Vicki Boeckman: Hi! I am Vicki Boeckman with the American Recorder Society. In this series I am helping you learn how to play simple songs on the recorder. Today, we will learn Sweet Betsy from Pike with D major scale and the D major triad. Okay so let's start by the low D and F sharp.
[Music Playing]That's a pretty simple combination. You just have to raise your finger to get that leap of a third. Let's do from F sharp to A.
[Music Playing]Then, the triad.
[Music Playing]Now, the full triad with the low D up to the high D.
[Music Playing]Lots of fingers moving at the same time; most of all of the music that we play is built on scales or triads. We are just going to focus on the major scales and triads in this series. There are others, but this song uses that very triad and parts of scale. Here is what the D major scale sounds like. So we are going to start on the low D which will take a low breath pressure.
[Music Playing]Just those five notes and then back.
[Music Playing]So even though I am tonguing I have a continuous airflow. Now let's work from the middle A here to the D. So we are going to add the note C sharp and C sharp, let's just go try that note in a few different combinations. From A to C sharp, all we have to do is remove our thumb.
[Music Playing]Now, let's try C sharp and B right next to each other. So that's kind of like the one finger pushes the thumb away. So we want to keep our index finger down as our anchor finger and then use our middle finger to push away the thumb, and then push back; almost like a needle in a bobbin.
[Music Playing]Now, let's try A, B, C sharp and D.
[Music Playing]Okay. Now, the whole scale.
[Music Playing]And now the triad.
[Music Playing]Now, you are ready to learn Sweet Betsy from Pike.
[Music Playing]And now comes the triad.
[Music Playing]This part is exactly like the beginning.
[Music Playing]So that was Sweet Betsy from Pike in 3/4 and now you've learned another simple song on the recorder.