RECORDER LESSONS

Invest in your family's future

Learn the recorder

Students are accepted from ages six upwards. Adults are most welcome, especially parents wishing to learn alongside their children in shared lessons. Recorder lessons also work well as a shared experience for brothers and sisters.

As the child grows we integrate sight singing, music theory, aural development, simple music writing skills and general musicianship in a complete package of music tuition.

Our main focus is building comprehensive music skills that allow our students to enjoy music as a lifelong pursuit. Our emphasis is in developing strong sight-reading ability, building a large repertoire of short concert pieces.

The recorder is a very social instrument with much of the music written for groups of mixed sizes called Consorts. It can make an excellent family instrument as well as allowing membership of community groups.

Learning the recorder is an inexpensive way to learn fundamental music reading skills and develop public concert skills. The recorder has a long history of beautiful music, from Medieval times to the present day. As a specialized instrumental study the recorder is not a toy for beginners, but a wonderful instrument that can be taken to University level qualifications. Contemporary musicians such as Genevieve Lacey are among Australia's most popular classical music artists.

Choice of instrument

We can supply a beginners recorder kit that includes an inexpensive plastic instrument, tutor books and a music stand. For the first few months the choice of recorder is not critical, although teenagers or adults may begin with the larger alto size rather than the small soprano commonly played in schools.

After six months students will need to upgrade to a better quality instrument such as the Yamaha 300 Series woodgrain coloured recorders or Mollenhaur PRIMA instruments. The Yahama recorders are plastic but well made, easy to play in tune and make excellent consort instruments since they are available in five sizes.

The Mollenhaur Prima soprano and alto feature a plastic head piece and wooden body that is also suitable for beginners. They do not require "playing in" to acclimatize the wood to the humidity of the player's breath but have a better natural timber feel under the player's fingers.

As students make progress and learn the different finger patterns required for the various sizes they will eventually realize the need for instruments with a clearer, louder tone for solo work or for blending with consorts of wooden instruments. At this point the world of the recorder opens to reveal hundreds of options from around the world. Recorder makers build handmade instruments in many countries including Australia. The big names are Mollenhauer, Huber, Fehr, Küng and Moeck. Yamaha also make wooden recorders. The image on this page shows six of the common sizes available.

Albury's local music store Custom Music stocks a range of instruments suitable for beginner and intermediate recorder players.

Start today!

Playing music for yourself, family or friends is one of life's most rewarding experiences. Music tuition is an investment in your family's future. Fees are $240 including GST for eight half hour individual lessons or $150 each for shared lessons, payable in advance each for NSW school term. Contact us today on 0439 430 536 to book your first lesson.