5 The Lowest Tenor Note

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This lesson introduces the lowest tenor recorder note, a C. We use a hole previously neglected, along with extra careful breath control.

First, some adjustments. Place your eye slightly above the recorder bottom and look along the holes. The windway should line up perfectly with them, if not, then gently twist the recorder head until the alignment is correct.

The right hand little finger has been idle. No longer so. However we first adjust the recorder. Look at the lowest pair of holes, one larger, one smaller. Gently twist the foot of the recorder until the smaller hole is slightly to the left of the next pair of holes, when looking up from the bottom of the recorder. The lowest pair of holes are offset from the others so the right hand little finger can land on them.

Now try covering all recorder holes. Does the right hand little finger (R4) sit comfortably over the lowest holes? To allow this, R3 may have to sit a little flatter. Depending on the size of your hands, you may have to rotate the recorder foot until the little finger sits properly. This is why better quality recorders have 3 parts, including the foot we are now adjusting.

Once your recorder is adjusted, the fingering for the lowest note, the C, should look like this. All holes are covered, including the thumbhole at the back.

The note sounds like this:

The low C is easily overblown, the breath pressure must be light but steady. Try the following exercise, where the low C is approached from the D above. Notice the slurs, there is no separation between the D and the C. If D is working but C is not, the right hand little finger (R4) is the likely culprit. Finger the low C, then inspect R4. If it is not sitting correctly, you may need to adjust your recorder further.
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If the low C refuses to sound no matter what... Then you are just like every other recorder student. Including myself when I started. This note may take several days to get. Keep at it. If the note overblows continuously, then lower your breath pressure to the faintest whisper.

Once the Low C is sounding, try the following exercise:

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This exercise may not come easily if you've only just gotten the low C to work. The G to C jump in the 3rd bar has two challenges, landing the fingers correctly for the low C, and keeping breath pressure low enough it to sound without overblowing. First the fingers. Play a low C, in the same breath lift your right hand fingers for the G, lower them again for the C. Note that normal breath pressure for G will probably be too much for the low C. Automatically adjusting breath pressure for low (and high) notes is a key recorder skill.

The low C is essential for baroque music, along with other notes coming in the next few lessons. We're nearly there, some of the greatest music ever awaits your fingers. However we do have enough notes now for a great store of beautiful tunes, from Ireland in particular. However some of these tunes have a new rhythm, the "dotted" triplet.

Previously we introduced dotted rhythms, where a dot following a note increases its length by 50%. We also looked at at 6/8 rhythms, featuring groups of three eighth notes (quavers). A common variation is for the first eighth note (quaver) in a group to be dotted, followed by a sixteenth note (semiquaver), then another eighth note (quaver) to finish the group.

Sounds complex, however it is not. The rhythm has a skipping sound, easily recognised. Listen to the example below, hear the skipping sound of the dotted eighth (quaver) note groups.

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Getting the low C to work may take longer than earlier challenges. The music library tunes below will acquaint you further with this newest (and lowest) note.

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Biddys Wedding
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Boatman
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Quick Start
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