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Rating: 
Summary: Best Recorder Instruction
Review: I am a professional recorder player, trained by internationally-acclaimed soloist Eva Legene, with 15 years of instructing experience. I am always looking for literature to inspire my students, even from the first lesson. To inspire with beautiful music is a real challenge, in the wee beginning phases. And yet it is important, since inspiration is a great motivator to practice and to really play well. Charles Fischer, himself a performer of the recorder, has compiled such a beautiful selection of Medieval and Renaissance pieces, with characteristically eerie harmonies, that even beginners may be excited by truly beautiful music. This book is organized in step-by-step progression, from simple drills which very quickly graduate to really nice music, using simple finger combinations to more progressive, adding rhythm drills and theoretical instruction. Fischer has mastered the art of instructing with beauty, and artfully combined this with pure common sense. To combine artistic instruction with pedagogy is a challenge, indeed, and Fischer has done a beautiful job. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Early Music. --Drina Brooke, recorder instructor/performer
Rating:
Summary: Best method books I own
Review: I bought both volumes of this book for my daughter then 8 based on recommendations (...). I was intrigued by the idea of starting her with "real" music from the get-go. The books were a great success - it was a pleasure to work through the lessons with her and now she eagerly plays everything she can in both books. The books themselves are beautifully printed and easy to read. They are mostly just the music with little or no text interspersed among the pieces. This means that a beginner will need some additional help with some of the basics - holding the recorder, breathing, basic fingering, etc. There are plenty of method books that cover those details, but no other books I know of give you so much interesting music. It's easy for beginners to get the feel for what early music and recorder playing is really like. I strongly recommend these books. If you are an adult beginner with access to a teacher then I suggest you look for volume 1 for the alto recorder, if and when it is available. Altos are easier and more fun to play than soprano recorders if your hands are bigger than an 11-year old's.
Rating:
Summary: Best method books I own
Review: I bought both volumes of this book for my daughter then 8 based on recommendations (...). I was intrigued by the idea of starting her with "real" music from the get-go. The books were a great success - it was a pleasure to work through the lessons with her and now she eagerly plays everything she can in both books. The books themselves are beautifully printed and easy to read. They are mostly just the music with little or no text interspersed among the pieces. This means that a beginner will need some additional help with some of the basics - holding the recorder, breathing, basic fingering, etc. There are plenty of method books that cover those details, but no other books I know of give you so much interesting music. It's easy for beginners to get the feel for what early music and recorder playing is really like. I strongly recommend these books. If you are an adult beginner with access to a teacher then I suggest you look for volume 1 for the alto recorder, if and when it is available. Altos are easier and more fun to play than soprano recorders if your hands are bigger than an 11-year old's.
Rating:
Summary: Can't say enough good things!
Review: I've been using the revised edition of Volume 1 for almost a year now in my private teaching and in a University setting. Most spectacularly, I used it as an 'introduction to the recorder' for a music education class earlier this year. One of the commonest complaints I hear from music education students is that they don't know where to turn to find good repertoire when they want to introduce recorders into their classrooms. Students have been singing Hot Cross Buns since Grade 1, and are easily bored with it by the time they're in Grade 4! With Fischer's book, teachers can use authentic recorder material that follows the same sequence of notes as the earliest songs use, and a large class can be divided up to include percussion and movement. At the moment I'm introducing it to students in a Kodály Level 1 summer course, and the students are having a blast. After 30 minutes this afternoon, four very insecure recorder players were performing 6 Renaissance dances comfortably and musically. Volume 1 is a must-have for any music teacher who deals with recorders, and I can't wait for Volume 2.
Rating:
Summary: Best Recorder Instruction
Review: Inspiration is a great motivator, to practice and to really play well. Charles Fischer, himself a performer of the recorder, has compiled such a beautiful selection of Medieval and Renaissance pieces,in characteristically eerie modes, that even beginners may be excited by truly beautiful music. This book is organized in step-by-step progression, from simple drills which very quickly graduate to really nice music, using simple finger combinations to more progressive, adding rhythm drills and theoretical instruction. Fischer has mastered the art of instructing with beauty, and artfully combined this with pure common sense. To combine artistic instruction with pedagogy is a challenge, indeed, and Fischer has done a beautiful job. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Early Music. --Drina Brooke, recorder instructor/performer, author, trained with internationally-acclaimed Eva Legene
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