Editorial plan for Instruments section

Some may think that playing contemporary music with the recorder requires special instruments. After all, we all have (or wish to have) a huge number of different recorders: medieval, renaissance, Ganassi, transitional, baroque, etc. in all the different available sizes, and we tend to choose among them accordingly to the type of music we have to play.

With jazz music the matter is slightly different: we do need a chromatic and a more flexible instrument in sound and attack, so a modern recorder would be very useful. However, on the other hand jazz practice implies a great level of freedom from schematic thinking, so I would simply choose the right instrument for each single tune, and not one for the whole genre or style.
In other words: there shouldn't be a jazz-specific instrument, but as many instruments as you need for each single song you play.
It's like playing a late baroque sonata with a renaissance recorder: with early music such a combination might sound strange and perhaps ugly, but in jazz this could be the the way to achieve the exact result you want.

Having said that, the wonderful modern instruments realized by Moeck and Mollenhauer are very handy in many different jazz scenarios, but in my brief list I choose to include a regular Yamaha plastic recorder as well: you will discover why in my article.
Finally, we can not leave out a few words about miking and amplification.

Here is a list of topics and reviews I hope to publish within the next few months:

• Mollenhauer Moden Alto (Nik Tarasov/Joachim Paetzold)
• Mollenhauer Harmonic Alto (Maarten Helder)
• Moeck Ehlert (Ralf Ehlert)
• Yamaha plastic alto
  
  
• Microphones, Amplification and Digital Effects

Editorial plan for Technique section

There are so many excellent books about recorder technique and so many good teachers around the world that it doesn't make much sense to treat this matter from scratch here.

However there are a couple of simple ideas that we should carefully consider when playing jazz:

• ideally, a jazz player should totally master his/her instrument, including a large quantity of different scales, chords and melodic/harmonic patterns;
• enhanced sound, articulation, intonation and special effects techniques are all basic elements to posses in order to play any contemporary music using the recorder, and this is also true for jazz.

We should therefore extend our traditional notion of recorder "technique" to include some estraneous elements.
Here is a list of articles I hope I'll be able to provide during the next few months:

• Sound and dynamics (partially taken from a lesson with Heiko ter Schegget)
  
  
• Breathing
  • Circular breathing
  • Didjeridoo (the world's oldest wind instrument)
  • Nasal (sinus) irrigation (the Yoga practice of Jala Neti)
  
  
• Fingers/Tongue
  • Finger fitness (with and without the instrument)
  • Scales
  • Chords
  • Patterns