Greatest Easy Recorder Favorites, The

by Paul Jennings, Teresa Jennings, and M.C. Handel

This amazing collection of beginning recorder songs will really bring out the excitement in your students. With just a few notes, fabulous recordings, and lots of topics kids can relate to, they will sound larger than life and beam with confidence. These 12 tunes are from Music K-8 magazine and include:

B A Superhero - Reminiscent of the background music for a variety of superhero shows and movies, this piece will put your players right into the thick of the action!
B A Cowboy - Trumpets! Horns! Cattle! This wonderfully symphonic piece conjures up images of great expanses of land, cattle drives, and galloping horses.
BAG-O-Saurus - This piece features a rhythm section, complete with electric guitar solos, and wind section playing a funky rock groove with plenty of room for your recorder players to shine through.
Rockin' Around The Hound Dog's Blue Suede Shoe BAG - Why not add a bit more "hip" to your beginning recorder classes? Add shades, grease back your hair, and have a lot of fun with this one. Uh-huh, uh-huh!
Frodo's BAG - The style of this piece implies a sort of mystical and imaginative faraway place.
Big Round BAG - This may be a familiar-sounding piece, though the melody is unique. Using only the notes B, A, and G, it's perfect for beginning recorders. To spice things up a bit, you can let your students play it as a round to show off their accomplishments.
BAGzilla - Guitars, synthesizers, basses, drums, and big ol' footsteps make this tune a lot of fun to listen to and participate in. Have a roaring good time with this one!
A BAG O' Tigers - Have a little Dixieland fun with your beginning recorder players in this arrangement of "Tiger Rag." All they need to get started is B, A, and G.
Leonardo's Lightship (B, A, G, and D) - Give your players the great feeling that they are surrounded by a real orchestra as they play B, A, G, and D. And it's easily adaptable to just B, A, and G!
Shark CAGE - Young players will enjoy this driving rock tune. It provides a great way for your students to express themselves, especially boys who may not usually get excited about some beginning recorder music.
CAGE Full O' Blues - With this down-tempo blues tune, we created a very versatile selection that works well for beginning recorder players, but it can also be used as an introduction to jazz, swing, and blues.
Rain Forest Daydream (B, A, G, D and, E) - With a lush intro of strings, synthesizers, and percussion, this tune is a laid-back piece of Latin jazz. While the orchestra is playing rich chords, the kids are playing their pentatonic melodies based on D, E, G, A, and B.