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Originally Posted by Mommy&Will  I have decided to buy (gasp) plastic recorders for ds and myself, and we will be using Oak Meadow's recorder book.
Are all plastic recorders created equal and/or does anyone have suggestions on where and what I should purchase?
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This is an easy decision.
First of all, be sure you're getting a soprano recorder. There are other sizes, but they have different fingerings and note ranges.
Serious recorder players agree that there's only one really good option for a plastic soprano recorder, and that's the Yamaha 300 series soprano recorders. If you or your son got serious about recorder playing, you could take a plastic Yamaha soprano to an ensemble group and play without being ashamed of your instrument.
Luckily they won't break the bank. They're between $14 and $23 apiece. The model numbers are YRS-302B (brown), YRS-312B (simulated rosewood finish), YRS-314B (simulated ebony finish), and YRS-322B (translucent pink, blue, or green).
You may get lucky and find 300 series sopranos at your local music store, but I've only found the cheaper Yamaha plastic sopranos at stores in my area. They come in white (YRS-24B) or translucent (YRS-20B), and should cost under $10. Honestly they don't sound half bad, so if your budget is limiting, they may fit the bill just fine.
If you've got a very picky musical ear, buy a Yamaha 300 series soprano from
Antique Sound Workshop. They will custom tune them by modifying the holes slightly, but it does cost extra (about $10 more per instrument). Definitely spend some time browsing their website. They have really great information for newbies, especially on their
Information Bulletins page.
If you're not worried about being in perfect tune, you can buy 300 series instruments elsewhere for less.
Courtly Music has them, and they say they will extend their music teacher discount on sheet music to homeschoolers.
Lazar's carries them too.
The translucent (blue, pink, green) with white trim YRS-322B soprano recorders are not widely available, but they're so darn cute I had to find them!
They were only made for Japanese market and have been discontinued, but a few US retailers obtained limited quantities. I managed to get one of each color from
Kelhorn/Susato over the summer, and they still have all colors listed as in stock on their website, for ~$15 each. It looks like
Lazar's Early Music only has pink ones left. Okay, so you might feel silly taking a translucent recorder to an ensemble, but hey, playing music is supposed to be fun!
(Note: there are widely available cheap translucent Yamahas, in the under $10 range, but these are the 20 series,
not the 300 series. If you see them in person or in a picture, you can tell them apart because the cheaper ones do not have solid white trim.)
Good luck choosing an instrument!
:
Games for... books. I was able to find most of them through interlibrary loan.
