The Revenge of the Recorder aka the Ongoing Orff Experiment
Slowly but surely I am persevering with looking into applying Orff Schulwerk ideas in the classroom. And I have just reached the chapter of Doug Goodkin's Play, Sing & Dance about using the instrument that sends shivers down many music teacher's spine - the recorder ! Personally, and having been initially thrown out of recorder classes for not practicing (I was 7!), I returned to playing it during my teacher training and now love playing the tenor recorder as it has a warm, rich sound. A number of teachers I know laugh and make comments about not understanding how someone with my qualifications can stomach the sound of the recorder. Worse, others have told me that it is irrelevant in the age of the ukulele. I believe that these thoughts are at best a little misguided, and at worse closed minded and borderline uneducated. I agree that the recorder can be a little grating with classes of 30, but after spending hours tuning ukes and guitars only ...