I never learned on a recorder here in the US, but I know it is (or at least was) a thing. It's entirely possible my south Georgia public schools didn't quite have the resources for that (although I do remember music class in elementary school). For some reason, I was sort of under the impression that it kind of phased out with my generation, but now that I think about it, I have no idea why I would have made that assumption.
I tried to look up the origins of the name, but it gets very tangled; it's from the French for "memory" but is also connected with singing -- by bards and minstrels! -- and got used for the instrument in English, but it's also been called a flute, and it all gets very messy and non-specific.
The monk is a good idea. I feel like I've seen it before somewhere, but it's a compelling visual!
I had to learn it in, I think, 3rd grade music class, so it was at least still a thing in the States into the '90s. If I could have mesmerized people with it, I might have tried harder to learn something beyond "Hot Cross Buns."
We learn on them here in the States, I thought you guys learned on melodicas like in Jamaica and Japan.
ReplyDeleteWe get recorders in elementary school here in the States, I always thought they used melodicas in the UK, like Jamaica and Japan.
ReplyDeleteI never learned on a recorder here in the US, but I know it is (or at least was) a thing. It's entirely possible my south Georgia public schools didn't quite have the resources for that (although I do remember music class in elementary school). For some reason, I was sort of under the impression that it kind of phased out with my generation, but now that I think about it, I have no idea why I would have made that assumption.
ReplyDeleteSame in Sweden. Never knew they were called recorder in English (in Swedish they are called "block flute" or something like that).
ReplyDeleteYou should do a recorder that serves as a bo staff as well, so a monk could smash and play.
I tried to look up the origins of the name, but it gets very tangled; it's from the French for "memory" but is also connected with singing -- by bards and minstrels! -- and got used for the instrument in English, but it's also been called a flute, and it all gets very messy and non-specific.
DeleteThe monk is a good idea. I feel like I've seen it before somewhere, but it's a compelling visual!
I had to learn it in, I think, 3rd grade music class, so it was at least still a thing in the States into the '90s. If I could have mesmerized people with it, I might have tried harder to learn something beyond "Hot Cross Buns."
ReplyDeleteLove the bard's headgear in that picture.
Plastic recorders were the default school instrument in Australia when I was at school.
ReplyDeleteThey were still doing it in the U.S. in my state in the late 2000's, early Teens when my son was in elementary school.
ReplyDeleteMuch more widespread than I realised!
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