Aulos C-Tenor Recorder Symphony Mod.511B Baroque, Brown with Pocket, Cleaner/Wiper, Fat-Box and Fingering Chart (700097)

I have been playing soprano recorder for traditional music since 1992, and I am very, very good at it.I didn't play wind instruments as a kid, so I don't have great breath pressure, and the Aulos Tenor I used to have, I just couldn't make it sound good without having to breathe too often. I gave it away.A couple years ago, I bought the new Aulos Tenor, and was very pleasantly surprised to find I can get a nice round tone and still have enough breath to play a whole line of music without having to take a breath. I'm really enjoying playing this instrument, I love the low tone.It's a challenge for me with my narrow, unstretchy hands to get the holes covered reliably, but I'm a plenty experienced enough musician to know that regular pracitice will get me there.If you are a beginner, consider starting on a soprano Aulos. If it is too shrill for you, take a fuzzy pipecleaner and wrap it around over the fiipple -- the hole on the side -- and adjust it until you can get a soft but still reasonably clear tone. That'll help!Going back and forth between the soprano and the tenor is easy because they are an octave apart so all the fingerings are the same, and the switch stretches your brain and makes you better faster.Another piece of advice, for beginners: learn a few simple tunes that you really love, and play them a lot. If you play something you know well first thing in the morning, or last thing at night, just for a few minutes even on the busiest day, you will progress the most quickly. When you have more time, explore other tunes, try out your learning materials, challenge yourself.But for a regular quick practice, play a few tunes you know well and can play well and that you love enough to be happy hearing them over and over. That will give you the patterned learning that will get the notes into your finger tips, just like someone learning to walk again: patterning like that is the most effective way to get that musical skill up to speed.I didn't buy my Aulos Tenor on Amazon, but it is sitting right there waiting for me to play it.

The directions are not in English so I didn't know how to set up or anything. I guess I'll have to take it to an instrument shop to see if it works.

The recorder has a nice sound. The only thing I don't like about it is the saliva builds up quickly. This is one of the drawbacks of a resin instrument.