Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 25: Sixteenth Notes

  • Play four even sixteenth notes per beat.
  • Play a Baroque-style allegro passage at a moderate tempo.

Sixteenths are the rhythmic vocabulary of urgency.

A sixteenth note is half an eighth — four to the beat, counted “one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a.” Sixteenths are where the recorder reveals whether the fingers are truly synchronised. Any unevenness hidden in eighths becomes obvious here.

The fingers, not the tongue, are the test.

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Keep the underlying beat steady while the rhythm above it changes.

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Play: an allegro passage

Vivaldi-style fast figures — the kind of pattern that appears in nearly every Italian Baroque concerto.

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Now play these

Vivaldi: Recorder Concerto RV 443 (Largo)
Decorative sixteenth ornaments.
Bach: Sonata BWV 1033
An Allegro built on sixteenth patterns.
Telemann: Sonata in C major, TWV 41:C5
Accessible 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.