U3A Recorder Playing

Useful information

1. The Society of Recorder Players: is an organisation for recorder players to get together regularly to play in a friendly environment. They do not rehearse for concert performances but just play for fun.

a. The nearest branch to St Helens is the Manchester branch. Their secretary is Mr Andrew Taylor, 4 Saddlecote, Barton Rd, Worsley, Manchester M28 2HB, tel. 0161 793 4175, e-mail [email protected] .

b. If you don’t want to join the Manchester branch but would like the Recorder magazine (quarterly), you can join as a ‘Country & Overseas’ member. The secretary for that is Miss Sandra Foxall, 113 Birchwood Rd, Marton, Middlesbrough, TS7 8DE, tel. 01642 310628, e-mail [email protected] . The Recorder Magazine is sent to all members and is a great source of recorder playing info such as courses and sources for music and instruments.

c. Country and Overseas membership cost is £22 per year for an individual and £33 per year for family membership. There will be an extra membership fee if you join a branch to cover branch expenses. Have a look at the website at www.srp.org.uk .

2. Getting free music from the web: there are numerous web sites for downloading recorder music. Have a look at the following sites and look around the web for more.

a. www.8notes.com/recorder has some fairly simple stuff for free. This can be printed straight off the web page or downloaded and printed later.

b. http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page is the source for a huge amount of free choral music, much of it suitable for recorders. However, because it is such a large collection, it is best if you have some idea of what you are looking for when you use it. It is the combined database for what used to be ‘Choral Wiki’ and ‘CPDL’ (Choral Public Domain Library).

c. http://icking-music-archive.org/index.php . WIMA (Werner-Icking Music Archive) and IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) have combined to produce this database of public domain music. Most of these will be in score format (all parts on the same page). You may need to look at individual pieces to see if there are printable parts as well; these would be easier to play from as there will be fewer page turns.

3. Buying music: there are lots of sources for buying recorder music, some publications are expensive but there are publishers that charge not much more than the cost of photocopying. The following sources supply music at reasonable prices:

a. Recorder Music Mail is the largest supplier of all recorder music – www.recordermail.co.uk – if you have any questions, email Ruth Burbidge. They have printing rights to a few reasonably priced music series, particularly Peacock Press.

b. The Oriel Library is a dedicated recorder music site – www.oriellibrary.com is the web site but do email Cathy Gaskell if you have questions about the music you want to buy.

c. Mayhill Press is for Steve and Ann Marshall’s compositions – see www.mayhill.co.uk for more info. Steve is the central U3A recorder playing advisor, so an email to him could give you useful info.

d. Willobie Press, run by Paul and Sheila Richards. See www.willobie.co.uk. Many of these are either compositions by Paul or arrangements by either Paul or Sheila and can be fairly challenging.

4. Instruments: buying new plastic instruments can be done on line as once you have decided on a particular model, they will all sound the same. My preferred make of plastic recorder is Yamaha but do buy the more expensive model; the cheaper models are not as well in tune. a. The best UK source for the more expensive wooden recorders is the Early Music Shop in Bradford – www.earlymusicshop.com – contact Peter Booth for info. I would always go to the shop to try out any new recorder before buying; I have tried out 30-odd descants before selecting the one to buy! They also have a shop in London.

5. Recorder Courses; There are plenty of recorder courses around but they do tend to be quite expensive.

a. The one that I think is best is the Recorder Summer School – www.recordersummerschool.org.uk – there are classes for all levels of ability, from absolute beginner to post-diploma level. This is a full-on one week course in Bishop Burton, near Beverley with a large variety of classes.

b. A local course used to be held at Alston Hall near Preston and is starting again with Eileen Silcocks as tutor. The Alston Hall website is www.alstonhall.com , tel. 01772 784661. Eileen is a very good, encouraging tutor – well worth going to. The course is a weekend from Friday 18th Jan (evening) to Sun 20th Jan (after afternoon tea). The level of playing is not advertised, so it may be advisable to contact Alston Hall or Eileen before booking. See her website at www.eileensilcocks.co.uk for more info.

c. As you know, we spend much of our time in Lyme Regis on recorder courses. The website for these is www.recordercourseslyme.com , tel. 07768 122162, email: [email protected] . Particularly look for courses run by Moira Fraser-Hook. She runs several U3A recorder groups in the Chepstow area and some of her U3A members go to the Lyme Regis courses. She is a much kinder tutor than I am!

I hope this gives you some ideas for the future to let you enjoy playing your recorders to the full. Simon