Many American schoolchildren learn to play the soprano recorder as a first instrument and an introduction to music. Lois Veenhoven Guderian offers a unique approach to teaching recorder that fits either secular or church settings.

Guderian’s books Playing the Soprano Recorder for School, Community, and the Private Studio and Playing the Soprano Recorder for Church, School, Community, and the Private Studio are a comprehensive approach to music education through recorder learning and playing. “Music reading, singing, composing, listening, and performing activities are interrelated. The curriculum is sequential, and all nine standards are addressed,” says the author.

The textbook can also serve as a framework for teachers’ and students’ creative teaching and learning. The materials are conducive to collaborative music education endeavors across private and school music programs, community programs, and church music education, as well as in higher education teacher preparation.

Published in two versions--a sacred version for church, private studio, and school collaborations and a secular version for school--the textbook is especially good for community projects and partnerships with symphony orchestras and other organizations, as well as private teaching. It incorporates singing and classroom instrument ensemble parts for several of the pieces, and piano accompaniments are provided for all pieces.

Each lesson includes:

• Technique and Fingering
• Music Lesson
• Music Pieces
• Creative Corner
• Theory and Terms
• Assignment
   

Comprising techniques that are products of the author’s practice and backed by research, the book contains improvising and composing activities to nurture creative thinking and musical understanding. Open-ended composing assignments related to lesson content facilitate opportunities for creative work within the restrictions of school schedules.

Complete editions include a practice/performance CD and piano parts. The classroom or student editions do not include the piano parts, and the CD is sold separately.

MENC member Lois Veenhoven Guderian completed her dissertation, “Effects of Applied Music Composition and Improvisation Assignments on Sight-Reading Ability, Written Music Understanding and Quality in Soprano Recorder Playing,” in July 2008 at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. She is now the music education coordinator at the University of Wisconsin–Superior, as well as a composer and choral director.

Contact Rowman & Littlefield Education and type "recorder" in the Quick Search box to purchase these books.

--Ella Wilcox, October 8, 2008, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)