Brad’s Take

This one is easy. Feed the livestock. Walk to the school bus. Shovel the sidewalk. Scrub the bathroom. But what do you do with the kids when they finish their chores?

Just kidding.

Young or old, winter and other harsh weather keep us away from a brisk walk, a stint in the garden, mowing lawn, etc. Energy peaks and plummets. We re-learn, again, that “sleepy is from lack of exercise” – tired is from need to rest.

Remember back in school, just learning to play the clarinet? Remember how it sounded so horrible, and seemed to take such effort, to get it to sound good? Depending on the reed and instrument – the clarinet is hard work. And the brass, and the percussion, and the other woodwinds. Sitting in a chair, holding still trying to read the silly music – you are working your lungs and back and ribs and abdomen. Working them hard.

Remember chorus? Learning to sing the right notes, and the right words, in tempo, and keep breathing for the whole song?

Music is still a socially acceptable form of exercise. For yourself, there is the piano, the organ, just singing for yourself, and the instruments. Pawnshops might have a student grade or better instrument for a reasonable price, or you might find one at a flea market or Salvation Army. Sheet music and music books are reasonably available. And don’t overlook your church – you may be able to buy a copy of your regular hymnal for a very modest cost, or order one from your church’s publisher.

Hymns have generally stood the tests of time – memorable tunes, and the melody (alto or next-to-top notes in the blue Lutheran Hymnal) line is reasonably easy to play. Or sing.

eBay regularly has listings of sheet music and music books. Local music stores have books, and possibly even lists of instructors to help you get started.

Note: According to Paul Harvey, humming will help opened clogged sinuses. I find that Saline Nasal Mist helps clear sinuses, even when not congested, and soothes dried (frequent nosebleed) sinuses, dry cough, etc. – two *big* sniffs in each side, once an hour, and blow. SNM can help clear up to a sinus infection, and reduce allergies, according to my family doctor.

I wanted an instrument to play. There was this Helen Reddy song (if you don’t remember her, don’t ask. She sang. “No Way To Treat A Lady”, etc.) I tried a harmonica, but after playing B-flat, Alto, and Bass Clarinet in junior high and high school, I was pretty sold on a concert or symphony, read-the-music type instrument. One with “this finger goes here for that note”. Just as I graduated college, I noticed a Zenon brand Recorder on a rack in the university bookstore, for $4.95 or so. On the way to the car, I pulled it out of the plastic tube, and noticed a piece of paper dropped out. When I got home, I figured out – that was the fingering chart. You know, the place where you learn which fingers go where, to play this note and that one.

A few years later I again had time, and interest. And wandered past this music store in San Jose, CA. The owner didn’t have recorder fingering charts – except with this Hohner maple Alto (18 inch, key of F) recorder. I picked up a book, and the recorder. And my room mate went crazy. The first song I memorized, at age 35, was “Go Tell Aunt Rhody”. (“Go tell Aunt Rhody, Go tell Aunt Rhody, Go tell Aunt Rhody, The old gray goose is dead.” I never knew if this was an invitation to goose supper, or the sad duty of reporting the loss of livestock. Or maybe even the celebration of the passing of the terror of the front yard. Whatever.)

John Lyons tells us that horses have excellent retention, about 95% over five (5) years. But the horse takes 50 successful repetitions, after learning the lesson, to “master” the lesson. I am convinced the “master” part takes about 50 reps for me, and for most of the kids I have seen. I consider 50 successful repetitions about right, for “mastering” a skill or technique.

So, while learning Go Tell Aunt Rhody – we all got to know the tune. And still that short nursery rhyme ditty, again, and again, as I worked to remember the tune, to hit the fingerings accurately time after time, to maintain breathing and tone. “Go tell Aunt Rhody..”

Beatles for Recorder. Hymns for Recorder. I have two different collections of Paul Simon for Recorder. Piano music, like the hymnals, just pick out the melody line. Choral music, pick the melody line, or share with a companion if you have someone to play another recorder or other instrument. Or to sing along.

Recorders, like clarinets, are available in several ‘voices’ or sound range. The Sopranino recorder is usually described as “nine inches”, the Soprano (the one the elementary schools often use) is 12 inches, the Alto is 18 inches, the Tenor is 24 inches, the bass is 36 I believe. Actual dimensions vary a bit, between instruments, makers, and product lines. Soprano and Alto are concert key of F, Soprano and Tenor are concert key of C, Bass is E-flat or F, I have seen both. Alto and Tenor are an octave lower than the Sopranino and Soprano, respectively.

Some recorders are hard to play, others hard to play well. The cheapest, the ones schools often hand the 3rd-5th graders, are often the worst. But they might also be very playable. I recall an Aulos 803s soprano recorder I picked up in a music store outside Sierra Vista, NM, for $3.50. Nice enough tone, really easy to get the fingerings right, and played pretty well. I have a Hohner Pearwood recorder I paid $27 for, that plays almost as nicely, but has a better tone. I have another Hohner Soprano recorder, Maple, that cost more. It’s sound is brighter, better suited to classical chamber music. And there is the imported Kung symphony-grade recorder. Another wood soprano doesn’t do well in the upper registers. But for popular music, it is fun to play and sounds just fine. Donovan’s “Jennifer, Juniper”, Beatles’ “Little Girl”, J.S. Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

For fun and music, the recorder and singing pass the time, keep spirits up, exercise the body, and, together with others, can bolster family and community with shared efforts. Shared music preserves culture, improves memory, concentration, and connection of self to culture. Learning to perform – to intentionally select pieces to set, to transform, to sustain, and to change moods and experiences – creates a craft. Having a song to share can improve the self esteem. And the gift of music can be given again and again. “Go tell Aunt Rhody..” loL! Instead of “Stop chasing around the kitchen!” how about “Go practice that second hymn from last Sunday!”

Little money need be invested to get started, and it can be done by candle light if need be. Pick up some blank sheet music staff paper, and copy interesting song melody lines (with words, and songwriter and publisher and year – you may want to track the song down again later. Don’t ask.) from song books from friends and from the library. Copying the music can be a good way to learn a new song. With practice, even most of my copied songs are readable enough to play!

For a more strenuous workout, there is dancing. Or the Clarinet, or brass, or percussion.

I never learned to fiddle.

The US used to have a vast-ish library of music that related a variety of cultural and spiritual (mostly Christian) popular music. Music that can be played on keyboard (like a piano) or dulcimer – or recorder. Harmonica, penny whistle, guitar, fiddle, ukulele, whistle, voice – these and other instruments preserved culture, values, and feelings down through the years and generations.

Mass media music used to be sheet music, then record companies began adding their reproduced music to society. This began a switch from people participating in the singing to selecting songs based on availability of records, which depended on who bought the records – and which records the record company chose to make. Which began selecting artists and genres that fit marketing goals. The commercialization of music focused on sales of music, not the message or theme of the song, or of how sharing songs and stories binds a family and a community together.

Churches balance this estrangement, a bit. The Protestant congregations I grew up in sang three or four hymns together, with added music for various parts of the ritual worship, often an instrumental solo, often a choir song or two. The music was selected to support the theme of the worship, the message of the day. And sharing the music, sharing the experience together bound the congregation together, helped each to remember and relive and relearn the messages and values that defined the congregation.

I have noticed in used book stores, flea markets, and even the Friends of The Library Ongoing Book Sale (FOLOBS) in Ponca City, OK, that there are old school or church or community song books from the War years, from the beginning of the 20th century, and older. Many are quite usable.

And usually these song books are fairly small. Today at the Ponca City FOLOBS bag sale – through October 17, 2008 – there was a stack of maybe 20 community song books that had been donated. A mix of spirituals and folk tunes, paperback, dating to the 1950′s, they probably aren’t 100 pages long, maybe 125 songs.

Song books, especially hymnals, are very good sources of music for the recorder player, the penny whistle, the guitar and other instruments. Pick out the melody line, you have an often easy-to-learn melody. One you can use to entertain yourself or others. Join together with others and split the parts for larger groups or to accompany singers or an audience.

But it starts with latching onto the treasures of the past – the inexpensive instruments, the printed music for inspiration and learning.

Musicians know about ‘fake’ books. Fake books condense the music of an artist or genre to a single melody line, an indication of guitar chords, and may include the lyrics (words). The Ultimate Country Fake Book covers, I think, about 700 songs in a few hundred pages. And decades of music history. I have the Beatles Fake Book – I find many of the songs obscure or difficult. But a lot of very nice recorder music. I also have the Beatles for Recorder, Hymns for Recorder, two separate collections of Paul Simon for Recorder — the amount of music available, when you look, is amazing.

When you have a player, and an audience of one or more, you have a chance to influence the musical presentation. To bring people together in a live performance audience. To form, for a few minutes or a lifetime, a community.

Parents wail and gnash their teeth and contend with the school board about whether the schools should teach sex education. What parents should be teaching – once they learn themselves – is music. Schools get into the recorder or flutophone about age eight (8) or so. The local schools are strapped for music budget – the program is often the cheapest recorders available, some simple (school board approved) culturally neutral music. The music teacher I talked to seemed to believe that the recorder is a teaching, elementary instrument. My mother discovered Michala Petri, a Belgian player that has made a modest name for herself in symphony circles – playing various recorders. I understand that early symphonies were written for recorder (blockflote) but later re-written for transverse flute when it became popular.

I have maybe six (6) or eight (8) cheap classroom recorders, of different makes and styles. There is a lot of difference in how easy they are to play, from difficulty to finger to difficulty to blow consistently – to air leaks and poorly fit together. The Aulos 803s is a bit peculiar looking and a delight to play, and only a bit more expensive than the cheap Chinese knockoffs. Yamaha makes an ivory colored plastic recorder, quite a lot have been made. Their intermediate concert brown with ivory trim line is more expensive and a lot easier to play. The Angel recorder in my car is pretty good, but the lowest finger hole isn’t in an adjustable foot (bottom flare piece) so the hole cannot be placed for my adult finger. The other recorder in the car does have the adjustable foot – I bought that one in the East Tennessee State University school book store for $4.95 in 1982 – is easy to play in the lower and upper registers, except the highest notes are a bit unstable. My Hohner wood recorder is a delight to play, but you don’t want to saturate a wood recorder with too much moisture (about 45 min-1 hour) playing time. Etc. There are different voices – the elementary instrument is usually the 12 inch soprano voice, in Concert C key. The 9 inch sopranino, and the 18 inch alto are Concert F key, the 24 inch Tenor is key of C, an octave below the soprano. The bass recorders vary, and also get expensive. Check out the Kung European brands for symphony grade instruments, maybe $100 to $500 for a fine instrument – soprano. Because the fine instruments are generally exquisite wood craftsmanship in impeccable hardwoods – pearwood, maple, ebony and other exotic varieties – the larger the instrument the more demanding the workmanship and time to create – and the higher the price.

For individual, family, and community needs, start with the better inexpensive instruments. A symphony instrument can be quite demanding to play, and may require an individual chart of note fingerings for each instrument. Other instruments may have a less precise sound, perhaps sweeter or softer-edged – better for ballads.

But keep music in the family, and for a personal solace and comfort and inspiration. And exercise. Managing the breathing, concentration, correct fingerings, these add to exercise, hand strength and agility, attention to sounds. And discipline and attention span and accomplishment. Producing music can be an endless gift of comfort, joy, and amusement.

Pick the music that develops and maintains skills. And lyrics and themes that define and grow a community.

As I heard one Mormon quip, with respect, “Bring ‘em fat, or bring ‘em thin, but Brigham Young.” Start the music early, recognize that playing or singing or whistling to learn and perform is a chore as demanding and valuable as any yard chore.

And bring the selection of music into the home and into the community. Don’t depend on what the radio station selects of what recording companies decide to distribute.