Hello everyone,

I'm Rika and I'm new to playing the recorder. I have a question I'm hoping you can answer for me.

For years I've wanted to play the tenor recorder. In order to get started I bought a relatively cheap plastic alto recorder to start practicing on. I did this in case I would give up halfway through and if that happened then at least I wouldn't have spent a fortune on a short-lived hobby. If I wouldn't give up I could always get a nice tenor later on.
As it turned out though, I find practicing on my recorder nothing short of addictive. I love it, I'm definitely not giving it up. However, when I bought it I hadn't done my homework properly and didn't realize at the time that a tenor recorder would require different fingering than an alto. In hindsight I probably should have started out on a soprano instead. Feeling very silly right now.

So my question is, do you think that learning to play the alto properly will benefit me in pursuing my main goal of playing the tenor, or am I wasting my time on an alto (insofar as time on a recorder can be considered wasted, but you know what I mean), because if I ever get started on a tenor I'd have to relearn everything anyway?

If anyone would weigh in, that would be great.

Sidenote: of course I've considered that I could just learn both on the basis that there's no such thing as too many skills. It's just that I don't expect to do much with the alto in the end. It was always just going to be a stepping stone.

There are two fingering systems for recorder, called Baroque and German, but this has nothing to do with whether a recorder is a sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, or bass. Sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders all use the same fingering except that sopraninos, altos, and basses are in F and Soprano and tenors are in F. Otherwise the only difference in fingering between the alto and tenor is that the tenor, being necessarily larger, requires a key in addition to the holes. Most recorder players who are even the slightest bit serious play at least two instruments. They learn to transpose between F and C. As for Baroque vs. German: the German is a simplified fingering that has mostly fallen out of popularity. If you've already got a German recorder, you can learn the Baroque system with little difficulty. So keep playing the alto, buy a tenor as soon as you can afford one, and then play both. Also: find a friend or two or three who also likes recorders and get up an ensemble. It's a lot of fun.

Re: "Sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders all use the same fingering except that sopraninos, altos, and basses are in F and soprano and tenors are in F." Whoops! That should be "Sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders all use the same fingering except that sopraninos, altos, and basses are in F and soprano and tenors are in C."

Thanks so much for your answer (already figured you meant that second F to be a C ). I'm really only just starting to figure this instrument out and am learning a lot from Youtube. I guess I got a little overwhelmed by all the available information on all the different types. I'll keep practicing with my current recorder (it's baroque by the way). Next step will definitely be a wooden tenor, and after that perhaps a wooden alto.