Recorder Repair: Student-Created Tutorials
One of the unforeseen benefits of having my recorder students send in videos via email, is the ability to see incorrect fingering or other struggles that might otherwise go unnoticed in a large classroom. When I realized that I needed to send back a video with directions to fix the problem, the Recorder Repair Shop was created.
At first, I made a few of the helpful videos, but as soon as I noticed a student playing a piece really well, I challenged him/her to create a Recorder Repair video to help other students with the tricky parts of that piece. It’s always better if the students do the teaching. These students were not always my most advanced students, but they demonstrated mastery of a particular piece and it was nice to reward them with a way to teach other students.
Here is the text of an email that I sent out to each selected student:
I have a challenge for you…. Would you be willing to make a teaching video for the Hammond Music Students? You can make as many as you’d like, but I want you to pick one thing that you do well and explain the secrets to it. Here are some ideas:- ​​​How to Master high C (fingering changes from B to C)
- How to Master low E without squeaking
- How to Master high D
- How to Master the first 4 notes of “Oh, When the Saints”
- How to read music (Telling the difference between G and B)
- The secret to playing with good tone
- How to Master high C and high D and still hold on to the Recorder
- How to Master low D  – the fingering and soft blowing
- How to practice until you get it.
- How to blow the spit out ( ugh!)
- How to remember to play with Left hand on top and Right on bottom
- How to play an F# – maybe go from G to F# Â (fingering for F# is 1-2-3 on top and 2-3 on bottom)
- Demonstrate how to play the 3rd line of Ode to Joy
- Demonstrate the difference between the 1st line and 2nd line of Ode to Joy
- Demonstrate how to play Ama lama
- How to Master “Old MacDonald”
- How to Master playing low F – regular. (fingering for F-regular is 1-2-3 on top and 1-3 on bottom)
- Mastering the tricky spots in “Do You Want to Build a Snowman”
- Mastering the tricky spots in “Supercalifragi – thingy)
etc.
The video only needs to be a minute or so long but your fingers need to be seen in the video. I’m going to attach it to Aurasma and when anyone has a problem with a recorder skill, they will go to your picture and learn how to fix the problem. You might start by saying something like this:- ​​If you want to play B to C on the recorder, this is how you do it. (Show the fingering)
- Here’s a helpful hint (tell how you learned to remember the fingering)
- I had trouble at first until I learned to (blah, blah, blah)
______________________________________________________________________________
The Recorder Repair Shop is Open
It wasn’t too many hours before the videos came rolling in! For the first time, I was able to attach student-created videos to future emails as needed. This made all the difference in the world because it wasn’t me doing the teaching, it was the students. There were even times when the Repair kids created a video demonstrating a fingering and they got it all wrong. I quickly created a fix-er-upper and sent it back and they were able to fix the repair video. In a large class of recorder players, so many of these boys and girls would go unnoticed no matter how hard I try to notice each one.
The Recorder Repair Shop works on many levels
- It gives a spotlight to the students who are playing correctly – no matter the level. It builds them up and gives them confidence.
- It gives a voice to my shy students.
- The children surprise me with the way they problem-solve things like remembering left hand over right, or fingering from high C to high D.
- It creates a resource for students to find answers to problems they are having.
In the future, I will introduce new fingering or other topics by showing the Recorder Repair videos during class. I notice that the kids get completely quiet when one of their own is speaking! Imagine that!
I know that other subjects use student-created tutorials, but in my music room, I’ve never tried it like this before. I’m hooked! What about you? Have you had your students create tutorials to share with others? How did they access them? What were they teaching? Sharing is caring!
Have a great Monday!!
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Cherie Herring
Music/Technology Integration at Hammond School
I teach elementary music, am passionate about integrating technology into my teaching, am obsessed with my SMARTBoard and iPad, and enjoy creating lessons and sharing ideas. I love technology almost as much as I love cheesecake, and with more energy and ideas than I know what to do with, I can't wait for the sun to come up each morning! I'm wife to Prince Charming and mom to three incredible girls who keep me balanced. . . sort of!
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21 thoughts on “Recorder Repair: Student-Created Tutorials”
Hi
Would it be possible for me to have a copy of this please – it’s a great idea. Email is calamitykak@hotmail.com
many thanks
Kirsty
I would love a copy of your recorder repair shop!! Thanks!
What a great idea! Could I have a copy of it, please? I don’t have a smart board but would like to take what you’ve created and adjust it possibly using QR codes instead to link students to the help videos. Thank you so much for sharing!
Hi Sherri, I just sent you an email with a few ideas. Thanks for dropping by!!
Cherie
Hi Cherie!
You’ve truly inspired me with all of your great ideas and use of technology! My music class will finally have some access to iPads on a regular basis, so I’m putting up your “Mustache You a Question” bulletin board and just printed out all of your pics for that. I don’t have a SmartBoard, but would love to use your frames for the Recorder Repair video idea, if I can. Thanks so much!
Hi Bethany!
Thank you for the kind words. I’m so excited for you!! You will be amazed at all of the ideas that come once you embrace the technology as a tool for learning. For me, iPads give me much more control of my classroom – but in a different way. Now, about the Recorder Repair frames… they are in SMART Notebook and that software allows the layering of images and frames in a unique way. I though about exporting them as a PDF, but that won’t really help you create the pictures because you can’t layer them correctly. I can’t do it this weekend, but next week, let me try exporting the images as .png files and you might can layer them in another program. I wish it were just as simple as sending the file, but if you don’t have SMART Notebook software, it won’t work. Now, You could have the kids create the videos, store them in the cloud and link them via QR code. That would work. Aurasma is a tricky app because each picture has to be unique and thats where my frames come in. The kids can still make the movies, edit them in iMovie or just send them to you and you can link them via QR codes. What do you think about that? – Cherie
Sooo…exciting news! I was just told today I’m getting a SMARTboard! I’m so, so excited…so I definitely want to take advantage of whatever you can send me!
Yippee!!!!!! I’ll send you several links via email right away!! Be sure to read the blog post to save time. I am thrilled for you, Bethany! Stay in touch and let me help you along the way.
Hi Cherie,
I was just looking at your post and it made me really excited about trying to use iPads to teach recorder. This will be my first year teaching third grade recorders. I am using the recorder karate program, but love all of your ideas. I do have a smart board in my classroom, and i would love to do the recorder repair video. I would love it if you could send me a copy of this.
Thanks so much,
Dian Petersen
Hi Dian, I just emailed you the links to download the Mustache Maker file and the Recorder Repair file. I would love to hear back from you! Tell me how it goes and share the pictures too!
Toot! Toot!
Cherie
Thanks so much I can’t wait to try it.
Dian, let me know if you need help along the way! 🙂 Cherie
Hi Cheryl,
I’ve followed your blog for over a year now and LOVE all of your ideas. I flipped my recorder classroom last year after reading your post. I was always frustrated with how much time it took to hear kids play one by one in class – your idea was a brilliant fix! Could I have a copy of the Recorder Repair Shop file to try with my students? I think it would be a hit!
All the best,
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for the kind words and I’m very excited to hear of your flipped classroom. Here is a link to a resource I created for my presentations and it has tons of links and tutorials . look around and you will find the recorder repair link on the left..
You can also find these links to my resource files on my blog home page.
I’m away from my desktop computer and this is a start for an answer. I’ll follow up with you tomorrow to make sure you found what you needed.
The recorder repair team motivates exponentially!!
I’ll be in touch soon!
Cherie
Thank you so much for the files! My kids are already excited and sending in their own “repair” videos on top of their regular belt videos 🙂
Great! Keep me posted on their progress. I would love to hear the end results this year. – Cherie
What a fantastic idea! Could you send me the Repair Shop file? I would love to try it with my kids this year. Thank you!
What a wonderful idea! I need to figure this out before I begin my recorder unit…. Can I get a copy of the repair shop file too? karena.tysdal@epsb.ca
Thanks!
What if I don’t have smart board or smart board software can I still see the links I would love to get a copy of your recorder repair?
Cherie,
I would LOVE to get my hands on this recorder repair shop resource you have written about. Man, I wished I would’ve seen this blog post earlier. What a fantastic idea!! Thanks for being willing to share your fabulous ideas and resource!
Erin, do you have a SMARTBoard? Can you use SMART notebook software? If so, I can send you the link to the recorder repair file. It consists of layers of frames, etc. in .notebook that you can use to create AURASMA images linked to recorder repair videos. Please let me know and I’ll send it to you tomorrow.
Thanks, Cherie