When you hear recorders beiing played you can wonder if they can ever possibly sound any good! I know that’s a question I asked myself many times when hearing that all too familiar high pitched screech.
Yes, recorders can sound very good when you have a great quality instrument and a good player.
Here I explore not only why they don’t usually sound that great but also what you can do about it if you are having challenges with the sound of your recorder.
Can Recorder Sound Good?
A recorder can sound not only good but amazing. The sound can be quite beautiful. It has a wide range of notes and is very flexible. Here are a couple of examples:
What Does The Recorder Sound Like?
Here is an example of a young man of only 15 years old playing the soprano recorder. A tad too high-pitched for me but this is amazing and shows just what can be done with a recorder.
And this young woman playing a tenor recorder beautifully. Much kinder to the ears in my view.
So, Why Then Do Recorders Sound So Bad?
If the amazing examples above are possible why then do recorders often sound so awful? There are many different reasons the recorder can sound bad. I have put these below:
The problem with recorders is they have a bad reputation. Most of us know them from school. Just the thought of school recorders makes me cringe. That loud sharp painful sound makes you want to cover your ears.
There are several reasons for this.
Firstly they are given to children as beginner instruments that know nothing about how to play them and probably many don’t really care. Or they may even like making the loud noises, you can get from the instrument. This is certainly my memory of school music lessons. That and my teacher was a maths teacher that knew music and wasn’t really interested, which fed to the students.
Lots of children all playing out of tune and not even together. And lots of very loud recorders. Let’s face it, any instrument in the hands of someone that doesn’t know how to play it sounds bad.
There’s a good chance they don’t practice and only have a music lesson or two a week.
Then there’s the recorder itself. Because children have smaller hands and often start young and because it is cheaper to buy, it’s the soprano(descant) recorder that is usually played in schools at least until the student becomes proficient. This higher-pitched instrument often sounds sharp and irritating.
It’s unlikely that the recorders in most schools are top end instruments so the sound will not be as good. In fact the ones advertised for schools are lower price bracket. While this is not always the case and will depend on the school.
It’s very unlikely that the children look after their recorders.
The recorder’s tuning is also likely to be off. This is especially so on cheaper instruments.
The sound that we normally hear is usually the result of some if not all of these things combined. So the poor recorder gets a bad reputation.
Is The Recorder a Good Instrument?
The recorder is a good instrument for beginners which is why it is played in schools. The recorder is a serious insturment inspite of its bad reputation and you can play it professionally as well.
A recorder is like any other instrument you can get good ones and bad ones and the quality ranges a lot. You can pay as little as a few $/£ up to thousands for a quality instrument. Fortunately, you don’t have to pay too much to get a good instrument.
11 Tips to Make Your Recorder Sound Better
Recorders can sound good and if you want to make your recorder sound better there are several things you can do.
The Recorder
- Start with your recorder. Find out which make you have and is it any good. If it isn’t a good make and model look at getting a new one. You don’t have to pay out that much to get to a good-sounding recorder about £20/$28 for a soprano and £30/41 for an alto recorder give you a good quality beginners recorder. It’s worth paying as it’s false economy to buy a cheap shoddy instrument you are just not going to enjoy playing it.
2. Check the recorder is working fine and not damaged in any way. Damage can affect the sound.
3. Make sure your recorder is in tune. A badly tuned instrument sounds awful. This video from the brilliant Sara Jeffery can help.
If all is in order with the recorder make sure you maintain it and look after it.
When Playing Your Recorder
- New wooden recorders need time to break in and get used to being used.
- Check you don’t have any moisture build-up while you are playing as that clogs the recorder and either stops it playing or makes it squeak.
- Check you are sitting correctly and holding the recorder properly in a relaxed manner and that you are covering the holes correctly.
- Make sure you are not over or under blowing air into your recorder as that alters the sound and that you are breathing properly.
- Practice to make sure you are playing the notes well and to the correct length.
- If you can record what you play and play it back so you can hear where you are going wrong so you can correct it.
- If you don’t have one and are able to get a teacher offline that can show you what to do. This will save you time as they can see where you are going wrong. Even if you can only do a few lessons this will stand you in good stead.
- Even if you are teaching yourself make sure you have some form of “lesson” either online or via books. I recommend Sara Jeffery on Youtube as a very good place to start.