Ultimate Guide to the Bass Recorder

by Howard Fosdick © FolkFluteWorld.com

The bass recorder is the lowest pitched recorder you'll see in common use.

It's often used to anchor recorder ensembles by playing the underlying "bass part." With its low, soft-spooky voice, it also has unusual appeal as a solo instrument.

Not many articles cover the bass recorder: it's kind of a specialty.

Let's fix that. This article tells you everything you might want to know about this instrument.

Here's the agenda:

How It Sounds

If you're not familiar with the bass, take a moment to hear it in action.

First up is a slow melody, showcasing the deep bass tone. Scarborough Fair comes through smooth and sonorous. You can see how a little bit of vibrato definitely helps the bass find its voice.

The second video demos a professional wood bass. It also proves how adaptable recorders are to almost any musical genre, including bebop.

These two videos make an interesting contrast: an inexpensive plastic instrument that lists for under $120 USD, versus an expensive wood Küng bass that retails for around $1,500.

The Basics

The bass is the lowest pitched recorder that is widely used. It's sometimes referred to as the basset. (There are also the great bass or C bass, contrabass, and even others below it, but you'll rarely see any of these.)

The lowest or fundamental note of the bass is F3. That's one octave below the lowest note of the Alto (or treble) recorder.

By way of contrast, the fundamental of both the tenor recorder and the bass ocarina is C4. The lowest note of the Low D tin whistle is D4.

So the lowest note of the bass recorder is four to five notes lower than these other instruments.

Like most recorders, the bass has about a two full octave range. It fingers the scales the same as all other recorders (sometimes with some very small variations). So if you already play any other recorder -- even the soprano -- you can also play the bass.

Designs

Bass recorders vary amongst themselves more than other members of the recorder family.

This photo shows the knick style at left, with its bent neck. That shortens the instrument so that you can reach its lowest keys.

The alternative is the wind pipe mouthpiece, a metal tube that curls down from the top of the instrument. This is called the bocal or crook. Several bass on the right in this photo illustrate this design.

There's a third alternative: the bass that can be blown through a blow hole at the very top of the instrument. Some of these instruments come with an optional cap and crook. So you can switch the instrument between the two designs.

A ruler sizes the leftmost instrument in the photo. The other bass are not depicted to scale.

Typically the knick bass are shorter than the crook style, which is the point of the bent neck. Straight bass rely on the curved bocal to shorten the distance between your mouth and the fingering holes, and reposition the instrument relative to your body. These bass vary but are often around 3 1/2' long.

The five instruments on the left are all made of high quality ABS resin plastic. The rightmost three are wood. The criteria by which you choose between plastic and wood are the same as for other recorders.

Plastic is less expensive and sounds great with a quality instrument. (That first sound sample above was a plastic Thomann.) Plastic is more robust and less subject to damage from weather conditions such as exposure to moisture or high heat. It's also easily cleaned with warm water. And it's very light -- a significant advantage when managing such a large, bulky instrument.

Just as with other sizes of recorder, skilled musicians and professionals favor wood with its more traditional voice. The general consensus seems to be that the best wood recorders sound superior to the best plastic ones. As always, woods like pearwood and maple are less expensive, while more exotic woods cost more.

The price differential between plastic and wood is much greater with the bass than with smaller recorders. For example, the three leftmost bass in this photo retail for under $125 USD.

Brand name plastic bass in the middle of the photo -- from Aulos and Yamaha -- go for $250 to $500.

Wood bass recorders range from around $500 up to thousands for professional instruments. Many quality wood recorders cost over $1,000.

Though there are exceptions, knick style instruments generally cost less than bocal designs made of the same material. Certainly, the least expensive bass are plastic knick.

All bass recorders have keys to reach the lowest notes (F and F#.) Many also have keys to play G and G#, and even C and C#.

The different number of keys is a visual distinction you notice right off in photos. Some bass are covered in keys; others have the minimal, discretely disguised in the same color as the instrument.

Buying a Bass

With bass recorders varying so much, there is no substitute for personally testing any you're considering buying.

If you buy one that doesn't fit your tastes, it could be a costly mistake.

With a hands-on test, you can determine whether the bass fits your hands comfortably. Can you reach all the keys easily? Are they of the type and location you prefer? Are they noisy or quiet? What kind of pressure does it require to manipulate (and hold) them?

You'll also find whether the highest and lowest notes are easy to play. Do the highest notes sound sweet and mellow, or raspy or windy? Are the lowest notes clear or muffled?

Are the highest and lowest notes stable? Or are they unduly sensitive to breath pressure?

With the less expensive plastic instruments, be sure to test the pitch accuracy of the sharps and flats. Chromatics are sometimes a weak point for these bass.

Given the price disparity among instruments, cost is a criteria for most people. Several plastic knick bass retail for under $125 USD. These include the Harmony, Woodi, Treibert, and Thomann. If one of these fits your musical needs, you've just saved a lot of money.

The brand name plastics like Aulos and Yamaha stand in the middle of the price range, from $250 to $500. These two manufacturers are widely considered to offer the best quality in plastic recorders. Their solid resale value proves this.

Then there are the woods, preferred by the best musicians. They cost anywhere from about $500 up into the thousands. If you're in this category, you probably know more about how to select a quality instrument than we can possibly relate here.

Here are some other factors to consider when buying an instrument. How many pieces does it dissemble into? (two to four is common). Does it come with a robust case to protect it? Does it include cork grease, cleaning rod, or cloth? Does it come with a fingering chart specific to the instrument, or just some generic recorder fingering chart? This last item is useful because many bass do have a few alternate fingerings.

How about a neck strap or thumb rest? A bass can be pretty heavy if it doesn't give you some convenient way to hold it.

This is especially true in long playing sessions. When you do your hands-on testing, make sure you play enough to judge whether the instrument will be comfortable for a long session, not just a ten minute test.

How to Play the Bass

In prior discussion, we've hinted at some of the differences in playing the bass versus smaller sizes of recorder. Let's explore this in depth.

When you first start playing, you'll need to learn to adjust to the instrument's size and reach so that you can remain comfortable during long playing sessions.

Perhaps you'll wear a neckstrap or sling you'll have to get used to. Or perhaps you'll learn to use a thumb rest for the first time. Weight is a bigger factor with the bass than with smaller recorders. And wood bass weigh more than plastic bass.

You'll find that all bass require stronger breath than smaller recorders. This is simply the result of filling a large pipe with air. (But you will notice differences among bass. You want to ensure you can play long phrases comfortably with the instrument you buy.)

What this means in your playing is that breath control becomes critical. Phrasing with a low recorder like a tenor or bass assumes an importance far beyond what is required for a soprano. Being a good bass player means mastering breathing techniques.

Are you familiar with breath marks? Many of us amateur players often ignore them when playing smaller recorders. With the bass, it's in your interest to recognize and take advantage of them.

As this figure shows, breath marks are typically indicated by commas ( , ). Sometimes you'll see a tick (✓) employed instead.

You may have to articulate some notes differently with the large bass. Fast fingered notes can be "swallowed up" by the instrument. Articlulate them more carefully and distinctly to ensure every note shines through.

Use your tongue to articulate quick notes with a more distinct "Tah Tah Tah" instead of a slurry "Lah Lah Lah." Attack them with your breath rather than sliding into them.

Another challenge: fingering. Assuming you can easily and comfortably reach all the fingering holes and keys, you may notice that your bass has one or two small variations in fingering. If you frequently switch between sizes of recorder, keeping these minute fingering differences in mind is an important part of adapting to the instrument you're playing.

Lastly, if you play in an ensemble, you won't be playing the lead or melody with your bass. Instead, you provide the audio foundation for the piece. It could sometimes be driving or percussive. This is a very a different role than you may be accustomed to with your soprano.

How to Minimize Key Noise

When playing bass, you might notice that your keys click when they are either depressed or released. Whether this noise is bothersome depends on two factors: your instrument's design and the manner in which you play it.

If you're bothered by audible keys, one solution is to learn how to develop a "touch" that results in quieter keys.

Test a noisy key to see whether it ticks when it is depressed, or when it's released. Now you'll know if you need to depress a key gently instead of "slapping" it down. Or maybe you need to release a key in a fluid motion rather than "popping it" all at once. Good playing technique can often reduce or eliminate key noises.

If the problem is clicks that show up in recordings, use audio editing software to reduce or eliminate them. Free programs like Audacity or Ocenaudio make it pretty easy to reduce errant ticks.

Different instruments and keys produce different levels of clicking. Some simply can't be played without key distraction. That can happen with new instruments where the vendor hasn't bothered about key noise, and with older instruments where the keys have degraded over time.

In the next sections we'll show you how to tune or fix keys.

How you reduce key noise depends on their design. There are several different kinds.

But first, a warning. Key operation is very delicate and you don't want to accidentally make it worse. Only attempt these changes after you've read this entire section and are confident you will succeed.  !!! Make any changes at your own risk! !!!

1. Exposed Needle Spring Design

This first photo shows an old style key with a metal needle spring (the thin rod pointed to by the arrow). This key design is popular on wood recorders.

Bending or straightening a needle spring affects the force of "pop" in key action. Be very careful: a minute alteration causes big changes in key action.

Sometimes removing the screw (or pin) and cleaning it out will help restore key action on an older instrument. Use only a tool that fits your screw head to remove it, otherwise you could damage it.

If resetting the screw and key don't do the job, you can apply an incredibly small amount of plastic-safe lubricant for plastic recorders. This fixes the case of a squeaky key.

The two red arrows at top point to where the screw attaches the key to the instrument. The bottom photo points it out more clearly.

This last photo gives you a better view of the exposed needle spring on a wood instrument.

2. Hidden Flat Springs Design

This second photo shows the "hidden spring" design popular with plastic recorders. The two red arrows at the sides point to where the two screws attach the keys to the instrument. You must remove these to dismantle the keys and rebuild them to alter the key action.

Inside, the spring differs from the needle spring of the above example. Instead it's flat spring, a very thin bendable metal piece. They're located directly beneath the keys. Sometimes these become fatigued and can benefit from adjustment or replacement.

These next photos provide more detail. They're key replacement sets for Yamaha bass recorders. They're typical of the plastic keys with hidden springs used by most vendors.

You can see that each key consists of two parts that connect in the middle with a screw or pin. One side of the key is the part your press with your finger.

The other side covers the tone hole on the instrument. The side that covers the tone hole includes the very thin, bendable metal spring. It's that spring that pops the key off the tone hole when you release the key from your finger.

If replacement key sets are available for your instrument, it often makes more sense to replace the keys and their springs rather than fiddlying around trying to adjust them. But replacement parts are often unavailable. Hence, we've given you the whole story here so that you can either adjust or replace keys, as needed.

Replacement key sets such as these from Yamaha usually cost somewhere around $10 to $20 USD.

How to Fix Broken Keys

Bass keys are at risk because they're fragile and stick out. There may come a time when you need to fix a broken key.

If it's a plastic key that's snapped, super glue works miracles. Since super glue actually melts plastic parts together, it can bind broken keys with the strength required for their renewed use. (Regular "plastics glue" won't work.)

Be very careful that you only apply super glue where it's needed! You don't want to permanently seal a key in position, or mar the finish of your instrument. (If you do end up in a situation where you need to remove glue, hot water can unbind many kinds of glues. We recommend thoroughly researching the problem on the web before you try anything.)

This photo shows a vintage 1970s recorder restored by super glue. The key was broken in two places. It now works like new.

The fix is visible in close up, but it's not noticeable at a distance. No replacement keys are available for this vintage instrument, so without this fix it would be in the trash.

All these tips on tuning and fixing keys we've described here also apply to the low C / C# keys on tenor recorders. (Some of the photos are actually from a tenor.)

How to Read Bass Clef Sheet Music

Sheet music for the bass recorder is written in bass clef. So, if you want to read sheet music for bass recorder, you'll need to learn how to read bass clef.

Here's what that means...

Western musical notation conveys how a melody should be played. It places notes upon a staff, along with timing and other information.

Most of us assume the use of treble clef in how those notes are placed upon the staff. Treble clef is used to score music for soprano, alto, and tenor recorders.

However, if one tried to use treble clef notation for very low-pitched notes, many notes would have to be written way below the staff. That would render them nearly unreadable.

Bass clef is an alternate scoring notation that places notes at different locations in the staff. This makes them much more readable for low pitched instruments.

This diagram shows the relationship between teble and bass clef notations:

The clef emblem appears at the start of the staff to indicate whether the music is written in treble or bass clef. You can see how treble clef is notation for higher pitched instruments, while bass clef works well for low voiced instruments like the bass recorder.

This second figure shows how notes map between treble and bass clefs.

So E in treble clef is G in bass clef, G in treble is B in bass, etc.

Both staff notations are equally readable. But they are entirely different. Reading sheet music for the bass recorder requires you to learn this bass notation.

Caring for Your Bass

Bass consist of several pieces. This allows you to tune them by moving the mouthpiece in or out. You can also clean the instrument by taking it apart, and swabbing it inside to remove the moisture built up from your breath. Do this after every session.

As the photo shows, some use a cleaning rod with attached cloth instead of a recorder swab.

You can clean a plastic recorder by very carefully washing parts with warm water and soap. Mind that you don't get the keys wet. And be sure to relubricate the joints if called for.

Wood is a bit more tempermental. Most new bass come with specific care instructions. These vary by the manufacturer.

Often they direct that you break a new instrument gently, by restricting the length of your sessions. Over time, lift this restriction.

All urge you to warm up the instrument before playing. Some recommend care with wood oil, others do not.

You can find more detailed information about maintaining and fixing your bass in my article Fixing Your Recorder - The Complete Guide.

Never expose your recorder to extremes of temperature. Leaving it inside your car window on a hot day, for example, could permanently damage it. If you bring it inside from a cold winter's day, be sure to warm it up to room temperature before you play. If it's wood, you don't want to risk cracking your instrument.

Don't share any wood instrument with others. Medical research has shown that harmful microbes can survive inside them even if they haven't been played for some time. Share a recorder with someone, and you share their germs.

Final Thoughts

The bass recorder's low, sonorous tone is special. It's perfect for slow dramatic pieces, but it still gives you the recorder's unique flexibility (even to play bebop, if you want!).

There's great variety among these instruments, so take your time in selecting the bass you want to purchase. Get a good one, and you'll find hours of enjoyment.

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