"I did take your advice and ordered a plastic Alto Yamaha. I should have it on Friday. I am very excited."
Cool, Remmeber that you should learn the Alto with the transposed fingerings. For example, the lowest written note is an F1. (All fingers down) This puts the C with T123 (like a flute G) You can play a lot of baroque pieces with it like many of the Handel "Flute" Sonatas. I've seen the Handel Sonatas (Peters ed. I think) written transposed for Alto so that a person could play the Alto with the Soprano fingerings. I wouldn't do that as it just confuses. It's confusing enough that the Alto/Bass & Sop/Ten have basically the same transposed fingerings.
It was almost (but not quite) a dividing line between the pieces written for Recorder then as being in C or the Flat keys and pieces written for Traverso were in D maj/b min. J/K about that, but if a Baroque composer wrote something for "flöte" in a flat key AND the lowest notes weren't below F1 then it may very well have been intended initially for Alto Rec.(Blockflöte).
"If I really like it, I hope to get one with the keys on the lower notes. I think that would make it a lot easier for me to reach then."
I think that you're talking about Tenor Rec. I don't think that you need the keys on an Alto.
"There was a Moeck one on eBay that I almost bid on but passed it up for now. I could have kicked myself too because it only went for $84.00 I want to see how my fingers handle the Alto....."
Shouldn't be too bad. If you can play a low B on your concert flute....
Remember that a company like Moeck makes different quality levels )$$$)and styles of recorders.
http://www.moeck.com/cms/index.php?id=4&L=1
Also, as I think that I mentioned relative to Ebay, it would be fairly easy to get some money out of a cracked wooden recorder if one were into that sort of thing.
"... and then I would love to try the Tenor since that is in the key of C and would be more versatile with the music that I already have."
Now that's where the keys become pretty necessary. I always feel like the Tenor has a weaker carrying sound but I think that is a perception. It has a timbre similar to an Alto flute in my mind. It would be good fun to get a whole consort going. I think that I have a bitty sopranino here. a Plastic Yammy. It's easier to finger a flauto piccolo than that thing because it's almost too small with the finger spread for my tubby digits.
"In a week I was able to get down all the fingerings on the soprano that I have. I am now just getting to the point where I can play the notes without having to think of the fingering." Not bad. It's interesting that you can get pretty good pretty fast but the fingerings are close enough to occasionally confuse. It's all in fun though and there's no pads to worry on about.
These Brandenbergs are interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRoojYH0GbQ
my Alto looks basically like the one that the woman has in this vid (See time=1:59):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xzJstWE_4Y
but her foot joint has added keys down to maybe an E or Eb.
I want to see how my fingers handle the Alto and then I would love to try the Tenor since that is in the key of C and would be more versatile with the music that I already have. In a week I was able to get down all the fingerings on the soprano that I have. I am now just getting to the point where I can play the notes without having to think of the fingering. Yay! I have an old German recorder and the scale is really off. I am wondering if it is just the brand? Are all recorders like that, or are they like flutes where different brands vary with the scale? I hate being so clueless. Now I know what a lot of beginners staring off on the flute feel like when we talk about gizmos and gadgets, scale and etc.. on the flute! 