4

44

4

Transposing

You can play these songs using other notes. The songs will sound “right” if you choose the right notes.

Try playing “Au clair de la lune” using the following notes as Do:

Transposing chart number 1

Do Re Mi

G A B

F C D

A What notes do you need for Re and Mi for each transposition? Fill in the empty boxes.

More fingerings

Here are some notes and fingerings you will need:

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ○

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ○ ○

● ● ● ● ● ● ○ ○ ○

● ● ● ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

● ● ● ○ ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ● ● ● ● ○ ○ ● ● ● ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ● ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

C D E F F# G A B C#

Recorder technique

While you play, think about your …

Breath control

Fingerings and pitches: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, F#, C#

Marcato articulation

Also: make sure you cover completely with the correct finger the holes you want to use.

Listen carefully! Make it beautiful!

17

171

7

17

Improvising

Using the five notes you played in “Chatter with the Angels” and in “Old MacDonald,” make up tunes for

the following poetry fragments and rhythms:

To a Withered Rose

John Kendrick Bangs

The Lion

Hilaire Belloc

The new sign in “To a Withered Rose,” , means “Common time.” It is the same as .

18

181

8

18

Transposing

Now you know two songs and two improvisations that use five notes – DO RE MI SO and LA. Transpose

them to the following keys to improve your skill on the recorder:

MI B A C#↑ E↑ F#↑

RE A G B D↑ E↑

DO G F A C↑ D↑

LA E D F# A B

SO D C E G A

Did you notice that some of the notes show an arrow, like this: ↑? To make the songs sound right in the

keys of C and D, you must use a higher note than you have played so far. To play some of these notes,

you will need to partially uncover the thumb hole, as indicated on the chart below with this symbol: .

Some second-octave fingerings

Here are the new notes you will need to make your transpositions sound right

● ○ ● ○ ○ ○ ● ● ● ●

● ○ ● ● ● ● ●

○ ○ ○ ● ● ● ●

○ ○ ○ ● ● ○ ○

○ ○ ○ ● ○ ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ● ● ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

C↑ C#↑ D↑ E↑ F↑ F#↑ G↑

Practice your four songs by transposing them to the keys of G, F, A, C, and D.

Recorder technique

While you play, think about your …

Breath control and tuning

Fingerings and pitches

Legato articulation on slurs and marcato articulation elsewhere

Also: make sure you cover completely with the correct finger the holes you want to use.

Listen carefully! Make it beautiful!

53

Unit 3 – Diatonic Melodies – Five-note Range

Playing by ear

Join your teacher in singing these two folk songs:

Walk the beats

Clap the rhythms

Sing the words!

Now …

Walk the beats

Clap the rhythms

Sing the rhythms – “Two-eighths – Quarter – Two-eighths – Quarter ….”!

Sing the rhythms – “Two-eighths – Two-eighths – Quarter – Two-eighths – Quarter – Quarter…”!

One of these songs uses the solfège syllables DO RE MI FA and SO; the other uses DO RE ME FA and

SO. Learn the hand signs for these scale degrees.

Using your hands, shape in the air the

Up – down – across of each melody

Now sing “up – down – across” while you shape

Now show and sing the “step – skip – repeat” of each melody!

Sing solfège for each song!

Play! Begin “Jingle Bells” on F# and “The Birch Tree” on A

Jingle Bells

James Pierpoint

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Oh what fun it is to ride

In a one horse open sleigh! (Repeat words)

The Birch Tree*

Russia (words by Edward Wolfe)

See the little birch in the meadow,

Little birch bending in the shadow,

Sighing in the wind little birch tree,

Murmur in the breeze little birch tree.

*The great Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky

used this little folk song prominently in his Fourth

Symphony.

59

Recorder technique – five-note diatonic scales

Major

Practice the following exercises to improve your recorder technique with five-note major and minor

scales. Play with a variety of articulations and different tempos.

Play in the major keys of D (as written), E, F, G, A, and C.

Minor

Play in the minor keys of D (as written), E, F, G, A, and C.

Major – Minor – Major

Now practice this exercise to improve your ability to switch between major and minor five-note scales.

Play in the keys of D (as written), E, F, G, A, and C, major and minor.

While you play, think about your …

Breath control and tuning

Fingerings and pitches

Listen carefully! Make it beautiful!

63

Ensemble playing

Here are some ideas for playing Unit 3 pieces in ensembles:

A. Michael Praetorius’ “Gavotte” can be played as a round, with each successive part beginning at

breath marks.

B. The following pieces can be played together quodlibet style1, if they are transposed to the same

key:

a. “Oh, When the Saints” and “Theme from the Ninth Symphony” (suggested key: D Major)

b. “Green Gravel” and the German folk song just above it. (suggested key: E Major) “May

Is Here” may also be added, if the other two songs are repeated.

c. “Riu, Riu, Chiu”, “Erie Canal”, and the Israeli “Folk Song” (suggested key: E Minor).

Uneven phrase lengths in “Riu, Riu, Chiu” and its quick tempo create some interesting

ensemble problems for the group to solve.

d. “Jingle Bells” and “The Birch Tree” may be played simultaneously if one of them is

distorted into the mode of the other.

Learning about music theory

Notation

You learned several new scales in this unit. They are diatonic scales as compared with the “pentatonic”

scales you used in Unit 2. While the word diatonic can mean a lot of different things to musicians, right

now I’d like you to think of a diatonic scale as one which uses all of the letter names in sequence,

without skipping any letters and without repeating any letters.

Consider the five-note scale of E Major. Do you remember how to spell it? (Spelling in music is just like

spelling in English – saying all of the letters in a scale or chord one at a time, just as you might say all of

the letters in a word in English.) Spell the E Major five-note scale now:

Correct spelling of the E Major five-note scale

Major key DO RE MI FA SO

E

If you spelled the scale correctly, you wrote “G#” for MI. However, you might just as easily have written

“Ab” for MI. You learned, if you remember, that the fingering and sound for G# are exactly the same as

they are for Ab. Now spell the E Major five-note scale wrong, with the Ab instead of G#:

Wrong spelling of the E Major five-note scale

Major key DO RE MI FA SO

E

1 A quodlibet combines two or more existing melodies simultaneously.

94

Sight-reading major pieces with the seventh note of the scale

# ● ●

●

●

●

● ● ●

● ○ C#

115

Sight-reading major pieces with the whole major scale, So to So

134

Name ___________________________________ Section ________ Date ____________

Additional Practice Worksheet 2d

Name the notes on the G clef below by writing the letters in the blanks. NB: some of the groups may

spell words you know.