa records 2013) which includes an equally varied repertoire from five centuries.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in hearing the original violin version of the Bach Preludio which ends this selection, I can recommend this performance by Viktoria Mullova. If you fancy the ultimate workout, Frans Brüggen also made his own transcription of the Preludio for solo recorder which is published by Moeck, along with a selection of other movements from the Violin Partitas. If you choose to try it for yourself be prepared to do lots of scale and breathing practice!

Telemann Concerto in E minor for recorder and flute

Frans Brüggen (recorder), Frans Vester (flute) & Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra

When I was at music college I regularly used to visit Leadenhall Market in the city of London to browse the CDs at Farringdon Records (a wonderful shop which sadly no longer exists). It was on one such visit that I discovered this recording and it became a firm favourite. The playing style may not be as ‘authentic’ as some (played on modern instruments rather than Baroque copies) but I was blown away by the sheer energy of the performance. To this day the vivacity of the final movement of the concerto is simply irresistible

If this recording appeals to you as much as it did to my youthful self I recommend exploring the whole album which features four other concertos and overtures by Telemann.

New Zealand Traditional - Wellerman

Ralf Bienioschek - recorders, guitar, percussion, melodica

And now, as they say, for something completely different! Early in 2021 a new craze emerged on TikTok and other social media sites, spurred by Scottish singer Nathan Evans’ performances of sea shanties. Perhaps the best known of these is Soon May the Wellerman Come, and it wasn’t long before the recorder world had its own version. One of my subscribers, pointed me to this performance by Ralf Bienioschek and it’s absolutely infectious in its drive and energy. He’s recorded several other multitrack videos of equally unlikely repertoire for recorder (Billy Eilish’s Bad Guy for instance) and there are links to these on Ralf’s website. A big thank you to Jean for leading me here and many apologies if this results in a persistent earworm!

If this whets your appetite to play Wellerman for yourself Ralf has published the sheet music for his arrangement here.

So there you have my first Sounding Pipes playlist - I hope you found something new and enjoyable within. If you have favourite recordings you’d like to share with us all please do leave a comment below - I hope this may offer an opportunity for us all to explore and listen further!

Score Lines Blog

Welcome! This is where I share educational posts about all things recorder related - history, hints and tips, repertoire, technique, general musical musings.

Would you like to support Score Lines?

It takes two days each week to lovingly create my blog posts and consort videos. The modest income I receive from my supporters allows me to keep doing this. If you’d like to support me you can do so via the blue ‘Support me’ button. Thank you for your support and inspiration!

Looking for a particular subject?

You can now search the Score Lines blog - just type in the box below and hit return. Alternatively, feel free to have a good rummage through the categories below - you never know what goodies you might find!

Hints and Tips
- May 13, 2025 Advice from beyond the recorder world May 13, 2025
- Feb 18, 2025 The art of listening Feb 18, 2025
- May 21, 2024 The Practice Files - How to practise like a pro May 21, 2024
- Feb 27, 2024 Arranging and composing for recorder consort Feb 27, 2024
- Sep 26, 2023 Recorder playing as a team sport Sep 26, 2023
- Jul 18, 2023 Metronome - friend or foe? Jul 18, 2023
- Jul 4, 2023 Bass is beautiful Jul 4, 2023
- Oct 11, 2022 Survival skills for ensemble playing Oct 11, 2022
- Sep 13, 2022 Learning to become a musical butterfly Sep 13, 2022
- Aug 16, 2022 Taking the stress out of sight reading Aug 16, 2022
- Jul 19, 2022 How do you hemiola? Jul 19, 2022
- Nov 23, 2021 Golden rules for recorder players Nov 23, 2021
- Nov 9, 2021 Decisions, decisions… Nov 9, 2021
- Sep 28, 2021 Cracking the code Sep 28, 2021
History of music
- Apr 1, 2025 Time travel for musicians - from the Medieval to the 18th century Apr 1, 2025
- Jul 30, 2024 Musical evolution - from the canzona to the sonata Jul 30, 2024
- Mar 26, 2024 Strictly Come Dancing - Baroque style Mar 26, 2024
- Nov 7, 2023 An instrument of many different characters Nov 7, 2023
- Aug 1, 2023 Strictly come dancing - Renaissance style Aug 1, 2023
- Jun 20, 2023 A brief history of tempo Jun 20, 2023
- Nov 22, 2022 The Bassanos - a dynasty of recorder makers, players and composers Nov 22, 2022
- Apr 26, 2022 Pitch Perfect - the journey to musical consensus Apr 26, 2022
Instruments
- Nov 7, 2023 An instrument of many different characters Nov 7, 2023
Interviews
- Mar 29, 2022 Meet the composer - Steve Marshall Mar 29, 2022
Music Theory
- Feb 18, 2025 The art of listening Feb 18, 2025
- Sep 10, 2024 Back to basics - the Key to Music Sep 10, 2024
- Nov 21, 2023 Back to basics - the theory of time Nov 21, 2023
Music recommendations
- May 27, 2025 Sounding Pipes, Edition 8 May 27, 2025
- Apr 1, 2025 Time travel for musicians - from the Medieval to the 18th century Apr 1, 2025
- Feb 18, 2025 The art of listening Feb 18, 2025
- Sep 24, 2024 Music in the world of podcasting Sep 24, 2024
- Jul 30, 2024 Musical evolution - from the canzona to the sonata Jul 30, 2024
- Jul 16, 2024 Trios for four Jul 16, 2024
- May 7, 2024 Sounding Pipes, Edition 7 May 7, 2024
- Mar 26, 2024 Strictly Come Dancing - Baroque style Mar 26, 2024
- Feb 13, 2024 Drama and style - exploring Italian Baroque Sonatas Feb 13, 2024
- Dec 19, 2023 Sounding Pipes, Edition 6 Dec 19, 2023
- Oct 10, 2023 Sounding Pipes, Edition 5 Oct 10, 2023
- Aug 29, 2023 A Bounty of Byrd Aug 29, 2023
- Apr 11, 2023 Sounding Pipes Edition 4 Apr 11, 2023
- Mar 14, 2023 A host of Holborne Mar 14, 2023
- Dec 20, 2022 Sounding Pipes, Edition 3 Dec 20, 2022
- Dec 6, 2022 Composer focus - George Frideric Handel Dec 6, 2022
- Sep 27, 2022 Many shades of Browning Sep 27, 2022
- Aug 30, 2022 Sounding Pipes, Edition 2 Aug 30, 2022
- May 10, 2022 Sounding pipes – musical explorations May 10, 2022
- Feb 15, 2022 Composer focus – Georg Philipp Telemann Feb 15, 2022
- Oct 12, 2021 Desert Island Discs - the recorder edit Oct 12, 2021
Musings
- Feb 18, 2025 The art of listening Feb 18, 2025
- Aug 27, 2024 The life of a professional recorder player Aug 27, 2024
- Jun 4, 2024 The perfect excuse - real life mistakes Jun 4, 2024
- Feb 28, 2023 The pencil is mightier than the sword Feb 28, 2023
- Feb 14, 2023 Some of my favourite things…. Feb 14, 2023
- Jun 21, 2022 Behind the scenes with the Score Lines videos Jun 21, 2022
- Jan 18, 2022 Knowing me, knowing you…. Jan 18, 2022
- Dec 21, 2021 Do you speak the same language as your conductor? Dec 21, 2021
- Dec 7, 2021 In search of perfection Dec 7, 2021
- Oct 26, 2021 The importance of awareness Oct 26, 2021
- Sep 14, 2021 Welcome to the Score Lines blog! Sep 14, 2021
Practice
- May 21, 2024 The Practice Files - How to practise like a pro May 21, 2024
- Jan 30, 2024 Learn to love your scales! Jan 30, 2024
- Nov 8, 2022 The practice files – preparing for action Nov 8, 2022
- Mar 15, 2022 The Practice Files Mar 15, 2022
Technique
- Jul 2, 2024 The same but different - the wonders of alternative fingerings Jul 2, 2024
- May 21, 2024 The Practice Files - How to practise like a pro May 21, 2024
- Dec 5, 2023 Recorder tips from the real world Dec 5, 2023
- Oct 24, 2023 Everyday Recorder Keep Fit Oct 24, 2023
- May 9, 2023 The Technique Zone - Exploring the extremes May 9, 2023
- Mar 28, 2023 The technique zone - Finger training Mar 28, 2023
- Jan 31, 2023 The technique zone - Making space and time to breathe Jan 31, 2023
- Aug 2, 2022 The Technique Zone - Make your recorder sing Aug 2, 2022
- May 24, 2022 Trills without the terror May 24, 2022
- Apr 12, 2022 The Technique Zone - creating a truly beautiful tone Apr 12, 2022
- Feb 1, 2022 The Technique Zone - Are you sitting comfortably? Feb 1, 2022