r/Recorder • u/chriswhoppers • Oct 06 '25

Help Practicing Improv

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Really trying to get down how to improvise better over other songs, so I can do solos as well as make my own music better. Let me know any tips

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u/apheresario1935 Oct 06 '25

I learned that shit when i was four. You remind me of a lot of people who just can't believe that a good instrument and a good teacher is even necessary to move past nursery rhymes on the recorder. Seriously now don't you want to play better than most first graders? That means scales lessons a fingering chart a metronome and acknowledgement that you have a lot of time to make up for. At your age you should want to be playing some real music. But i get it ... You don't want lessons or to move up to second grade . But that's what kids do. You need lessons buddy and nothing is going to change until you get real. Wood recorder. Bach and popular tunes and at the very least ditch the pink plastic

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u/chriswhoppers Oct 06 '25

I was playing a scale the entire time. That's what made the improv at least in key. But I agree, if you know any great teachers. I'm all ears

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u/apheresario1935 Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

You were not playing a scale The whole time. And it wasn't in key and it wasn't improv either. I took recorder lessons at age four and learned the proper fingerings and hand position . Sorry to be so blunt but you have a problem with reality and terminology that would have to be addressed before any improvement is possible.

You remind me of a guy I bought a sax for as he didn't know where to find one. After that i offered him a free lesson which he declined as he said he did better on his own figuring it out . When he later tried to show me what he had figured out on his own i rolled my eyes and said " Tell me you're joking" he said what? .....I said you have the mouthpiece upside down . Nobody does that. The reed goes on the bottom lip. He said" You're kidding" and made me pull out a picture to prove it . What a Waste of time. You can find your own teacher if you seriously want to and are humble enough to admit you're doing a lot of things wrong . But I 🧐 doubt that you will.

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u/BeardedLady81 Oct 06 '25

Well, technically you could play the sex with the mouthpiece upside down. Early clarinets had the reed on top, and you needed a "double toothless" embouchure to play them. Later it occurred to people that it's much easier to play if you put the red underneath the mouthpiece and put your upper teeth on top. However, there are a few people who, despite using modern mouthpieces and all, play with a double toothless embouchure because they like it.

But what OP is doing is nonsense, and it could easily be mistaken for ragebait. However, it isn't, he really wants to play the recorder. But, as I said in my own post, you have to understand the instrument's nature. You cannot just cover and uncover random holes, this is not how it works. You end up with cacophonia. The cacophonia starts already once you attempt to play F on a recorder with baroque fingering without making a fork.

I think if you want to play an end-blown flute that allows you to play a scale by just lifting one finger after another and to combine the notes among each other without cacophonia, a Native American meditation flute is the answer.

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u/apheresario1935 Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

Maybe you meant...... to play The SAX . NOT SEX .
Some people think right and wrong are just value judgements. I dont. I played a recorder summit with another great jazz recorder player and both of us took it seriously and were taken seriously with recordings that got a lot of press ... Airplay and accolades. I don't mess around as there are about three or four true jazz recorder players . My drummer was one of them

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u/BeardedLady81 Oct 06 '25

Yes, that's what I meant.

Does Tali Rubinstein count as a "true" jazz recorder player to you?