Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 12: Eighth Notes and Faster Rhythms

  • Play even pairs of eighth notes at a steady tempo.
  • Play a melody whose character depends on rhythmic evenness.

Speed is rhythmic accuracy at tempo, not faster fingers.

Eighth notes are two to the beat: “one-and, two-and,” or the ti-ti from Lesson 6. The challenge is not finger speed but evenness — beginners drift into long-short pairs because the tongue lingers on the downbeat. Articulate each eighth with the too/doo family from Lesson 8.

Match the durations exactly: each eighth half as long as its quarter neighbour, no longer.

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The metronome is your only judge.

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Play: Yankee Doodle

A march whose energy lives entirely in its running eighth pairs. If the eighths are not crisp and even, the melody sags.

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Land each string of eighths on a firm quarter; the F# at the end is last lesson’s cross-fingering.

Land each string of eighths on a firm quarter; the low B at the end (on your alto staff) is last lesson’s cross-fingering.

Now play these

Yankee Doodle (full)
The whole tune — eighth pairs from start to finish, against a steady two-beat.
Lightly Row
Steady quarters throughout — use it to feel the contrast with today's eighths.
London Bridge
Faster than last lesson, with the metronome.

When eight ascending eighth notes against a metronome sound metronomic, move on to Lesson 13.