Recorder: Summer Sun Piece

This summer I played around with melodies on the recorder. One of the best and easiest ways to help students get acquainted with improvising on a soprano recorder is to use the G Pentatonic Scale (GAB DE). I wanted to write a piece that would allow students the opportunity to play a piece with few to no skips in the melody, easy rhythms and easy form. I came up with this simple melody and have used it with my students.

The B section is optional. And for some reason, the formatting is a little off. My plan is to review the conga part for the B section - it feels too busy. I'd likely have students play this rhythm instead:

Ta ta tikatika ta / ta (rest) ta (rest)

A great option for a B section, if you don't use the one below, would be for student improvisations using the G Pentatonic Scale in a Question/Answer format.

QUESTION: One student would play a melody over 8 beats and end on any note EXCEPT G.

ANSWER: A second students would copy the first four beats of the first student's melody, improvise two beats and ALWAYS end on the home note G.

The Question/Answer improvisations could be done 2 times between A Sections to give you an ABABA form, if desired.

Comments

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