Lesson 25: Sixteenth Notes
- Play four even sixteenth notes per beat.
- Play a Baroque-style allegro passage at a moderate tempo.
- Lesson 12 — eighth notes.
- Sixteenth-note subdivision.
- Beat-internal articulation.
Sixteenths are the rhythmic vocabulary of urgency.
A sixteenth note is half an eighth — four to the beat instead of two. The counting syllable is “one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a.” Sixteenths are where the recorder reveals whether the fingers are truly synchronised. Any unevenness that was hidden in eighths becomes obvious in sixteenths.
Four sixteenths per beat, ascending the C major scale. Metronome on a slow quarter. The fingers, not the tongue, are the test.
Mixed groupings. The trick: keep the tempo of the underlying beat steady while the rhythm above it changes.
Play: an allegro passage
Vivaldi-style fast figures — the kind of pattern that appears in nearly every Italian Baroque concerto.
Now play these
- Vivaldi: Recorder Concerto RV 443 (Largo)
- The slow movement — the sixteenth ornaments here are decorative, not driving.
- Bach: Sonata BWV 1033
- The Allegro movement is built on sixteenth-note patterns.
- Telemann: Sonata in C major, TWV 41:C5
- An accessible Telemann sonata movement at intermediate tempo.
When sixteenths against a metronome at quarter = 80 sound metronomic, move on to Lesson 26.
For a slow-up-from-50 practice approach, see learning a piece.