Recorder FAQ's

It depends on you! But the truth is, getting children interested in playing recorders is quite easy if you start them young. Like a family tradition, for example. Two musically inclined parents can give the kids a sense of fun playing music, and the recorder is a good instrument for them to get started on learning the basics at home. The activity can be turned into a family bonding session with the kids and the parents making music together.

Let’s get this out of the way: a recorder isn’t something you use to record stuff. In this case, the name refers to a woodwind instrument that looks very much like a flute. It is commonly used to teach music in elementary school due to how easy it is to produce sound on it. The recorder’s history stretches back to the Middle Ages and is a great tool for teaching students about a lot of woodwind musical techniques, like breath control, coordination, and music reading, among others. 

Not really. The thing is, they might look similar, but they’re definitely not the same. All you need to do is look at the finger holes and at the end of the instruments. If the instrument’s end flares like a trumpet, that’s a flutophone. If it doesn’t, that’s a recorder. A flutophone also has raised finger holes, while a recorder looks like a cylinder with holes bored into it. Remember these when purchasing a recorder for the first time, so you won’t be confused and buy a flutophone instead. 

Barring the confusing name, yes. A lot of people think that recorders are childhood toys because they often encountered it while they were wee little kids in elementary school. But that is not true. A recorder is as serious an instrument as the guitar, trumpet, and even the piano is. The modern recorder only featured a lot in elementary school music education because producing good sound on it is easy enough for children. Yet that still doesn’t take from its merits as a real instrument, as a lot of professional recorder players exist and perform live. 

We’ve been talking about how easy it is for even children to take up a recorder, so the answer is yes! If kids can do it, adults definitely can, too. It’s easy to start playing. But if you want to master the instrument and sound really good, you’ll have to commit a certain amount of effort to practicing. Fortunately, you won’t have to learn it alone too if you don’t like the “lonely” feeling of self-instruction. There are groups of recorder players out there who would always welcome a newcomer into their fold. The feeling of learning and bouncing ideas off other people can help your playing even more.