Whole Class Student Recorder provides material for a two year course, taking recorder students from absolute beginner to Grade 2 standard.
Our aim is to make teaching as easy as possible. The website is simple and intuitive to use, and everything you need is onscreen, so there’s no requirement for music stands, CDs, memory sticks or any other material. Each new exercise follows naturally and logically from the one before, and the material advances in small, incremental steps which aren’t too daunting, giving children a real sense of progress and achievement from the start.
Books are available as an optional extra. These enable students to practise outside lessons, and also make it possible for descants and trebles to play some of the pieces as duets. The backing tracks for each tune are freely available on the Practice page, so you don’t need to create an individual login for each pupil.
The material is designed so that students gain an understanding of basic music reading and theory as they progress, rather than simply learning tunes by rote. This makes it an excellent stepping stone towards learning any other type of instrument.
Level 1 is permanently free to use and try out in the classroom, providing nearly a term’s worth of material. For the remaining levels, it is necessary to create an annual membership account. A single membership costs £50, and various group ones are available at a discounted rate – full details here.
Watch the video below for a short guide to using the Student Recorder website.
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There is a companion website, Whole Class Student Brass, for teaching brass instruments in schools. This site solves the problems associated with different transpositions and clefs, which make brass teaching for whole classes notoriously difficult. The site makes it possible for students with different types of instrument to learn together, playing parts which are appropriate for the range of the instrument and the ability level of the pupil.
