Is the alto recorder any 'quieter' than the soprano?
How do I put this? I've never had any formal music education whatsoever but I do play a little bit of self-taught soprano recorder. The problem I had with it is that I can only get myself as high as high-G(if that what you call 'em) before I have to increase the air velocity and producing some potentially high-annoying pitch while practicing some tune.
To be honest, I find the soprano recorder too loud for me to play in my house and might be disturbing some neighbor. I'm not particularly pointing to volume of sound but it's rather my interpretation on the feel of 'loudness' which I thought because of the soprano being a high pitched instrument.
The notes are there but I don't dare to hit it for I feel guilty for making too much noise and I kinda hold back which distort my progression on the instrument. Will the alto mellow sound make it less 'loud' than the soprano? I wanted to at least be able to play 2 octaves without having to tell everyone in the neighborhood. If not what kind of instrument that's suitable for my situation? And not to forget that I have a hand size of an 8 years old if that matter.
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Small hands don't matter.
It's true that high-pitched sounds tend to be more annoying than midrange. But to get to the root of the problem: it sounds like you have breath control difficulties, and those can only be corrected by taking some lessons. You shouldn't have to "overblow" to reach the higher octave(s), and while some of that depends on just how you half-cover the octave (thumb) hole, you will be a lot more comfortable as well as sounding better once you learn proper technique.
The decibel level you can reach and still maintain pitch does increase as the recorders get shorter, but I agree that your main problem may be technique. That being said, playing a soprano "quietly" is not easy, esp. up above G6.
Altos are mellower, tenors even more so. There are tenors being made with keys (Mollenhauer) that are playable by children so that might be an option for you. All good recorders can play through two octaves plus a couple of odd notes higher.
There is also the mute trick. Fold a very small piece of paper into a / shape and drape that over the edge of the windway. This cuts down on the sound output dramatically while still staying in tune. For sopranos we're talking about 1 cm or so in length, folded in half.
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