Please recommend a recorder and music for 5 yr old complete beginner

[Sagas]

That's it really. A JHS Hornby descant?

Some of the 'easy' books look a little tough for this age. John Pitts? Or Usbourne? All thoughts gratefully received.

She knows nothing really about written music, has never held a recorder but enjoys music and has good rhythm (probably not that helpful for beginners recorder!)

Can she read well? I think it would be difficult to read music unless you can read. Seven is a good age to start learning an instrument properly.

DD's teacher always recommends the Aulos school recorder and recorder for beginners as first book. There seems to be a feeling that you should either start an instrument before you start to read or after you can read so that you are not learning to read two different things at the same time.

The Aulos yellow bag one (available on Amazon) and Recorder Magic 1.

The John Pitts books are fab, but many years' experience have taught me that after the first two notes are introduced, it goes too fast for littlies, so I now save the series for Year 3 and up.

I regretted buying my DD a recorder for her 5th birthday.
So did the neighbours.
It got lost quite quickly

I think you seem like you will commit time to teaching her though.Would you be able to learn/ relearn to teach her?

yamaha plastic recorders are good for that age.
they are well tuned and can go in the dishwasher if they get too yukky

Great, thanks for all these thoughts. She can read to the level that we read alternate pages of 'Famous Five' books so I'm guessing that's good enough? But interesting point, about getting confused, I hadn't considered that.

VSS - yeah, I do worry about the whole screeching nightmare sceanrio .
MM - oh gawd, yuckaroo, that's made me feel quite ill!

I would leave it a year or two, more fun for all concerned...good luck if you go for it!

Famous Five at 5? Wow!!

Don't do it! She's way too young. Apart fom anything else the pads on her fingers will be too small to easily cover the holes. You are setting her up to perpetuate the myth that recorders are screechy instruments played badly by small children.

Funnily enough there is actually technique to lean too, just getting a book and an instrument isn't really a winner.

Caveat - I'm a proper recorder player and my kids didn't start till age 7.

DH Is in charge of music at a school where they start the year2 kids and every one plays recorder from years 2 to 6.

Before age 6 or 7, sing lots and play rhythym instrument etc. Or piano if you must. ( and. Yes a great sense of rhythym is vital for recorder playing as much as any instrument )

I'm a proper recorder player/ teacher as well, and currently have 70 pupils.

In schools, I don't offer it until Year 2, and much prefer it if they are 7+. I had a 10 year old beginner recently, and she is flying.

BUT... it can be done sooner, in some cases. My dd1 started at 3.7 and while still 3 she could play all sorts of B,A,G tunes and read rhythms and two of the notes. She then lost interest for ages, took it up properly at 5.5, and now at 7 years and 1 week old is sitting Grade 3. I'm well aware that she's not about to set any records either! She loves to perform, and has some videos on Youtube - my profile name is elliewelly1304.

Good luck!

Hi -

ex-TA here (male) and I coached children from Yr2 upwards on recorder, simply because as has already been said, fingers may not be broad enough to cover the holes effectively.

Personally I am not impressed with JHS recorders (though they may have improved by now) and preferred Aulos, Yamaha, or Hohner (if they are still going).

Some years, if I had able children I would teach some proper notation, but more often wrote the note names as letters. I also encouraged children, once they knew a few notes, to make up their own little tunes.

For young children I think it is more about the EXPERIENCE of making music that is important, rather than aiming to be a virtuoso!

Piano, electronic keyboard or organ are also ideal for young children, and also small percussion instruments. If they can learn to tap in time to recorded music (not too loudly!) that is a good skill to start with.

Thanks for your replies everyone. I should have said she is 5 and a half and therefore Y1, but it seems the consensus is to wait until she is at least in Y2. We have a keyboard, we have loads of percussion instruments already.

dd2 is in Y1 and has joined the school recorder club.....they keep it very simple for Y1 (she has had maybe 4 lessons, and can play a nice sounding B and A and simple rhythms, and recognize the notes on a stave).

She is better at it than dd1, who is 8 and in Y4

Oops - meant to say, cheap simple recorder of any sort for starting (JHS fine) and I would wait on the book. You can print off simple rhythms and basic notes from the internet

(should add, dd2 has dd1's old book, but doesn't use it at all except to 'pretend')

All of DD's Y1 class are learning recorder....using Red Hot recorder

www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/080128/details.html

It's very painful...but not quite as bad as the violin (she really really really wanted to learn it...)

www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/080128/details.html

Have you thought about an ocarina? Much smaller so easier for younger children to learn? Lots of 5 year olds just don't have hands big enough to play the recorder comfortably.(I have even had year 3s who have found it too big!)

We run recorder club for Y2 if we have the staff, but it only works for a handful of children. Most very young children find it difficult to control their breathing, to move their fingers in patterns and to cover the holes with their finger pads. If they can't do these three things, they will get a harsh, squeaky sound.

As someone has already said, over 7 is much more gratifying for the child and the recorder teacher!

DD is 5 and a half and in Y1 also. She does recorder lessons at school (has an aulos and uses the John Pitts book). She's actually pretty good tbh. I've also taught her the piano basics and she's picking it up quickly. This is not true for all of her classmates! I've been to the recitals. I think a couple of years older would make a vast difference.

Interestingly, she is also a v good, fluent reader so isn't doing the two things at once. She liked the Famous Five too!

I am a musician, as an experiment I got the recorder out for DS to try, just 6. The experiment lasted less than 5 minutes... he's not interested really yet, he wanted to be able to play tunes straight away and didn't care about this hand goes here etc. Having taught young children, Y1 and 2 the piano and cello, I think without exception it is better to wait until Y2 at least and some will be more ready in Y3.

I started on a toy recorder, copying what I heard in school assembly. I ended up learning recorder with the professor at the RCM! So it doesn't really matter, but my recommendation would be the Yamaha descant recorder and possibly the Music Medals books (although I made my way through Abracadabra first).

Also, I started when I was 5, entirely of my own accord (taught myself Chitty Bang Bang) so maybe best to leave it lying around and see whether DC picks it up...?

I bought Yamaha recorder for my daughter when she became 5. I ordered it on Amazon. It is C-thru red, it is easy to wash, cheap...

She can play B-A-G tunes but her hands can't cover more holes properly. However she improved at reading music. She even figured out that there are lot more sounds that I told her that there are more sounds than holes...

I like recorder because it helps children to visualize the way the notes can be lower or higher.