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So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

Can a recorder handle this? I'm not really sure if they're fully chromatic or not .. can anyone answer my question?

Is there any other method aside from half-holing to reach all the notes in the recorder? Thanks.

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by mellowBreez

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

Bach, Handel, Telemann and others wrote tons of music for
recorder that gets very chromatic indeed.

Last time I checked though this was a discussion about Irish
Traditional music, which doesn't really deal with recorder.

But still, if you want sharps and flats, trying playing some D
tunes in E or A; maybe take some G ones down to F. It's easy
enough -- why you'd bother, I don't know.

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by Hup

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

Yes, a recorder is fully chromatic. I teach recorder in my school. You don't have to half-hole anything, except the half thumb to give you the upper register. Low Db and low Eb involve some tricky pinky placement, since there are double holes coverable by one finger.

Good luck in your experimenting. The recorder is a great instrument, but not (imho) for ITM.

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by Greg the Piano Tuner

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

Recorder was my first instrument, at age 7 and when I was
interested, I was a decent player - I could rip through the Handel
Sonatas pretty well and some of the Bach and Teleman ones. I
never got up to speed on the Alto (F) recorder though.

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by Hup

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

It does most of the chromatic stuff you could want. There are a LOT of alternate fingerings available for almost every note - perhaps more than with any other wind instrument. You want to stick to the simpler ones for ITM, which is mostly in relatively easy keys anyway. The fingering you need for that is not significantly different from a whistle.

http://www.hrs.hampshire.org.uk/finger/cfinger.html

Googling "recorder fingering chart" gives you many options. If you want to play bebop or something, you can do it with a bit of work. This chromatic enough for you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqppZ62gWQQ

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by Jack Campin

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

A good quality recorder has a great sound and is fine with ITM. IT has more flexibility and if a good quality instrument a beautiful tone. but it is not of course traidtional.

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by redh

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

Sorry I disagree . The recorder sounds to my humble opinion out of phase in ITM . I only have met one person who even got near a good sound ( Stand up sir Ken ) everyone else should buy a whistle

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by bazouki dave

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

A fully chromatic whistle?

Try this one:
http://www.obrienwhistles.com/OBPWwhisolo.html

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by Toppish

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

That O'Brien thing is more or less the same as what same makers label as flageolets or csakans. Historically they all have different origins - the csakan is a development of the recorder, the keyed flageolet is a development of a different kind of whistle which is neither part of the tin whistle or recorder family - but they end up as basically the same thing (any competent player could switch between them in minutes).

It's convergent evolution, much the same as the way as high-end whistles borrow from recorder design. If you're any good on any fipple flute you can adjust to having a slightly different fingering system with more or less holes.

# Posted on May 18th 2011 by Jack Campin

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

It definitely doesn't sound right for Irish Trad, even though it's
only subtly different from a whistle. Why is that? I think the
air stream of a tin whistle is higher velocity for one thing. You
tend to hear the air more. But those really posh wooden ones
are getting very recorder-like now.

# Posted on May 19th 2011 by Hup

Re: So I want to do some music with sharps and flats

Whistles *are* fully chromatic with enough practice at half-holing and cross-fingering. I keep a Bb Susato in my jacket pocket when I'm jamming/busking with jazzers. They do a double-take when I blow some dim7 arpeggios or Bird licks. Admittedly, highly modulatory tunes (e.g. Body and Soul) are insanely difficult.

# Posted on May 19th 2011 by buskerjohn

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