Tunes....
How many tunes did I know in the past?
How many can I remember now?
What should I learn now I've begun again?
I started
I dug out my old tune books and scraps of music manuscript with handwritten copies of things I'd tried to learn in the past. I've still got quite a few of them in my fingers on the mandolin, even if my fingers are arthritic and stumble a bit... I'm relatively new to the recorder - if you discount the time 50 years ago when I first learned the school descant recorder - so I'm hoping to at least use my existing catalogue of known tunes as a starting point to have something to study as I learn both the new alto fingering and the art of blowing properly.
On recorder I found I could quite easily figure out All in a Garden Green which fits the alto recorder perfectly. I then tried Horses Brawl but found that if I play it in the key of G (the way I've learned it on melodeon & mandolin) it doesn't fit on the alto recorder as it goes below the lowest note of F. Playing it an octave up is an option, but not when first learning, surely? Playing in the upper octave(s) is a next level thing.
So I tried playing the version written in G but using the fingering of a Descant (Soprano) recorder and that puts the tune into the actual key of C when played on the Alto. And it fits!
Is this how recorder players do this?
Mentally flip fingering systems to get tunes to fit? Or should I have physically transposed it on paper first into C, then play the notes as written (which would be the same fingering as how I was actually doing it, but at least I'd be fingering say a G note when looking at a G on the manuscript, instead of fingering a C note on the recorder when looking at a G on the manuscript as I was doing)?
Once it's in my memory, and my fingers do it themselves, I don't need the paper anyway, so perhaps it's a moot point. As long as I don't spoil the process of learning the correct fingering for the Alto recorder by confusing myself with the old memory of Descant/Soprano fingering.
So, now I can play, on recorder:
- All in a Garden Green (in G)
- Horses Brawl (in C)
I picked my way through another few tunes from my back catalogue which also fit on the Alto
- Mundesse (in G)
- Tip Top Polka (in G)
- Dark Girl Dressed in Blue (in D)
- Tombigee Waltz (in G)
I had a go at some Morris tunes, but they all were outside the range (went too low, below the low-F of the Alto) and required the same cheat/transposition as Horses Brawl. I'll give them a try another time.
Then I had a try at the "theme" for Daphne by Jacob van Eyck. So far, so good. Early days for learning new-to-me tunes but you have to start somewhere.
My recorder is an Aulos "Haka" Alto, model 709BW Early Music shop
It's great to have an instrument that's so portable - in its little carry-case it fits in a bag, rucksack, big pocket, etc.