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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think the recorder is the work of the devil?

47 replies

topbannana · 18/04/2012 16:03

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?!

OP posts:

McHappyPants2012 · 18/04/2012 18:26

put head phones in and listen to music while she practises

PeppaTwig · 18/04/2012 18:30

You should try being the recorder teacher with 32 of them at once....

PS. Violin is worse.

DesperatelySeekingSedatives · 18/04/2012 18:47

PIL gave DD a recorder the other week. I don't what I've ever done to them. FIL "joked" they could "lose" it for me before they brought her home. I told them "great, if you could run it over with your car a few times before she comes home I'd really appreciate it". Did they? Di they bollocks. What is the point of offering to help me out and get rid of it if they have no intention of doing so?

They have form for this though. The stupid magic whistle they got DD the christmas before last went missing when we moved house last year. Such a great shame.

cambridgeferret · 18/04/2012 19:26

My DD has also been directed to the shed to practice the recorder.
Also does a good job in reducing the resident mouse population in there - nothing living could survive that noise.
My DB used to try to play the guitar, he was definitely no Brian May.

OneWaySystemBlues · 18/04/2012 19:43

The recorder is a proper instrument and can sound fantastic. The reason kids sound awful is because they're not taught by people who know how to play a wind instrument properly. It's usually a primary school teacher teaching out of a book. They're not taught to breathe properly or anything. I have a music degree, and believe it or not, studied recorder first study to degree level and then as a postgrad (along with other early music instruments). Listen to the recorder player in this and tell me that it is only a "good instrument for beginners".

TheAvocadoOfWisdom · 18/04/2012 19:55

Violin can be worse, and can be much, much better. Depends how it is taught. Some teachers will get the child to progress through the notes without developing a good sound and others will keep the child on open strings until they are bowing properly and sounding lovely, then to first fingers, and so on.

skateboarder · 18/04/2012 19:59

Dd is learning the recorder as her beginner instrument. She wants to play the flute but not old enough imo.
The recorder is helping her read music and with timings etc.

IloveJudgeJudy · 18/04/2012 20:09

Cory, that's not true. The recorder is a proper instrument. In my area we have a recorder festival for Y4, 5 and 6, all playing together, about 25 schools. They play a proper concert for their families that they have practised for and it sounds brilliant. They are so proud and it sounds so good. They sit there as if they're in a proper orchestra. It's such a good, and cheap, entry into music and ensemble playing.

There is also a Y13 boy in our area who has been accepted at one of the London music colleges to study the recorder. So it is a proper instrument

mathanxiety · 18/04/2012 20:09

The best instrument for a beginner would surely be the harp. I would imagine you couldn't make an unangelic sound with it no matter how bad you were.

Have seen recorder x 5 here, trumpet x 1 and clarinet x1. I preferred the piano.

Noqontrol · 18/04/2012 20:11

Wow onewaysystemblues, that recorder sounds fab.

IwoulddoPachacuti · 18/04/2012 20:13

I played both a primary school I then progressed on to the chanter (surely that deserves a level of hell all to itself? ) before settling on percussion

Hats off to my parents, I couldn't cope with all that

Fecklessdizzy · 18/04/2012 20:51

A work of the Devil AND all his little demons ... I hid ours.

Badly played clarinet gives one entertaining squished duck noises and a guitar isn't too bad ( at least until they talk their doting Pater into buying them an electric one and start hammering out Tenacious D at all hours of the day and night ... Actually it's still better than a recorder! )

UptoapointLordCopper · 18/04/2012 21:10

We don't put up with horrible noises here. So far they've tried violin, cello and recorder. They are told (by me, in no uncertain terms) to listen to what they do and mostly they produce tolerable sounds. Or maybe I just have quite high tolerance?

You should listen to the er-hu. It's like the violin, but without the fingerboard, and the possibility of getting it wrong is staggering. DB plays it. Our house sounded like it was haunted for years when he started.

OneWaySystemBlues - that recorder player is amazing!

UptoapointLordCopper · 18/04/2012 21:12

But .

Pan · 18/04/2012 21:13

UptoapointLordCopper · 18/04/2012 21:16

Must think of new admirable nickname.

Pan · 18/04/2012 21:20

UptoapointLordCopper · 18/04/2012 21:44

No bitchiness detected. Can't think of any more nicknames anyway.

Fireandashes · 18/04/2012 21:51

I love the music of a recorder in skilled hands but sadly my Pavlovian response to the word "recorder" is a winch at the memory of that unearthly shrill shriek I conjured out of mine far too frequently as a child...I was most definitely NOT skilled hands.

Fireandashes · 18/04/2012 21:52

Winch? I don't winch at the thought of my old recorder. I wince.

CreepyWeeBrackets · 18/04/2012 22:00

The recorder is very evil, true. My sister was "taught" it once.

A melody is all about pitch and duration but nobody explained this to her so she would sit on the loo on a Sunday morning butchering familiar tunes by playing every note as a crochet

Imagine: jin. gle. bells. jin. gle. bells. jin. gle. all. the. way. oh. what. fun. it. is. to. ride. on. a. one. horse. op. en. sleigh. oh. jin. gle. bells.

I may have stormed in and snatched it off her and broken it over my leg

The violin is a terrible idea. No defined notes and the screeching

Original poster

topbannana · 18/04/2012 22:31

"Little donkey" was pretty good, as was "We wish you a merry Christmas" "Jingle bells" was fairly horrific and sounded rather like Creepys sister. Its the ones in the run up to Easter that have tested the patience a little, a fact I had completely blanked out of my mind until we resumed practise tonight. As the songs have got more complex they seem to polish them less before moving on to the next one. Either that or the teacher can only preserve her sanity by introducing new music every week

We are currently living in a winter let which is very small so its quite difficult to get away from it, definitely something to bear in mind before taking up the violin I think :0

OP posts:

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