To think the recorder is the work of the devil?

[topbannana]

Believing as I do in the virtues of hard work and perseverance, I force encourage DS (7) to practise the wretched thing every day. Over Easter we have been busy having a life but today was recorder club and new music was duly given out.
The RACKET coming from the bedroom is, well it would not be polite to post the words in public. Its not that DS is particularly bad at the recorder but I am reaching the point where I am considering actually allowing him to take up the violin just so I don't have to listen to "The Blackbird" or whatever it is one more time (the recorder was a test to see whether he would stick with an instrument and had the dedication to put in the practise- he does )
Surely the violin can't be any better?!

Nor drums

My DD had to learn the recorder for a year while she was at school in Switzerland.
Lessons were on a Tuesday. That was the only time it left the car. Hideous noise IMO.
Currently she is learning to play the violin, or at least she tells me she is. The lessons are done at school apparently. Suits me.

DH thought it'd be a good idea to buy my then 2yr old stepson a plastic recorder. He now has to run gift ideas past me.

I may have jokingly excused his ex wife of wanting to hurt me when then 6yr old stepson started playing the violin. She maintains innocence and best intentions

I think you are totally unreasonable... it is the violin that is the work of the devil.

Most instruments sound horrid to start with. Violin is a prime example, it takes forever for it to sound decent (I played it for many years and can't believe my family tolerated so much gawd-awful noise).

If you can't cope with the recorder, the violin is not going to go well.

Any instrument is painful in the early days YANBU

Agree. If you can't cope with the recorder, violin won't go well. He's still young in his recorder learning life, so it will get better, honestly (I teach recorder). Imagine how proud you'll feel when next Christmas he can play Christmas carols (not sarcastic).

I grew up in a very musical family and I definitely think the recorder is the worst of the lot. Violin far more bearable. There is just nothing more painful than a badly played recorder, and to my mind few things more beautiful than a recorder played by a real performer.

My 8 yr old is currently learning the violin and the trumpet

Why the hell this was ever a good idea I am not sure .

hmmm see this is all about listening....

if you are a listener to the noise you are making you wont make a terrible noise at all at any point. IF you arent you probably will make a racket on anything. Volume should be the over-ridding concern if this is the case.

So lesson one: listen to the noise you are making kids.....is it nice?

both me and my sister did violin lessons from 7 yo and someone asked my mum how she coped with the terrible noises...my mum was genuinely surprised to find out you can make a violin sound bad and me and my sister got to spend an afternoon learning how to.

Turns out you only make nasty noises on a violin if you are PROPER angry...

The recorder is a great starter instrument- it helps with musicianship without being too technically/physically difficult to play.

If it's getting a bit much, swap to violin or whatever, quick before your patience wears thin!

Yeah, definitely the violin that's the work of the devil. A recorder is the work of a particularly mischievous imp.

The recorder is evil, as is the occarina.

bastard things.

I dont know - i played all three of them - i think they sound nicer as they get bigger!

Recorder is bearable in very small doses only.

I'm lucky that my DD generally only practices hers (descant & treble!) at school because when she tries it at home my DH joins in on his recorder.

Dreading September when DS takes it up too

I am not convinced that most children who play the recorder ever get to a stage where it gives them a sense of musicianship; in fact, you have surprisingly good at the recorder to be able to experience it as music. Piano is much better for that.

YANBU, .......the assemblies I have sat through- !!!

I only let DD have recorder lessons on the understanding she never practices at home.

I suffer the drums more easily than the recorder.

When I was a child I was part of a four piece recorder ensemble, I was the only child, we played several largeish venues and were on television doing it.

We made lovely music. I hate that it's somehow seen as not a 'proper' instrument - people laugh when I say I can play the recorder. I can play other instruments too but I had recorder lessons for eight years, taught it for two and performed with it for three.

All instruments can make horrible noises. A screeching violin or bellowing/squeaking alternate clarinet or oboe aren't going to be any better.

I chose DCs' school based almost entirely on the music teacher's edict that recorders were not a feature of school life
However, now my DD is adamant that her instrument of choice is the drums

Having previously been a semi-pro musician on the recorder I am tempted to say YABU as the recorder is the best instrument in the world. However, if it is being massacred by a beginner YA probably NBU. However, massacred violin is possibly even more painful than the recorder, and you have to tune the violin...

YANBU, I hate the sound of the recorder and l almost wept with joy when I found that DS was going to learn the ocarina instead at school! Seriously though, he learns piano at home, because even when it is wrong it still sounds ok :)

ime, the violin is even worse, in that it sounds awful for MUCH longer
try the ukelele?

My neighbour used to make her daughter practice in the shed at the bottom of the garden so that she didn't have to listen to the painful noise being wrestled out of the recorder. I think that's the way forward, although don't know what she did in the cold winter months.