why you were forced to learn the recorder in school

Summary

In this engaging video, the creator embarks on a humorous and reflective journey to master the recorder, an instrument they struggled with in childhood. With a self-imposed challenge to earn a 'black belt' in Recorder Karate, they delve into the instrument's rich history, learn from a professional musician, and discover the recorder's true potential beyond school memories. Alongside, Grammarly's sponsorship highlights the parallels between mastering writing and music, emphasizing personal growth and overcoming past insecurities.

Takeaways

• 🎼 The narrator has struggled with playing the recorder for 14 years and is now determined to master it.
• 📚 The recorder has a rich history, with famous composers writing solos for it during the Baroque period.
• 📉 The recorder was sidelined by the transverse flute but experienced a resurgence in the 20th century.
• 🎓 Carl Orff's music education approach popularized the recorder in schools, though he initially preferred the African marimba.
• 🎵 The affordability of the recorder, especially the plastic versions, made it accessible for school children worldwide.
• 🎷 The recorder's affordability can be traced back to its use by the Hitler Youth, which led to mass production.
• 🎼 The narrator attempts to earn a 'black belt' in Recorder Karate, a program with increasing difficulty levels.
• 🎶 The recorder comes in various sizes, each with a different range and sound quality, contributing to its versatility.
• 🎵 Professional recorder players, like Alison Melville, can demonstrate the instrument's full potential, contrary to common misconceptions.
• 🎶 The material of the recorder affects its sound, with wooden recorders generally producing a richer tone.
• 🎉 The narrator's journey with the recorder culminates in a successful performance and the achievement of a 'black belt', symbolizing personal growth and overcoming past failures.

Q & A

How long has the speaker had their recorder?

The speaker has had their recorder for 14 years.

What is the speaker's initial attitude towards the recorder?

The speaker initially finds the recorder difficult to play and is frustrated with its sound, even considering it a symbol of their failure in music.

What is 'Recorder Karate'?

'Recorder Karate' is a program with nine songs of increasing difficulty where learners earn belts as they progress, similar to martial arts.

Why does the speaker decide to learn the recorder as an adult?

The speaker decides to learn the recorder to overcome their past excuses and to finally master an instrument they struggled with in school.

How does the speaker plan to improve their recorder skills within a week?

The speaker plans to immerse themselves in the history of the recorder, learn from a professional musician, and practice intensively to earn their black belt in Recorder Karate.

What does the speaker discover about the recorder's history?

The speaker discovers that the recorder was mainstream during the Baroque period, was sidelined by the transverse flute, and later popularized in schools due to Carl Orff's music education approach.

Why was the recorder initially chosen for Carl Orff's music education method?

The recorder was chosen because Carl Orff originally wanted to use the African marimba but couldn't mass-produce it with Western tuning, so he was advised to use the recorder instead.

How did the recorder become affordable for schools?

The recorder became affordable due to mass production in Germany and later in England and Japan, which made it accessible for schools.

What is Grammarly, and how does it help the speaker?

Grammarly is a writing assistance tool that helps the speaker improve their writing by offering suggestions for grammatical correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery.

How does the speaker's perception of the recorder change over the course of the script?

The speaker's perception changes from viewing the recorder as a frustrating and simple instrument to recognizing its potential as a tool for musical exploration and education, and appreciating its sound when played well.

What advice does Alison Melville, a professional recorder musician, give to the speaker about playing the recorder?

Alison advises the speaker to breathe properly before starting to play, to maintain a steady airflow while playing notes, and to use tonguing for better articulation.

How does the experience of playing the recorder together with Alison impact the speaker?

Playing the recorder together with Alison is a freeing and joyful experience for the speaker, helping them overcome feelings of shame about their musical abilities and encouraging them to continue practicing.

Outlines

00:00

🎼 Embracing the Recorder Challenge

The speaker begins by admitting their 14-year struggle with the recorder, an instrument they never mastered despite being forced to learn it in school. They express a desire to overcome their excuses and dive into the recorder's history, aiming to learn from a professional and achieve a 'black belt' in Recorder Karate, a program with increasing difficulty levels. The speaker's nervousness and determination are evident, and they humorously acknowledge the challenge ahead, thanking Grammarly for sponsoring part of the video.

05:01

📚 Delving into Recorder History and Education

This paragraph explores the history of the recorder, its mainstream popularity during the Baroque period, and its subsequent decline due to the rise of the transverse flute. The speaker's quest to understand why the recorder was a staple in schools leads to the discovery of Carl Orff's music education approach post-World War II. Interestingly, Orff initially preferred the African marimba but ended up with the recorder due to mass production and tuning issues. The paragraph also touches on the recorder's role in cultural identity struggles in England and Germany during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

10:02

🎵 The Recorder's Resurgence and Professional Insight

The narrative continues with the story of Arnold Dolmetsch, who inadvertently contributed to the recorder's resurgence by recreating it after his son lost the original. The recorder's affordability and potential as an educational tool are highlighted, with its adoption in English schools and the influence of the National Socialist Party in Germany. The speaker meets professional recorder musician Alison Melville to challenge common misconceptions about the recorder's capabilities and to demonstrate its true potential through various examples, including its use in video games and different materials affecting its sound.

15:03

🏆 Achieving Recorder Karate Success and the Joy of Music

In the final paragraph, the speaker achieves their Recorder Karate 'brown belt' and seeks validation from Alison Melville, who provides professional feedback and tips for improvement. The conversation with Melville emphasizes the recorder's unique sound and its significance as a personal musical voice. The speaker plays 'Ode to Joy' for Melville, receives affirmation, and learns valuable breathing techniques to enhance their performance. The paragraph concludes with a shared musical experience that underscores the joy of making music together, regardless of skill level.

Keywords

💡Recorder

A recorder is a musical wind instrument of the family of flutes, known for its distinctive sound and relatively simple fingering system. In the video, the recorder is the central focus, as the narrator attempts to overcome their past struggles and misconceptions about the instrument, ultimately learning to appreciate its musical capabilities.

💡Musical Incompetence

Musical incompetence refers to a lack of skill or proficiency in playing a musical instrument or creating music. The narrator expresses feelings of shame and inadequacy regarding their inability to play the recorder, which is a key theme in the video as they embark on a journey to overcome this perceived incompetence.

💡Recorder Karate

Recorder Karate is a metaphorical term used in the script to describe a program of increasing musical difficulty, where participants learn to play the recorder through a series of songs. It is used in the video to illustrate the narrator's goal of mastering the recorder, with the 'belts' symbolizing progress and achievement.

💡Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a prominent Baroque period composer known for his intricate and expressive compositions. The script mentions Bach as one of the composers who wrote solos for the recorder, highlighting the instrument's historical significance and its use by esteemed musicians.

💡Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a German composer and music educator known for his approach to music education, which included the use of the recorder. In the video, Orff's influence is discussed as a key reason why the recorder became a common instrument in schools, despite his initial preference for the African marimba.

💡Cultural Identity

Cultural identity refers to the sense of belonging to a cultural group, which can be defined by shared values, traditions, and history. The script explores how the recorder played a role in defining cultural identities in England and Germany during the late 1800s and early 1900s, as a means to reconnect with community and heritage.

💡Plastic Recorders

Plastic recorders are mass-produced, affordable versions of the traditional wooden instrument. The video discusses the shift to plastic as a material for making recorders, which made the instrument more accessible and affordable, particularly in educational settings.

💡Grammarly

Grammarly is an online writing assistant tool that helps users improve their writing by checking for grammatical errors and providing suggestions for clarity and style. In the video, Grammarly is mentioned as a sponsor, and its role is to help the narrator become a better writer, paralleling the theme of improvement and mastery.

💡Musical Composition

Musical composition is the process of creating music, either by notation or through improvisation. The script touches on the recorder's potential as a tool for exploring musical composition, emphasizing its versatility and the educational value it holds for young learners.

💡Community Building

Community building refers to the process of creating a sense of unity and shared identity among a group of people. The video discusses how the recorder was used in historical contexts to foster a sense of community, particularly in Germany during the rise of the National Socialist Party.

💡Professional Recorder Musician

A professional recorder musician is someone who has mastered the art of playing the recorder and performs it at a professional level. In the video, the narrator interviews Alison Melville, a professional recorder musician, to gain insight into the capabilities of the instrument and to challenge the common misconceptions about its sound and use.

Highlights

The narrator has owned a recorder for 14 years but has never played it properly due to difficulties with reading music and technique.

The narrator expresses a common sentiment that the recorder sounds awful and questions why it was a mandatory instrument in school.

Determined to master the recorder, the narrator dives into its history, learns from a professional, and attempts to earn a 'black belt' in Recorder Karate.

Recorder Karate is a program with nine songs of increasing difficulty, where players earn belts like in martial arts for each song mastered.

The narrator's attempt to learn the recorder is humorously compared to a 'dumbest video' they've ever made, highlighting the challenge and personal connection.

Grammarly's sponsorship is acknowledged, emphasizing support for the channel and the narrator's writing improvement journey.

The narrator humorously describes the recorder's sound as 'whack' and their childhood experience with the instrument.

The narrator's journey to earn a black belt in Recorder Karate is set to one week, adding a time constraint to the challenge.

The narrator's first attempt at playing 'Hot Cross Buns' for the white belt in Recorder Karate is met with humorous failure.

A historical exploration reveals the recorder's role in Medieval Europe and the Baroque period, with famous composers writing solos for it.

The recorder's decline is attributed to the transverse flute's rise in popularity due to its flexibility with dynamic musical trends.

Carl Orff's music education approach, which included the recorder, is discussed as a reason for its widespread use in schools post-WWII.

The recorder's affordability is traced back to its mass production in Germany and England, influenced by cultural and educational movements.

The narrator's personal growth and realization of the recorder's potential as a musical instrument beyond a toy is shared.

A professional recorder musician, Alison Melville, shares insights on the recorder's capabilities and its misconceptions.

The narrator's interview with Alison includes a demonstration of the recorder's sound quality and its variety of sizes.

Alison's encouragement and teaching help the narrator overcome feelings of musical incompetence, culminating in a joint performance.

The final highlight is the narrator's achievement of earning their black belt in Recorder Karate, symbolizing personal triumph and newfound appreciation for the instrument.

Transcripts

- I have had this recorder for 14 years,

and I have never played it properly, not even once.

There's just something I don't get about reading music

and moving my fingers and breathing.

(recorder whistling)

I wish I was joking.

I just never understood why we were forced

to learn something that sounds so awful in school.

That was my excuse for why I didn't try very hard.

But I am an adult now and I'm sick of making excuses.

So, to finally figure this instrument out,

I'm diving into the surprisingly

vast history of the recorder,

learning from a professional recorder musician,

and finally earning my black belt in Recorder Karate.

- I've been looking forward to this.

- You shouldn't have, Alison.

I'm so nervous.

This is the dumbest video I've ever made.

Thank you to Grammarly for sponsoring a portion

of this video,

and to our patrons for supporting the channel.

Look what I found.

- That's a nice case.

- Did you not have one of these?

- Yes, I learned how to play the recorder in grade four,

and that was the end of that

because the instrument sounds whack?

- Did you guys do Recorder Karate?

- Like fight with the recorders?

- It's like this program

where there's like nine different songs

of increasing difficulty.

You learn new techniques to play each song,

and then you get like a belt, like in karate.

- That's cute.

We never had that.

- I never got my black belt in Recorder Karate,

so I held onto my recorder.

- As a symbol of your failure?

Why did you do this to yourself?

- I'm determined to earn this.

- When though?

When are you gonna do this?

- I don't know.

- You're just gonna like not work

and just play recorder all day?

- What are you, my boss?

- Well, I mean...

One week.

Let me know how you get to your black belt in one week.

- Okay.

- So you don't spend the rest of your life trying

to get a black belt in Recorder Karate.

- It's a thing that fourth graders are able to do.

- Sure, but you weren't one of them.

Oh, Sabrina.

- So today is day one of trying to learn how

to play the recorder.

I have no idea if I washed this the last time I used it.

It's been over 10 years.

So, let's start with that.

If it's good enough for ducks, it's good enough for me.

Ugh.

There's like a bunch of bite marks on here.

I actually found the art curriculum from when I went

to school and it said that fourth graders should be able

to compose a pentatonic melody.

Like the acapella group?

Anyway, in order to get my white belt in Recorder Karate,

we are starting off with a classic, "Hot Cross Buns."

(recorder whistling)

One, that sounds like a choo-choo train.

(recorder whistling)

This is not gonna go well.

Okay.

I am as far from my neighbors as I could possibly be.

I do not want this project causing a noise complaint.

I have my recorder.

I have my fourth grade learn to play recorder book.

I've kept both these things.

Can you tell how much this has haunted me?

So this should be able to help me learn how to play,

but I think I'm just gonna try and get my white belt

before even opening the lesson book.

So we've got the Recorder Karate songs, and let's do it.

What letter is that?

B?

(recorder whistling)

It's so bad.

It feels like the fourth grade all over again.

I just need to do it once.

I just need to do it once. (recorder whistling)

Do you breathe in between notes?

It was humbling realizing

that I was less capable than a 10-year-old,

but I was determined,

mainly because this was somehow my job for the next week.

Improvement!

Let's get my yellow belt.

I have never heard this song before in my life.

(recorder whistling)

Oh, but this is cool.

There are these little apostrophes

that tell me when I'm actually supposed to breathe.

(recorder whistling)

That doesn't seem right.

(recorder whistling)

It's just so clearly "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Like, why are we trying to change its name?

Mary went into witness protection.

Okay, we all know it was a rocky start, but it is day three.

I'm going to get the hang of this.

It's raining.

There's a new note, E.

(recorder whistling)

Green belt achieved!

I might be a prodigy, or 26 years old.

I'm getting better faster than

I ever did in elementary school, but more importantly,

I'm actually having fun, even if everyone around me isn't.

This is just reminding me that when I was a kid,

there was so much emphasis on playing and creating music.

But now as an adult, especially one who clearly struggled

with music, I mainly just consume it.

And that is a very different experience.

(recorder whistling)

Purple belt complete!

Only four more to go.

But before that, I want to talk about another thing I

struggled with in school, writing,

and how Grammarly is helping me become a better writer

and is supporting the channel

by sponsoring this portion of the video.

You see, every essay I've ever written was always returned

covered in red pen.

This made it really difficult for me

to understand which mistakes were just my style of writing

and what were actual problems with my clarity

and communication.

Grammarly solves this problem

by separating its suggestions into grammatical correctness,

clarity, engagement, and delivery.

It's like a writing partner that keeps your audience

and intent in mind.

So, when I'm writing out explainers,

I can make sure that my writing isn't too stuffy

and works for a general audience,

or I can also use it to send more confident business emails.

And while Grammarly is free to use,

there is a premium option

that lets you tailor your writing even further.

It offers strategic suggestions

to help you make your point more effectively.

Grammarly can do this proactively in line,

but you could also be like me

and set it to only offer suggestions when prompted.

Click the link in the description to sign up

for Grammarly today and get 20% off when you upgrade

to premium to level up your productivity

and get work done faster.

Thanks again to Grammarly for sponsoring this portion

of the video and helping me write better.

Now, if only you could help me play the recorder better.

New feature?

(recorder whistling)

Let's go!

It is day four.

I have been practicing...too long.

Now it's time for my red belt.

I just need to practice for my red belt.

Little diddy called "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Have you heard of it?

Oh, there's a new note.

What's this?

Is that it?

(recorder whistling)

As I was preparing for my red belt,

I was doing so well that I decided

to share my progress with my biggest hater.

Hi.

(recorder whistling)

(friends laughing)

(recorder whistling)

- Wait a second.

- Right?

- So wait, it's been a week.

You sound like a grade four-year-old.

- A grade four-year-old?

No, I think it's because there's like not a bunch

of other kids to distract me,

but I'm realizing that this is kind of fun.

Like I just think that it's like a real musical instrument.

- I've never seen a real recorder musician,

so I don't know what it's supposed to sound like.

(recorder whistling)

Like I said,

I've never seen a real recorder musician before.

- I think it's a real musical instrument.

- All right, I'm gonna need you to prove that to me.

Thank you.

- Are you kicking me out?

In an attempt to defend my honor and the recorders,

I decided to figure out the real reason why we were forced

to learn the recorder in school.

I wanted to check if it was just economical

or if there was something more.

So I dove into the history of the recorder to understand

where it came from and how it ended up in the hands

of 10 year olds across America.

And it turns out the story is way weirder than

most people realize.

So the recorder, as we know it,

comes out of Medieval Europe, but it goes mainstream

during the Baroque period when famous composers like Bach,

Handel, Vivaldi, are composing solos for the recorder.

And let me tell you, they go hard.

(bright recorder music)

Unfortunately, the recorder was slowly sidelined

by the transverse flute whose flexibility better suited

increasingly dynamic musical trends.

So for the next 100-ish years,

the recorder basically vanished.

But if that's the case, how did it end up

in the hands of 10 year olds across America?

Basic searches will blame this guy, Carl Orff.

He came up with this music education approach

that took off after World War II.

It included the recorder, which is a big reason why it ended

up in schools across the world.

But what everybody fails to mention is

that he didn't want to use the recorder.

I found his autobiography,

and it turns out he wanted to use the African marimba.

The problem was that he couldn't figure out how

to mass produce it with Western tuning.

So he consulted a specialist, Curt Sachs.

But Curt Sachs was like,

why don't you just use the recorder instead?

In fact, I know a guy who makes a bunch of them.

But why?

Because remember, this was well

before Carl's music system ever took off.

In fact, this meeting had to have

taken place between 1923 and 1930,

which is also before plastic recorders were even a thing.

So who was mass producing this

obscure wooden flute from the 17th century?

And why?

(alarm ringing)

Before Carl Orff, before World War II,

the recorder played a key role in England

and Germany's parallel struggle to define

and redefine their cultural identity.

Yes, the recorder.

(recorder whistling)

Intrigued.

In the late 1800s,

tensions were brewing within England and Germany.

England was mockingly called the nation without music

and scholars were keen to prove them wrong.

At the same time, Germany was becoming increasingly

industrial and individualistic,

and people wanted to reconnect with their communities.

That is the context you need to understand

what happened next.

In 1903, Arnold Dolmetsch,

a musician and instrument maker,

bought a vintage recorder

and learned how to play it with his family.

But in 1919, his son lost it at a train station.

So, Arnold decided to make a new one from scratch

and showed it off during a music festival he organized.

Over the years, two key figures attended this festival,

Edgar Hunt, an English music teacher,

and Peter Harlan, a German instrument maker.

They both recognized that the simplicity of the recorder,

which once banished it to obscurity,

could bring it back to life.

Edgar Hunt was really keen

to elevate music education in English schools.

At the time, students would make their own pipes out

of bamboo, but this was time consuming

and often led to cut fingers and out of tune instruments.

He wanted to introduce kids to

what he thought was good music,

and he figured that the recorder's repertoire

of legendary composers could help.

Unfortunately, all of the recorders made in England

were incredibly expensive.

Luckily, across the sea,

Peter Harlan had started producing recorders

and selling them to his peers in Germany,

this rapidly growing market of young people

who wanted the connection that came

with playing folk music together.

Now, this desperation was eventually co-opted

by the National Socialist Party

with an internal memo acknowledging...

- [Narrator] Songs possess the strongest

community building power.

Thus, we use them deliberately at those moments when we want

to waken the consciousness of being part of a community.

- So the recorder, according to Edgar Hunt,

became the instrument of the Hitler youth

with a children's orchestra opening

the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics,

playing music by one, Carl Orff.

Now, this twist in the recorder's history is incredibly

unfortunate, but it did have one major benefit.

It made the instrument incredibly affordable.

Cheap German imports was how Edgar convinced English schools

to adopt the recorder,

solidifying its place in international education

so that even at the outbreak of World War II,

England just started producing their own,

turning to plastic to keep prices low,

which is how we ended up with this.

Or, actually, you probably played a plastic Yamaha.

The story there is that a Japanese man named

Yoshitaka Sakamoto was attending the 1936 Olympic Games.

He saw all of those kids playing the recorders,

felt inspired, bought some, brought 'em back to Japan,

and then convinced the Yamaha Corporation to make them.

So it still goes back to the Nazis.

But anyway, you weren't forced

to learn the recorder in school because it was cheap.

It was cheap because people throughout history

recognized this simple instrument's potential as a tool

to explore musical composition, to educate young people

with an instrument that'll meet them where they're at,

and to exploit the joy that comes

with making music together.

You can't win them all.

But needless to say,

this instrument is so much more than a toy.

But I'm worried that you still don't believe me

because you think that the recorder

can only sound like this.

(recorder whistling)

Brown belt.

Now, despite my genius improvement,

I wanna find somebody who can

show us what the recorder can sound like

with a little bit more practice.

(recorder whistling)

I had the chance to speak with Alison Melville,

a professional recorder musician,

at the beautiful Orange Lounge Studio in Toronto.

- I think the first time I actually heard anybody say this

kind of derogatory thing about the recorder,

a junior high school teacher,

and he said, "Well, you don't still play that, do you?

That's just a stepping stone instrument."

I don't know how this happened,

but for example, Suzuki violin class,

they usually don't sound very good,

but everybody knows that a violin doesn't sound like

how it sounds in Suzuki class.

How come it's just suddenly, oh, but it's a recorder,

it can't be any different?

And if it's a skilled player,

then some people will think it's a flute.

Unless they see it's a recorder with the sound coming out

of it, they'll sort of say, oh,

that can't possibly be a recorder.

- [Sabrina] Alison gave me some examples of

where we might hear the recorder without knowing it,

including some of her own work.

- "Cuphead," the latest game, "The Delicious Last Course,"

and there's one tune where it's really quite prominent,

but you might not know that's a recorder.

Any professional most of the time is playing a wooden one.

(recorder whistling)

This is a plastic Yamaha in translucent blue.

(recorder whistling)

So you can hear there's a difference in the sound.

It makes total sense.

It's like any other instrument.

The material it's made of affects how it sounds.

- [Sabrina] But interestingly,

material isn't the most notable

influence on a recorder's sound.

Recorders actually come in a wide variety of sizes

that change its range.

- This is an alto, the lowest note on a soprano.

(recorder whistling)

And that's a C.

This is an F.

(recorder whistling)

So it makes sense, right?

The bigger they get, the lower they sound.

(recorder whistling)

The lower you get, the nicer people think it sounds.

This is the special one.

This is the one nobody believes is a recorder.

(Sabrina laughing)

- [Sabrina] That's delightful.

(recorder whistling)

- But you can also hear it's quite soft.

It's not the only instrument I play, but it's really,

I feel like it's mostly the instrument that is my voice.

It's a very specific instrument.

It has a kind of a rigidity about it.

It needs to be just right.

So you find more ways,

whether it's different kinds of music to play,

different kinds of people to play with

who challenge your assumptions, who help you grow.

Any instrument has the people who find that

that's really their voice.

I've had colleagues say things like,

they hate the accordion.

It's like, okay, well,

but there are lots of people who love the accordion

and who play it extremely well.

And just because you don't like the sound of

that instrument doesn't make it not a musical instrument.

- I would like to try and play something for you, Alison.

- Yes.

I've been looking forward to this.

- You shouldn't have, Alison.

You shouldn't have.

I'm so nervous.

If you could do me the honor of listening

to me "Ode to Joy."

- Yes.

- And then let me know if you think I deserve that.

- [Alison] Yes, I will.

- Okay.

I've been so bad at breathing, Alison.

I've just been losing my breath the entire time.

It's fine, it's good.

Okay.

(recorder whistling)

- Yeah, very good.

- Very good. - I got a very good?

- I messed up a little bit over there.

- You know what?

Just try that bit again.

(recorder whistling)

Yes, okay.

So my decision...

- I got it?

- Yes, you did.

Of course you did.

- Thank you!

Ugh!

Today's the day I learned that.

I don't know how to tie a karate band.

Perfect.

People don't talk about this

when you're in a classroom, right?

But take a breath,

take a really good breath before you start.

Because often, you'll see,

especially when children are playing.

(recorder whistling)

Right?

And they didn't breathe before they start.

- And that was me.

- One other thing is when you start playing the sound,

usually when you play the notes,

instead of stopping and starting with the air,

like who, who, who, you go, do, do, do.

But you keep the air going.

Let's just play a little experiment here.

I play something for you and you play it back?

- Okay.

(recorder whistling)

- There you go.

So that's all in one breath.

- Okay.

- So then, if I was gonna tongue it,

if I was gonna try and play them separately,

I could go do, do, do.

The blowing stays the same.

(recorder whistling)

Instead of...

(recorder whistling)

Right?

(recorder whistling)

- You wanna just try that? - Sounds so much better.

Can I do it?

We're asking a lot now.

(recorder whistling)

- It's like singing and going la, la.

(recorder whistling)

There you go.

- Oh!

Oh!

I know it sounds silly,

but after a decade of feeling

ashamed about my musical incompetence,

Alison patiently teaching me was incredibly freeing.

It made me wanna try one more time.

Do you wanna try and play together?

- Would you like me to play a harmony part with you?

- Yes.

(recorder whistling)

Growing up can be so serious and lonely,

but there's something about making music together,

even bad music, that makes it feel a little bit better.

(recorder whistling)

- Oops.