It's Recorder Time: Holiday Songbook: Recorder Book

This collection delivers genuine variety for recorder students without resorting to oversimplified arrangements. The inclusion of solos, duets, and trios means you can differentiate within a single book, and the addition of chord symbols makes it easy to integrate guitarists, pianists, or other harmonic accompanists into performances.

These arrangements capture the joy and familiarity of holiday traditions without feeling mechanical or hollow. The mix of solos and ensemble pieces creates momentum through a performance, and the presence of lyrics reminds listeners of the songs' emotional core even as recorders carry the primary melody.

This book suits recorder students from beginner through early intermediate levels who want to perform recognizable music. It works equally well for classroom ensembles, school assemblies, and holiday concerts where you need flexible instrumentation.

• Assign duets and trios strategically during rehearsal to build collaborative listening skills; pair confident readers with developing ones to strengthen the ensemble sound.
• Use the chord symbols to invite a guitarist or pianist to join soloists, turning individual performances into small ensemble moments that feel more polished.
• Work through the easier solos first to build confidence, then challenge advanced students with duets that require independent part-reading.
• Encourage students to sing through the melodies using the included lyrics before playing; this clarifies phrasing and makes the familiar holiday material more expressive on the recorder.

Load this into your December rehearsals as accessible performance material for a holiday concert or winter assembly. The variety of configurations means you can build a full program segment from this single book, with different students featured in solos while others provide textural support in duets and trios.

• reading single-line melodies with consistent rhythmic patterns
• performing duet and trio parts with independent part awareness
• collaborating with harmonic accompanists (guitar, piano, autoharp)
• sustaining musical phrases over multiple measures
• interpreting familiar melodies expressively