Music literacy is a constant, an applied knowledge that originates from a set of established and proven theories. The connection between the music alphabet, the French syllables, music notation, the lines and spaces of the music staff and math, constitute an aggregation of musical knowledge.

“The recorder is a wind instrument that requires skillful focus on air flow and fingerings to perform the intended melodic line in tune without a squeak.” Edmond Saint-Jean.

The complexity of various music theory components makes it important to break down the contents into small groups. For instance, under the title Seven Sevens we discover 7 independent sequences of musical symbols that are essentials to understanding all the complexities of music notation and, how they are closely related and intertwined like an extended family tree.

The recorder is a wind instrument

The recorder is a cylindrical wind instrument with a mouthpiece, one hole in the back for the thumb and seven holes in the front. The three on the top are for the left hand, and the bottom four are for the right hand. The hand positions, namely, the left hand being on top and the right hand at the bottom, match exactly the same position of most woodwind and brass instruments. The brass instruments use embouchure, and the woodwind instruments use reeds.

The breathing patterns are similar to vocal exercises the Musicalway. The recorder’s mouthpiece attached to the instrument has a special shape that fits on top of the bottom lip. The fingertip must cover the hole or half of a hole tightly depending on the note being played. Just like the piano and the guitar, the symbols on the treble staff indicate the pitch and finger positions to be played.

Play the recorder the Musicalway.

The visual and descriptive approach to playing the recorder is one of the most practical ways to learn every instrument particularly the recorder. When we draw the finger position of the recorder in a notebook and add the treble staff with the notes on a specific line or space, along with the proper mouth position on the mouth piece, the sound that is produced is in tune and clear. There is so much in the production one sound.