Video transcript
@The Arts Unit Art Bites – Playing the recorder – 5. London's Burning

[musing playing}

SUSAN SUKKAR: Hello, everybody. Are you ready for your recorder lesson? I am.

Now so far, we've been practicing tunes that are using the left hand at the top, and the right hand has been sitting on the bottom of the recorder not doing anything at all. And my right hand got very cross with me and said, when am I allowed to have a turn playing the recorder? So I thought we'd better have a go using our right hand on the bottom of our recorder. And we're going to learn a tune that's called 'London's Burning'. You might have heard it before, and as I said, it uses the right hand on the bottom of the recorder to play low D. We're also going to learn a new high note as well, but we'll come to that in a moment.

So now let's practise getting our fingers on to low D. So I often like to think that low D is like two Gs together. There's a G with your left hand on the top, and there's another G formation at the bottom of the record. So you have six fingers on.

Can you tell me which two fingers are not on the recorder? Yes, the two pinkies. They're having a little rest. This is called low D. Now the thing about low D is that you need to be playing it quite gently. Otherwise, it will squeak. And you've got all of these fingers on. So your thumb is on the back. And then 1, 2, 3 making a G. And then the right hand making low D like this. And it sounds like this.

[playing note]

If you blow it too hard or your fingers are off the holes, you might get this sound.

[playing note too hard]

So you can hear when it's right and when it's wrong. Tricky. So let's play some low D patterns for a while, and then I'll teach you the tune. Listen and play with me.

[playing notes]

Well done. Now let's try something a little trickier, going from G to low D.

[playing notes]

Whoa, that's hard, isn't it? Let's try that, starting on G and then down to low D.

[playing notes]

OK, once more.

[playing notes]

Well done. Now hopefully you have been practicing with these-- when you're playing your left-hand notes-- with your right hand sitting down here ready. If your right hand's been flying around doing all sorts of other things or grabbing the recorder like this, that's going to make it really hard to play low D. There are tunes that sound like this.

[playing notes]

So lots of low D's in a row. So if you have been practicing this,

[playing notes]

--you won't be able to play that tune. So get used to keeping this hand ready to play. Are you happy now, right hand? Thank you. OK. My right hand is now happy. Alright, let's try the beginning of 'London's Burning'. We're just going to learn the very first phrase. Listen, and then play with me.

[music - 'London's Burning']

Play with me.

[music - 'London's Burning']

Now you might be squeaking a little bit. That doesn't matter. The next bit's quite easy. Listen.

[music - London's Burning']

Oh, we know these notes, don't we? A, A, B, B, A, A, B, B. Play together.

[music - 'London's Burning']

Now the next note is the one that I said we needed to learn, and it's called high D. And it is just one finger on the recorder. So you will remember that C has the thumb on the back. So it's like a C without the thumb. So this is A and this is D. You have time to get ready for it, so that's helpful. Have a listen to the A and D. A, D. And D is fire, fire. Have a listen.

[playing note]

Can you try that? It needs to be played gently. Don't want it to go.

[playing note too hard]

So tongue it. Play it gently D, D. Let's try that note.

[playing note]

Do it again with me.

[playing note]

And the last phrase is starting on the high D, putting the thumb on for C and then swapping over to B-- a little bit tricky D, C, B, B.

[music - 'London's Burning']

And again, you try. Find high D. Get your thumb ready to go on for the C.

[playing notes]

And swap.

[music - 'London's Burning']

Great. Let's try and put it all together. Do you remember what note we started on? D. We said it was D. Hang on. There was a D, and there was another D. Is that right? Yes, it is because we can have a low D--

[playing note]

And a high D.

[playing note]

And there are more notes higher than you can-- than that too on the recorder, but we won't learn them right now. So we're starting on low D. Let's try playing the whole tune extremely slowly. So it's--

(Singing): London's burning.

Let's go. After 2. 1, 2.

[music - 'London's Burning']

And again.

[music - 'London's Burning']

And again.

[music - 'London's Burning']

What's next? High D.

[music - 'London's Burning']

And again.

[music - 'London's Burning']

And the last phrase.

[music - 'London's Burning']

And again.

[music - 'London's Burning']

I think we need to practise that again. Let's do it again. I won't speak in-between this time. Let's play together 1, 2.

[music - 'London's Burning']

That's great. Now when you can master the piece, a really fun thing to do if you're with a group of other people is to play it as a round. And I'm going to play it as a round now for you so that you can hear when you come in. So have a listen and watch, and you will see me playing it again but in two parts so that I will come in as a round.

[music - 'London's Burning']

This time, how about I play first? And I'll play all the way through, and you have a turn in coming in and playing after me. So you might have noticed in the round that the part that starts first finishes first and the part that starts second finishes second. So if I start, you will end up finishing after me. I'll indicate when it's your turn to join me. Here we go.

[music - 'London's Burning']

Great. Did you get tricked? If you managed to keep going with your part and not join in with my part, you've done very well. Let's try it once more before we finish. I'll start. You join in.

[music - 'London's Burning']

[humming]

That was your part finishing off. Well done, everyone. So let's just recap before we go. Low D, which is left hand on the top, thumb 1, 2, 3, and then 1, 2, 3 of your right hand covering all the holes. And high D, which is only one finger on the recorder, so it's like a C, which we've already learnt, but the thumb off the back. High D. Low D.

Well done. The world of music is opening up before you, and we're going to have fun with some more tunes using our right hand. Don't worry, right hand.

Bye for now.