Charlton Method: A Manual for the Advanced Recorder Player

180 pages. The new printing is perfect-bound (standard glued spine.)

The Charlton Method for the Recorder: A Manual for the Advanced Recorder Player was written by Andrew Charlton (1928-1997) and first published in 1981. Charlton was a professor of music at Cal State Fullerton and edited and arranged numerous works for recorder.

This venerable book is a comprehensive and detailed method for advanced recorder playing, with an eye towards Renaissance and Baroque literature. It is a favorite of dedicated hobbyists and performers across the country. It may be used by recorder players wishing to improve their skills, or by musicians who are proficient on another instrument (especially woodwinds) and wish to learn recorder, but it assumes music-reading ability and moves quickly.

Additionally, Charlton's intent was for the student to play both C and F instruments in the same lesson, to facilitate the essential recorder consort skill of switching. This works well for intermediate to advanced recorder players, but it is recommended that people new to recorder choose one instrument (C or F,) work until they feel proficient on that instrument, and then start over with the other - for example, one might start on alto and then learn soprano, or start on tenor and then learn alto. Eventually it is highly useful to play through the exercises on all of the instruments available to you.

The first twenty-five pages contain etudes, fingering exercises, and articulation studies in treble clef, evenly split between C and F instruments. There are a further 39 scale and arpeggio studies in treble clef, with parallell notation for C and F instruments. These are followed by 16 studies in bass clef for bass recorder. The rest of the book contains studies, characteristic etudes, and duos, many transcribed from the works of J.S. Bach, specified for various recorders including sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. In addition, there are excellent sections on alternate fingerings, vibrato, double- and triple-tonguing, reading historical clefs, the upper register, a short discussion of the instruments themselves, and extensive chapters on Renaissance and Baroque ornamentation.

Those looking specifically for bass recorder materials (in bass clef) will find a total of 26 etudes and studies, 13 double/triple tonguing exercises, a few alternate clef exercises, and 10 duos (all for one bass and one other SAT recorder.) It is also recommended for bass recorder players to play the treble clef F exercises, though some of these will be considerably more difficult on bass than on alto or sopranino.