B A Good Dog

Many of us at Plank Road love dogs! They're our furry friends and are part of our families. So it was very easy to use them as inspiration for this piece. It explores the notes low D, G, A, B, and D', hence the title, "B A Good Dog." The alto recorder part is optional and uses the notes B, C, D, and E. Rhythmically, both parts use only quarter notes and quarter rests.

Before you use this piece, consider learning (or reviewing) Teresa Jennings' recorder feature from the previous issue, Vol. 35, No. 4, "Two Birds." This duet also uses the notes low D and high D' for soprano recorders, except the notes are split between the two parts – part 1 has the high D' and part 2 has the low D. Learning both parts for "Two Birds" will help your students gain familiarity and confidence with these notes.

"B A Good Dog" includes a repeat allowing your students to play it three times. The first time is slower (quarter = 88), the second time is more lively (100), and the last time is liveliest (112). For added fun, in our recording, you'll hear a variety of playful dog barks punctuate the musical phrasing throughout.

The soprano recorder part has octave leaps between low D and high D' in measures 16-18, and again in 25-27. These will likely be the trickiest measures for your players because low D requires many fingers and high D' uses only one. There are rests between these octave leaps which give time for finger placement and removal.

The articulations are another aspect that could be used for teaching. What is the difference between staccato and tenuto? Be sure your students have a chance to listen to our full performance version as it provides a wonderful example played by professionals.

The score is available on our web site, free to subscribers. And though the parts are included in this issue, we are also including reproducible PDFs of them at our web site for your ease of duplication.

Special thanks to our friend Jim (a definite dog lover) for the title idea for this piece.