This presentation teaches students how to play recorder by guiding them through an interactive lesson on the basics. It covers identifying the parts of the recorder, how to hold it properly, fingering techniques to produce different notes, music notation on the staff, and teaches the song "Hot Cross Buns" as a first song. The goal is for students who join mid-year to learn the fundamentals of playing recorder through self-paced practice of the material.

1. You are Going to
Learn to Play the
Recorder!
Presentation designed by
Linda Barnhart
Paramount Elementary
School

2. Note to students:
This presentation was designed to help you learn to play the
recorder. You move through the lesson by clicking the mouse to
move from slide to slide. Click on the symbol to play sound
clips. Take your time to read and practice each slide. You
should be able to play a song on the recorder when you finish this
lesson.
Note to teachers:
You know when you have students that come in the middle of the
year, it can be difficult to catch them up on the recorder. I tend to
forget to cover the basics and they end up jumping in in the
middle. This was developed to help with that problem. It
introduces the student to the recorder and gets them started. I do
not normally move this quickly in the classroom, but here the
student can practice and repeat the lesson as necessary. I hope
that you will find this a helpful tool in your classroom.

3. This is a recorder
This is a “halo” holder that I
have on my recorder.

4. Your Recorder Comes with a cleaner.
We don’t use the cleaners in my room.
In my class we use these to conduct with.
Why?
•The part that you need to clean is the mouthpiece.
•This rod does not clean the mouthpiece.
•You need to add a small strip of cloth to the rod to
use it to clean. Many students end up with too big a
strip of cloth and the rod gets stuck in the recorder.

5. To Clean Your Recorder
1. Turn the recorder so that the thumb hole is
away from your body
2. Cover the area below the mouthpiece with
your thumb and give a quick blow into the
mouthpiece. (If you do this correctly you
should not hear it.)
3. Wipe off any moisture that is on your thumb
and repeat two more times.

6. The Recorder has been around
for a long time.
• The recorder was very popular in Europe in
the 1500s and 1600s. It was then almost
forgotten until the early 1900s, when
instrument maker Arnold Dolmetsch became
interested in it. Through an accident his
recorder was lost. Luckily, he had taken
careful measurements and based a new
instrument on the old design. This was the
beginning of a revival for the recorder. 1
1. Taken from the Kingfisher Young People’s Book of Music 1996

7. This is a little song to help you
learn how to hold the recorder.
• The recorder in your
right hand is where we
will begin…...
• Be sure to hold the
bottom and move it to
your chin……

8. • With your left hand give a
thumbs up….
• On the back it must go.

9. Add 1 it’s B
Add 2 it’s A
Add 3 it’s G you know!

10. Proper Hold
This is the proper way to hold the recorder.
This is too high.
This is too low

11. Cover the Holes Completely
It is important to completely cover the hole with your finger!
If you don’t, air will escape and you will squeak.
This hole is completely covered This hole has a small
and no air can escape. place
where air is escaping.
If you are covering the holes correctly you will see small round
“bubbles” on your fingers.

12. Proper sound production
There is a correct way to blow into a recorder.
•First, you should blow GENTLY. Think about blowing bubbles.
•You should start and stop the sound with your tongue. Put your
tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. The sound
should start and stop there.
•Some people think of saying the sound dud or doot when they play,
but be careful not to vocalize the sound and end up saying it out
loud.
Listen to this sound produced correctly.
Listen to this sound that is not produced correctly.
Can you hear the difference?

13. Music is written on the Staff
This is a staff
This is a Treble clef
For the recorder we play in the Treble Clef

14. The staff is made up of five lines
These lines are labeled
E G B D F
We use many silly sentences to remember these:
Every Good Boy Does Fine
Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips
Every Gorgeous Babe Does Flirt
Elephants Get Big Dirty Feet
Elvis Goes Belly Dancing Fridays

15. The staff has four spaces.
These space notes are labeled
F A C E

16. For the first song on the recorder we will use:
B A G

17. This is a B on the recorder.
This is a B on the Staff.
Play four short B’s. It should sound like this.

18. This is an A on the recorder.
This is an A on the Staff.
Play four short A’s. It should sound like this.

19. This is a G on the recorder.
This is a G on the Staff.
Play four short G’s. It should sound like this.

20. Now Play B-A-G
The pattern we are going to play is
quarter, quarter, half note
or ta, ta, ta-a. Click to play movie
It sounds like this:
On the staff it looks like this:
B A G

21. Repeat that phrase.
A phrase is a musical sentence.
Click to play movie
B A G

22. Now for the third phrase.
We will play four g’s, then four a’s. These notes
are eight notes and we count them ti-ti-ti-ti ti-ti-
ti-ti.
It will sound like this:
And it will look like this:
Click to play movie

23. Play the fourth phrase
Click to play movie
B A G

24. You just played your first song!
The song is
“HOT CROSS
BUNS” and the Hot cross buns!
whole thing
looks like this:
Hot cross buns!
Click here to
hear the whole
song:
One a pen - ny, two a pen- ny,
Click to play movie Hot cross buns!

25. Practice
this until
you can Hot cross buns!
play it!
Hot cross buns!
One a pen - ny, two a pen- ny,
Click to play movie
Hot cross buns!

26. Now let’s review what you’ve learned.
Staff
This is called a _______
A staff is made up of _____ lines.
5
This is called a Treble clef
__________
This note is a _____
B
This note is a _____
A
This note is a _____
G
A phrase is ________________
a musical sentence

27. Review Three fingers and the thumb
the notes play what note? ______
G
on the
recorder
Two fingers and the
thumb play what
A
note? ______
One finger and the thumb
Play what note? ______
B

28. Congratulations!
You have learned a lot!
Now you can go play your song for
your teacher and you are ready to really
get started with the recorder!