Customer Reviews

The Recorder from Zero: A Method for Beginners on Soprano Recorder, Vol. 1

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The name of this book is rather deceiving. I would not call it "from zero" or for absolute beginners. This book assumes that you know how to read music, know where to put your fingers on the recorder for different notes, and probly that you are learning under a music teacher. For the self-taught, true novice like me, this book is useless. I ordered "Fun with the Recorder" by MelBay publications and learned how to read the music, where to place my hands for the notes, and learned one note at a time-- building. Now, as a second book of learning, I can appreciate this book, but certainly not from the beginning.

I've been using the revised edition of Volume 1 for almost a year now in my private teaching and in a University setting. Most spectacularly, I used it as an 'introduction to the recorder' for a music education class earlier this year.

One of the commonest complaints I hear from music education students is that they don't know where to turn to find good repertoire when they want to introduce recorders into their classrooms. Students have been singing Hot Cross Buns since Grade 1, and are easily bored with it by the time they're in Grade 4! With Fischer's book, teachers can use authentic recorder material that follows the same sequence of notes as the earliest songs use, and a large class can be divided up to include percussion and movement.

At the moment I'm introducing it to students in a Kodály Level 1 summer course, and the students are having a blast. After 30 minutes this afternoon, four very insecure recorder players were performing 6 Renaissance dances comfortably and musically.

Volume 1 is a must-have for any music teacher who deals with recorders, and I can't wait for Volume 2.

I bought both volumes of this book for my daughter then 8 based on recommendations (...). I was intrigued by the idea of starting her with "real" music from the get-go.

The books were a great success - it was a pleasure to work through the lessons with her and now she eagerly plays everything she can in both books.

The books themselves are beautifully printed and easy to read. They are mostly just the music with little or no text interspersed among the pieces. This means that a beginner will need some additional help with some of the basics - holding the recorder, breathing, basic fingering, etc. There are plenty of method books that cover those details, but no other books I know of give you so much interesting music. It's easy for beginners to get the feel for what early music and recorder playing is really like.

I strongly recommend these books. If you are an adult beginner with access to a teacher then I suggest you look for volume 1 for the alto recorder, if and when it is available. Altos are easier and more fun to play than soprano recorders if your hands are bigger than an 11-year old's.

Inspiration is a great motivator, to practice and to really play well. Charles Fischer, himself a performer of the recorder, has compiled such a beautiful selection of Medieval and Renaissance pieces,in characteristically eerie modes, that even beginners may be excited by truly beautiful music. This book is organized in step-by-step progression, from simple drills which very quickly graduate to really nice music, using simple finger combinations to more progressive, adding rhythm drills and theoretical instruction. Fischer has mastered the art of instructing with beauty, and artfully combined this with pure common sense. To combine artistic instruction with pedagogy is a challenge, indeed, and Fischer has done a beautiful job. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Early Music. --Drina Brooke, recorder instructor/performer, author, trained with internationally-acclaimed Eva Legene

In praise of Recorder from Zero, the copia of authentic music was very stimulating and kept me busy for hours; Unfortunately, I think this text suffers from two flaws:

As a method book, it is pedagogically useless unless accompanied by lessons: What little instruction is included, near the frontispiece, is vague to the point of nonexistence; further, it would have been stimulating--considering the nature of the collection--to have some brief biographical and historical information about the pieces, especially considering that several composers (Praetorius, Gervaise, etc.) are featured several times. This lack of text, pedagogical or otherwise, makes the book feel unfinished.

Further, there are no long pieces included in the book, leaving the beginner without much of a sense of repertoire. The longest pieces offered are motets which take about forty seconds to play in allegro tempo, and only three or four in that category--the rest are extremely brief.

In a word, then, the text feels incomplete. I will not be buying volume 2.

I'm halfway through, so I guess I can review it now. This method may not be for everyone, but it is perfect for me. I am working by myself, and I do have to supplement this method in order to use it successfully, but I love the results. Each lesson is a challenge initially, but is easily mastered. Lets look at some of the ways this method may differ from others.

1) The book is based on music from the Medieval and Renaissance eras. There are a few folk songs and the like which sound familiar, but for the most part the music is ancient.
2) There is no attempt to teach all the notes on the recorder quickly, rather the notes are introduced slowly, when they are needed to play a particular piece. Notes that are never used in the music are never introduced.
3) While notes may be introduced slowly, complex rhythms are introduced earlier than they are in most other methods. This works fine for me.
4) There is no attempt to introduce every single key and obscure fingering that one can use on the recorder. The method sticks to the main keys which are most natural to the recorder. This is authentic for the music that the method is centered on. Rather than trying to introduce distant (unnatural?) keys, the author tries to get students to think in terms of "modes," the ancient musical system used in medieval times. I think this is a very cool way to introduce beginners to musical theory.
5) If you have a teacher to teach you this method, you are very much in luck. The method is organized mostly as duets and rounds. If your teacher can play the more complex part, you can play beautiful music from the first day. If you play by yourself mostly, it would really be good to get someone to play the other parts occasionally, so you can hear how good you sound.
6)While most of the pieces are quite short, many of them fit together nicely into "suites." I usually play continuously for 30 minutes or so every day, hesitating only to turn a page.

I've already bought volume 2.

After you finish this method, you will be ready to quit your job, get into your time machine, and head back to 12th century Europe. Play near where crowds gather and maybe you'll get enough coin to buy food and lodging.

We have formed a recorder club at our community center where members can join if they can read music and understand timing. Those who have joined played other instruments but wanted to learn to play the recorder. These lessons provided great practice in learning new notes gradually, and improving our fingering dexterity. We have enjoyed playing early music and being challenged with increasing complexity.