Okay, Girls and Boys,

I'm so glad to see you are continuing your study of the recorder. It's a great instrument and it prepares you for other instruments like the flute, clarinet and saxophones. Playing an instrument makes you feel good about yourself because you overcome something challenging! Oh, yeah! And it's fun!

WEBSITE: Visual Musical Minds

First, to get the most out of this site, learn how it is organized.

Each song has a "Warm Up: Preparing for..." video:

• This will teach you the song through they play/you listen/you play segments
• The fingerings will show on the left side of the screen.
• Progress will be shown on pizza-looking circles at the bottom of the screen. Each section will look like you ate 1/4 of your pizza.
• There will be instrumental music with you (it's called an accompaniment- the instruments keep your instrument company)
• Practice in chunks
• Focus on the difficult parts; figure out what's hard: fingerings or rhythm or both
• Play a "hot spot" over until you can play it 3 times accurately, until your finger muscles and brain memorize it.

Once you are successful with the warm ups, go the next level, the next video:

• The fingerings will be shown at times
• Parts will not be repeated
• The accompaniment (harmony) will always be played
• Your part (melody/tune) will be played at the beginning, then will drop out

Jump in and begin to play!!