this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Looking back I'm actually confused why this was even a thing. Did Big Recorder have deals with schools to push this? Is Big Recorder a thing?
We only ever used them for like 3 weeks and then it was on to the next thing. Haven't touched it since.
They're cheap to make and easy to play. They're an excellent instrument to start with because you don't need to know any technique to make a proper sound.
They weren't really teaching you how to play the recorder, they were teaching you how to read music. The recorder was just the cheapest, least complicated way to connect the notes you read to sounds you could hear.
We didn't learn to read music (I learned from separate piano lessons...)
They just had diagrams of where to put your fingers and then the letters of the note, not actual notes on a clef...
Answers in Progress made a (great) video about this:
why you were forced to learn the recorder in school
Highlight begins at 8:06.
There's a decent bit of history involved, going back to the Nazis in WW2.
It's not because it's cheap to manufacture, because it wasn't back in the day. It became cheaper because it grew popular. It was about unity and cultural identity.
Super interesting. Thanks!
I wasn't given an instrument to learn to read music, also I was taught the Kodály method, which is quite bad for this purpose, also we were taught the doremi instead of the proper letter names of the notes for years, which is not absolute, thus I never learned how to read music that way. When I learned the guitar, I learned sheet music so well I can still read it, although not at a fast pace anymore.
I remember 4th grade was recorders, and in the fifth grade they began the elective of band, which I took because I could play the recorder. I chose to learn clarinet. Then in middle school practiced as a group with everyones instruments.
It was then, in fifth grade we began learning to read music properly. Today, I cannot remember truly how to read misic, but I remember many of the fundemtals from that time, and it's aided in learning bass guitar after highschool. And now, I can aide my son in his learning guitar.
But it all started with hot cross buns on the recorder.