Basic Recorder Lessons - Omnibus Edition: For Group or Individual Instruction

Has everything you need (as long as you order the omnibus edition) to learn to play, and lots of tunes to practice on. Highly recommended.

I initially started learning the soprano recorder using this book, then drifted away for awhile due to lack of time. I have recently started practicing again, and this book is a GREAT book! The lessons move quickly enough to make fast progress (although you can, and should, only move on to the next lesson when you're ready), and they are in bite-sized chunks that are easily digested. Since the time I started playing again, I have added the tenor recorder (plays an octave lower for a much mellower tone, but uses the same fingering as the soprano). I have also started learning the alto recorder. This recorder is in the key of 'f' rather than the key of 'c' that the soprano/tenor uses, so it uses different fingering. While buying books to learn the alto, I picked up another excellent book... "The Recorder Guide" by Johanna E. Kulbach and Arthur Nitka. It is structured much the same as Zeitlin's book, but includes dexterity excercises and arpeggios to practice. For those that are disappointed in the lack of a Zeitlin book for the alto, this is it! It teaches BOTH soprano and alto together... when a note for the soprano is introduced, the same fingering (albeit different note) is introduced for the alto. The practice songs and exercises are presented for both the soprano and alto, and there are even duets for the soprano and alto playing together. These two books together should get you a long way in your soprano lessons, and when you're ready, teach you the alto recorder too! A double value for the money!

I'm teaching myself to play the recorder and this book has been extremely helpful! The lessons are easy to follow and hold my interest. It has fingering charts for each new note learned and teaches fundamentals of music, such as note-reading, measures, time signatures, note values, rhythm, etc. Each lesson uses short tunes to teach various concepts, so you're not just playing boring single notes and rhythms. The last chapter (Book 4) is packed with lots of great music! I highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to learn to play the recorder. It makes learning fun!

For learning to play the recorder, no matter what your age, this is a wonderful resource. Reading music is taught along with playing the instrument in bite-size lessons that my daughter has had no trouble comprehending. Although it is written to be used along with a teacher's lessons, it is detailed and complete enough to teach yourself. Songs are taught along with the notes, helping the student gain confidence as they go along. The style is more mature than most beginning recorder books, which are geared toward very young children, however, I don't feel that the book is lacking because it doesn't include cartoon characters. I highly recommend it. I have also used this series for learning guitar, and would seek it out for any instrument.

As an adult picking up the recorder again after 15 years, I found this one of the best soprano recorder guides I've found. A great compilation, and perfect for either teacher/student lessons, or self-teaching for adults. It's both very easy to follow and very thorough, but paced sufficiently to be easily absorbed. It's a 4-volume compilation, so you can progress quite far if you'd like. Like the other reviewer, I also think there really needs to be a f Alto recorder version of this omnibus as well. This guide is excellent for soprano, and it would be great if one of similar format and structure were available for the Alto recorder.