Submitted by Martha Stanley, NBCT, Tallahassee, Florida

Idea posted July 18, 2003

A few years ago I was trying to get my school interested in doing recorder beads... earn a recorder and get beads for the neck strap as "badges." Then I read about Recorder Karate with the ribbon belts and changed over to ribbons rather than beads.

I, like others, have my own criteria and progression for the ribbons. (I call them ribbons, not belts.)

The main difference in my program is that along with playing a prescribed piece, the student has to compose an eight-measure piece, notate it, and play it. I supply them with my "grid paper" that I use for everything I notate from kindergarten on, so they're used to it.

  • To earn the recorder (first step), the composition must contain BAG, and a quarter note, two eighth notes, a half note, and a quarter rest, and it must end on G.

  •   The red ribbon (I go by the colors of the rainbow) is Canoe Round, and they must compose an eight-measure piece that has all of the above plus low D and E and a whole note.
  •   The orange ribbon is a bear. They have to play BAG exercises, I guess you'd call them, and notate pitches on a staff. It's an encoding and decoding challenge from heck, using only BAG, a quarter note, two eighth notes, a half note, and a quarter rest. There is no composition this time because the playing portion is frustrating enough without extra hassle.
  •   The yellow ribbon requires them to play "Au Clair De La Lune" (AABA form with the AGF#ED run) AND compose a 16-bar tune with all of the above plus F# and a whole note.
  Up until then, they could notate their tunes with rhythm and pitch letters. For yellow, they may use the pitch letters, but they also have to notate the pitches on the staff. They use my staff grid for that.

The compositions get progressively more sophisticated and more (forgive me) tuneful. Some are jarringly modern and very cool; some are delicate little pieces reminiscent of European folk tunes. Neat contrasts.

  • The green ribbon is for "Fanfare" by Isabel Carley with high C (3rd space), and NOW they may not write the pitch letters under the staff. For composition, I supply them a grid with the rhythmic notation, and they must use six different pitches, including an F# or high C. The rhythm has syn-co-pa emphasis for rhythmic reading expansion.

  As soon as a kid has earned a recorder or ribbon, she/he may be a coach for other students and may actually sign off on some of the requirements. I have developed little coaches' check-off sheets that they turn in to me when the coachee has accomplished a task. This is actually a very cool part of the program.

Kids love to feel masterful and helpful. And they really do a good job coaching and assisting. It's heartwarming.