Move over, recorder

news & Views
Allegro
January 2011
13
photo: Elizabeth Ikin, courtesy Malachite Film & TV
Move over,
recorder
Local 802 member
argues that a child’s first
instrument should be a
pennywhistle
By bill ochs
The future of live music rests in
the ears and hands of our children.
They will be the next generation of
audiences and players. But what’s
the first instrument most of us
learned in school? The recorder.
Local 802 member and
pennywhistler Bill Ochs recently
released an instruction book called
“Pennywhistle for Beginners” and
has launched a new Web site dedicated to promoting the idea of using
pennywhistles to keep music education alive in the school curriculum during tough budgetary times.
Ochs thinks the pennywhistle is a
much better choice as a first instrument than the typical plastic school
recorder.
“I know it’s a bit crazy to propose
something new to schools at a time
of austerity and budget cutbacks,”
says Ochs, who is also a music
teacher at Manhattan’s Irish Arts
Center. “But I think this is an idea
whose time has come.”
Ochs, who has been called “a
central figure in the renaissance of
the tin whistle” by National Public
Radio’s “All Things Considered,” has
a Web site to promote this project at:
www.PennywhistlesForSchools.
com.
F
Bill Ochs (left) and Robert Sithole at the 1993 Clarke Tin Whistle Festival in Coneyweston, England
or years the pennywhistle
was one of the best kept
secrets of the Irish and
the South Africans.With
the Celtic and World Music
booms of the 1980’s and 90’s,
the cat was finally out of the bag.
People around the globe discovered the joys of the pennywhistle
and suddenly it was popping up
everywhere from “Titanic” to
“Lord of the Rings” to SpongeBob SquarePants.
Everywhere, that is, except in
school music programs, where
the plastic recorder remains
the beginner’s instrument even
though many children find it
more difficult to play than the
pennywhistle.
I’d go so far as to say that the
recorder can hold back some children’s musical development. The
recorder’s fingering is complicated – the player must use forked
fingerings even to just produce a
diatonic scale. Then there is the
second octave issue. The player
has to “crack” or half-cover the
thumb hole to get the recorder to
speak in the upper register. If this
is not done perfectly there can be
serious problems playing some
of the second octave notes, especially on an inexpensive plastic
school recorder.
While the recorder is a much
more sophisticated instrument
in theory, at the elementary
school level kids can actually
play a wider range of music on
the pennywhistle, get up and
running with the pennywhistle
sooner, and have a lot more fun
with it. That’s because the pennywhistle’s fingering is much
simpler and more intuitive. And
playing in the second octave is
a breeze on the pennywhistle
because there is no thumb hole
to crack – you just overblow. So
even third-graders can play in
the second octave with ease. This
opens up a lot of musical possibilities.
Some may know about the
Golden Eagles, a pennywhistle
marching band that was started at P.S. 192 in Harlem by the
school’s music teacher, Katherine
Clyne.
The band was very popular
in its school district and even
marched in New York City’s Flag
Day Parade. I think you’ll agree
that you can’t really do this sort
of thing in schools with the recorder because of the tricky nature of the recorder’s upper register.
I am sure that there have been
teachers who would have liked
to try the pennywhistle but just
didn’t have a good source of affordable instruments and books.
That’s where Pennywhistles for
Schools comes in. Our first customer is a new school in Brooklyn, the Bedford-Stuyvesant New
Beginnings Charter School. The
idea of starting a pennywhistle
marching band at an elementary
school should be very attractive.
It’s a great activity for kids. And
to help the process along, we
have a page on the Web site dedicated to making drums and percussion instruments from found
objects. So starting a school band
on a shoestring budget is not just
doable: with pennywhistles and
homemade drums it can be done
practically for nothing.
And who knows – maybe the
next James Galway will be among
those kids.
For more info, visit www.
PennywhistlesForSchools.com
or call (212) 247-3231.
Harvey S. Mars, Esq.
Providing a full range of
legal services concerning
employment issues, civil
rights and discrimination
claims, contractual disputes
and general litigation.
Law Office of Harvey S. Mars, LLC
Attorney at law and member of Local 802
322 West 48th Street, 6th floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 765-4300