hello everybody I'm Sarah and I'm a
recorder player today's video is all
about daily care maintenance of your
recorder how you should be looking after
it every time you practice and also
about how to play in a new instrument
this is a question I get asked a lot so
the second part of this video will be
all about how to play in your new
recorder that you've gotten and you
don't want to ruin by doing something
wrong don't worry that won't happen so
if you have a wooden recorder wood is a
living breathing organism when it's part
of a tree uh and when it is part of a
recorder it still needs Special Care in
order to keep it in tiptop condition
recorders are a bit different than some
other instruments in that they do have a
lifespan it's made of wood you're
blowing in warm moist air the recorder
expands it cools down and dries out and
contracts and this continual expansion
contraction eventually takes its toll on
the poor instrument my last Alto lasted
me about eight or n years but I was
really playing it a lot with a lot of
contemporary music like so
[Music]
yeah okay the most important thing you
can do for your recorder in your daily
practice is warm it up first properly
why is this well there are two reasons
reasons the first is that your recorder
reacts very strongly to the room
temperature uh most recorders are tuned
around 20° if the temperature is lower
it will be flatter if it's higher it
will be sharper recorders tend to be a
bit flat in my experience that's
probably because I live in a very rainy
and cold country so I always make sure
to warm up my instrument first just to
keep the pitch up especially if you're
playing with modern instruments and the
other reason is actually more important
and that is to do with moisture and
condensation so when you blow into the
recorder that air from your body is very
warm and very moist and very quickly
your recorder will be clogged up and it
won't sound very nice at all so we do
this by warming up this section here
which is where the block is the block is
literally this block of wood inserted
into the recorder
and we want to warm that up how I do it
is like
this I put it under my arm for 5 to 10
minutes you can also put it in your
pocket and this is my personal tip if
you are a person that wears a bra you
can also
L you can just put it here be warned in
time this does actually stretch and ruin
your bras but I found that it is oh it's
really cold it is the most effective way
to warm up a recorder a head joint and
this also got me some very strange looks
when I did this in a master class it is
good to warm up all of the joints um but
the head joint is the most important
specifically this top part so sometimes
I'm just sitting like this before I play
do not try and warm your recorder up on
a radiator or in sunlight or in an oven
or something like that any artificial
way of warming it up will cause the wood
to crack then when you first start
playing it's quite possible that within
the first few minutes your recorder will
clog up with moisture don't worry about
this this is normal it's a bit like when
you get in your car on a cold morning
and you're driving then all the windows
steam up everything warms up and it goes
away again I would say just keep playing
so your recorder won't sound its best
when you first pick it up maybe after 10
minutes 15 minutes it's going to
really during playing if your recorder
does clog up with moisture during
playing there are a few ways you can use
to solve that there are two kind of
schools on this blowing and sucking the
thing is I've heard people from both
camps saying that the other way is
actually dangerous for your recorder I'm
going to say this now I kind of use both
so I feel like maybe I'm treading a thin
line in the middle the blowing method is
to very carefully place your finger over
the labium here being careful not to
touch this Ridge this Edge inside you
place your finger here
and blow the moisture out the pros this
is very effective it blows all of that
moisture out the cons uh I have heard
people say that it's damaging to your
recorder to
blow such fast air into it I get that
but to be honest when I'm playing
contemporary music I am blowing much
much harder than that
so you don't have to go you can do and
that's probably okay another safer way
of doing this is placing your hand over
the mouth piece and then blowing it out
through the
leum or you can even blow the moisture
out through the holes
the sucking school of thought is
this that you literally suck the
moisture back out of the recorder now
the pros this also works the cons by
sucking you are bringing a lot of cold
air into the recorder and that actually
lowers the temperature so if you do it a
lot it can actually make the
condensation worse and there are people
that say this Sudden Change in
temperature can also be bad for for the
recorder what to do blowing or sucking
maybe you can leave your preference
below I'm not going to make any kind of
ruling on which one is good or bad I'm
just going to sayate that those two ways
exist but in my opinion the best thing
you can do is properly warm up your
instrument cuz that prevents a lot of
this
anyway at the end of your practice it's
so so important to dry your instrument
properly you could use one of these this
is like a kind of fluffy thing on a
stick and what you do is take the joints
of your recorder and dry them like this
just put it in give it a Twist and pull
it out now the disadvantage of these
ones is that they get
really they get really dirty and stinky
very quickly uh and you can wash them
with baby shampoo but what I prefer is
to use one one of these cleaning sticks
now here I have them in all different
sizes what you can do is thread a cotton
handerchief through this hole and then
use that to clean your instrument but I
have a better tip for you I much prefer
to use a clean sock what I do
is I put the sock over the S and then
you can just use this to dry the inside
of your instrument
the advantage of this is that when the
sock is inevitably dirty you can just
throw it in the laundry and yes it is
good to dry out all of the different
joints of your recorder not only the
head joint even though the head joint
will be the most wet and then make sure
you leave your recorder out to dry don't
pack it away in its case until it is
completely dry otherwise it can go moldy
and I actually recommend leaving your
recorder standing up to dry right that
way all of the moisture can drain out
you can buy these really handy recorder
stands from a lot of music shops put on
there there we go what do you do if
you're in a rehearsal and you have to
leave well it's not ideal but your
recorder isn't going to immediately
implode what you can do is just dry it
out with your recorder sock as best as
you can and then you can speed up the
process by doing this
and some record teachers even recommend
doing this sucking thing after every
practice for about 10 minutes to make
sure it's really really dry and then the
last thing for daily care of your
instrument what do you do if the joints
are too tight or too
loose if they are too tight then you
have to grease them up a little bit you
can get recorder C grease either in
Stick form or in lip balm
form this is basically Vaseline and you
do a very thin layer onto the joint of
your instrument you don't need a lot
just twist in One Direction that makes
it easier ah very easy and if the
recorder joint is very loose you can get
some cotton
thread and wrap it around it or if
you're in an emergency situation in a
rehearsal you can use a piece of paper
and that just tightens it up there is
also something called anti condensed
solution this is basically a solution
made up of water and washing up Liquid
if you recorder is getting very very
clogged up all the time you hold it like
this and you just do a few drops into
the hole here into the labium and that
runs down through here and it basically
forms a film and that helps your
recorder to just get rid of the moisture
and not to absorb all of it that was all
about wooden recorders but what about
plastic
ones well well a plastic recorder you
still do need to warm up because if it's
cold it will form condensation very
quickly you're going to use the same
process of warming up but it's really
important to dry it out afterwards if
you don't dry out your plastic recorder
it's going to get really really gross
what I like to do every so often is give
my plastic recorders a bath get a sink
full of lukewarm water lots of bubbles
um and yeah just give it a wash then
these kind of things are actually really
handy for giving your plastic recorder a
soapy bath and it's quite regular that I
March my little recorder students to the
bathroom where we give their recorder a
clean because it's full of crisps okay
so that was all about daily care of your
recorders but what happens when you
first have a new recorder it says
everywhere that you should play it in
but what does that actually
mean did you know that the wood used to
make recorders actually has to be dried
out for years before the recorder maker
can start working with it I think it's
something like 10 to 15 years wood is
full of water it's full of sap by the
time you actually get your new recorder
in your hands the tree was probably cut
down 15 20 years ago you have this new
recorder and you're going to be blowing
warm wet air into this this is going to
be a bit of a surprise for the wood in
the beginning the wood is going to
absorb a lot of water and if it absorbs
too much it can W and that we do not
want and the dimensions on the inside of
the head joint have been very precisely
carved by the recorder maker and if they
change too much the sound of the
recorder will really be affected so most
recorder makers will actually make the
dimensions on the inside of the recorder
a bit bigger than necessary because the
wood is going to swell up so they do
account for it but we do have to play it
in carefully and playing in means taking
time to play a bit of music every day on
the instrument so that the instrument
can get used to being played and so that
you can get used to your new instrument
it's a two-way thing according to Stefan
blet singer who is one of my personal
favorite recorder makers he also says
that in the beginning when you're
blowing warm wet air into the recorder
it takes a bit of time but it gradually
builds up a film on the inside of the
recorder it sounds a bit gross but what
happens is that that actually kind of
protects the recorder from condensation
so it's really important to do this
stage and it's very important to not use
anti- condensed solution in that
beginning stage because that takes away
the chance your recorder has to build up
its own protective film and then you're
always going to have problems with
condensation so how do we play in a
recorder tip one is to build it up
slowly many makers give the time frame
of 5 minutes a day in the first week 10
minutes a day in the second week 15 in
the third week 20 in the fourth week if
you do this time frame you are not going
to harm your recorder um but you can
afford to listen to the instrument
sometimes you can push it more what
you're listening for isn't so much the
recorder being full of condensation that
will will happen but more that the tone
is starting to deteriorate it's actually
more important what you play than how
long you play this is your time to get
to know the recorder how it feels how it
speaks how the intervals are in tune
with each other also in the beginning
don't play too much
High your recorder will not appreciate
that stay in the low and middle
registers maybe up to
[Music]
what should you be playing I like to
play long notes practicing different
intervals for example getting to know my
octaves and
[Music]
fits how are your accidentals how is
your E flat and B flat that how does it
react to vibrat and then I really like
to take slow movements from Barack
anatas these are beautiful to play
anyway and they often have a lot of
chords and a lot of scales so they can
really help you to get to know your
instrument a really great passage to
play in with is the start of handles
Sonata in C major
[Applause]
is a great way to get to know different
chords on your instrument so try it in
different
[Music]
Keys it's a really nice transposing
exercise as well and at random points
you could just stop and hold a note for
a while just to enjoy the sound of that
note
and the more you do this the more you
will get to know the feel and the sound
of your instrument and after a couple of
weeks you should be able to feel how far
you can push but don't worry it's not
going to explode if you do the wrong
thing just maybe play on the safe side
for a little while while you're getting
used to it and every subsequent recorder
you have to play in it will feel a bit
easier and then the question do you have
to play an instrument in again like if
you've not been playing it for a while
well yes and no if you haven't played an
instrument for a while it will feel a
little bit tied in the beginning just
cuz it's not used to being played daily
so yeah it takes a couple of days to get
back into it so be kind to your
instrument in that time but you don't
really have to play it in in the same
way because it's already gone through
that process of being played in for the
very first time I haven't actually had
the experience of playing in a very very
old instrument so maybe you have an
instrument that's 20 or 30 years old and
it hasn't been played in that time again
I would say air on the side of caution
and spend some time playing it in also
because you need time to get to know the
instrument and then form a lasting Bond
a relationship that will last a lifetime
uh yeah there are many more questions
related to care of your instrument how
to knock the block out how to clean it
how to oil it well the good news is I'm
going to try and answer all of these in
next week's video thank you for watching
my video on how to play in and how to
daily maintain your recorder if you're
not subscribed to my channel already
please do so you can click on my face
down here if you just give it a little
tap ooh I'm going to put a link to my
video on warming up breathing because
these exercises can also be used when
you are playing in a new instrument
thanks for watching and have a nice day
bye