Okay, so, I wanted to learn how to play “Carol of the Bells” on the recorder. It’s a classic, you know? And it sounds so cool, especially around the holidays. I always hear the people play this song with bells, I thought that’s pretty nice, so I just thought, why not try to play it on my recorder?
First things first, I needed the sheet music. I’m not some musical genius who can just play by ear, haha. So I started digging around the internet. I searched with “Carol of the Bells recorder sheet music” and many results came up. I just picked one of them.
I found a bunch of different versions. Some were for solo recorder, some were duets, and some were for all sorts of different instruments. I even saw one arranged by some guy named “Mykola Leontovich.” I guess he’s the original composer or something. Anyway, I ended up finding a version for two recorders, a duet. It said it was suitable for soprano, alto, or tenor recorders. I only had a soprano one, but I figured I could just play one of the parts myself.
- Found sheet music online.
- Chose a version for two recorders.
- Decided to play just one part.
Then I downloaded the sheet music. It was in PDF, which is fine, it’s pretty common format. I printed it out and then I was ready to go. And it was said “Beginner Level,” I thought I could handle that, it should be easy, hopefully.
I grabbed my recorder and started practicing. It was a little tricky at first. Some of the notes were kind of high, and the rhythm was a bit faster than I was used to. But I kept at it. I played it slow at first, just to get the notes right. Then I gradually sped it up. I tried to add some feeling to it, make it sound like a real song, not just a bunch of notes, it’s kind of hard, but I tried my best.
After a couple of hours of practice, I could play the whole thing! I wouldn’t say I was perfect, but it sounded pretty good, at least to me. I even recorded myself playing it and sent it to my friends. They were like, “Wow, that’s actually pretty good!” Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Practice Makes Perfect
I’m definitely going to keep practicing it. Maybe I’ll even try to find someone to play the other part of the duet with me. That would be really cool. Or maybe I’ll try to find an even more complicated version, see how that goes. There was one that mentioned like 150 versions out there, so I guess there’s plenty to choose from. Anyway, it was a fun little project. I learned a new song, and I got to use my recorder, which had been gathering dust for a while. So yeah, all in all, a good day!
