Recorders

In Recorder Karate, 4th grade students work their way through 9 songs and earn karate belts that can be placed on the bottom of their recorder. This encourages the students to practice when the going gets tough (and it often does). Each song has an accompaniment track that the students use to play along with. You can access the tracks by the links at the bottom of this page. You can download tracks or stream them on your computer or other smart device. 4th graders that have already earned their black belts in the Recorder Karate program will be working through a new group of songs that are more difficult; the tracks for those songs are available in a separate link at the bottom of the page (under Recorder Karate 2).

Students will get 5 points each class for participation. Forgetting an instrument will result in the loss of one point. If a student is playing their recorder during instruction time, they will have their instrument taken away and lose a point. There will also be grades given based on a student's progress with the instrument (playing tests). Consistent practice is the key; I know from personal experience that it is not always pleasant to listen to your child practice the recorder (one of mine liked to do it at 5 a.m. on the weekend!), but please encourage your student and provide them a place where they can practice and not disturb anyone--they will grow in skill and confidence if you do!

For extra help in practicing the note names on the treble staff, you can use the tools at www.musictheory.net. If you have an apple device, they have an app that you can download to practice. It is a wonderful tool to use to learn note names quickly.