Side by Side Comparison of: Yamaha vs Alfred vs Kaye Clements Paul

I decided to learn to play music and bought this, and its awesome! It's only around 7 dollars and it sounds amazing! I can play all sorts of songs and it has a really cool pouch that I keep it in. I can't recommend this enough! It's awesome! Feels really well made. The only con I have is that one of the holes is off a bit which seems odd, I don't know if recorders are supposed to have that but it's a little weird, but besides that it's awesome and great for anyone to learn to play songs and annoy your neighbors!

Works great, my toddler is a bit scared of it because it's very loud. Of course he's only 3 so his breath control isn't great. That's just because he's a bit too young for it now. It's be very well made and solid feeling.. It'll last a long time so maybe when he's in school if they still have mandatory recorder learning by then.

These are very nice, very noisy, but nice!! My two boys (ages 12, 11) love these. I had to make them go outside after the first couple of minutes, but they are very happy with them. I am going to try to look up some music online so that maybe they can actually learn to play something instead of just making noise. ;)

We needed to get this for elementary school. It seems to be just like the one I learned to play in grade school, only its so much prettier!! My daughter loves it and is leaning how to play songs in school. It came with a clear vinyl case to keep it clean and from getting scratched up in her backpack.

Perfect model for children to learn with. This Yamaha is well made and tuned properly

Pros:* Multiple joints that slide well, easy to tune and adjust pinky holes* Sounds just like I remember from 20 years ago* I learned how to play the Harry Potter song and I can reliably get 70-80% of the notes correctCons:* My roommates have it made it clear that they don't think learning recorder is something a grown man should be doing

I don't know what was more satisfying; When I played a harmonizing solo, or when I "accidentally" sat on it.

This sounds very good. Got this for our daughter. We were a bit disappointed that it didn't come with it's own cleaning stick.

Good product for basic school recorders. I bought extras for our school for the kids who could not afford one for themselves so the music teacher was very happy to receive them. No bells and whistles which is fine. I will buy again.

This was required for my daughter's music class. I bought it against my better judgement. It works great but I recommend also buying ear plugs or noise canceling headphones.

Granddaughter likes it; her parents don't :-) Not sure if she actually uses it much or not but I'd say it's good quality at a good price. I'd recommend it.

We bought this for our almost 5 year-old daughter, she has been asking for one for a while. I wanted to get her an actual instrument and not a toy recorder. I am going to have to find out how to make music with it to teach her. I am happy with the sound it makes and it seems durable. It recommends wiping it out after every use but does not come with an appropriate cloth to do this with. This is why I would give it only 4 stars...I would have been willing to pay a few dollars extra for it to have come with something that could be used to wipe it out with (I am thinking that an appropriate tool exists, but now I'll probably have to buy it from a music store or something).

good product for the price, is very sensible, any way is really cheaper and good for the price

nice and smooth. i wish the holes could be more easily felt by the fingers. perhaps it is my fault, i'm a beginner, but i'm having difficulty keeping the holes totally covered.

Perhaps it's just me, but I don't recall my recorder in high school being as screechy.

It's only $6 so it's not exactly a huge loss but I just don't remember recorders being so low quality in tone and feel. This requires extremely soft air flow to play notes properly otherwise it just squeals like crazy. Might be good for your kid learning in school but don't get this if you plan on doing anything serious with it.

Not as good as I would have liked, it leaked air and tones are not consistent.

It clearly stated a blue, as seen in picture recorder. We recieved a bright turquoise recorder for my son to take to school. Wouldnt have purchased if knew the color would be different. The reason we purchased this one was to have a blue recorder. Disappointed in the description of the product and what we actually recieved

It's not in perfect tune, unfortunately. It works for kids, but not if you want to play for real.

I had to buy a cleaning rod at a music store, and it cost nearly as much as the recorder. I would not buy this again.

Slightly but noticeably out of tune despite all adjustments. My expectations were not particularly high for an $8 plastic instrument, but Yamaha usually makes pretty decent cheap instruments across the board. This seems to be an exception, though.

The Yamaha YRS-23Y Soprano Recorder uses German fingering, and this may not be what you want.I recommend the Yamaha YRS-24B Soprano Recorder that uses the standard Baroque fingering (also called English fingering).The Yamaha YRS-23Y and the YRS-24B are almost identical. The main difference is that the third hole from the bottom on the Yamaha YRS-23Y (German fingering) is slightly smaller than the one on the YRS-24B (Baroque fingering). This changes the fingering so that the F and F# notes are slightly easier to play using German fingering. A small chart showing the difference in fingering comes with either recorder.The German system originated in Germany in 1930 and was developed for beginners. Recorders with German fingering are slightly easier to play, but some of the notes play out of tune.Many manufacturers offer soprano recorders with German fingering, and I think this is because there is a big market for young children learning to play recorder. I personally think that it's a bad idea to give a child a recorder that plays out of tune.All alto, tenor, and bass recorders use Baroque fingering. So if you learn German fingering, it makes it difficult to unlearn German fingering and learn Baroque fingering when you want to switch to alto or tenor recorder.From Wikipedia:In the early part of the 20th century, Peter Harlan developed a recorder that allowed for apparently simpler fingering, called German fingering. A recorder designed for German fingering has a hole five that is smaller than hole four-whereas baroque and neo-baroque recorders have a hole four that is smaller than hole five. The immediate difference in fingering is for F and B♭, which on a neo-baroque instrument must be fingered 0 123 4-67. With German fingering, this becomes a simpler 0 123 4 - - -. Unfortunately, this caused many other chromatic notes to become so out of tune that they were considered unusable. German fingering became popular in Europe, especially Germany, in the 1930s, but rapidly became obsolete in the 1950s as the recorder began to be treated more seriously and the limitations of German fingering became more widely appreciated. Recorders with German fingering are manufactured exclusively for educational purposes.Use your browser to search on "recorder musical instrument wikipedia".Scroll down to the "Contents" box.Click "German fingering" (under the "3 Structure" heading).Additional Note: Use your browser to search on “michala petri” and listen to her play Bach and Vivaldi on YouTube. Michala Petri is sometimes referred to as the “Queen of the Recorder”.

Sound is a little off. Not sure why as I had the nontransparent version in the past and no such issue.

The recorders arrived on time, but 9 out of 10 had torn/ripped cases. I was not pleased with this as I had bought them for my students, and I had to buy alternate cases in order to give them out to the kids.

F is a little off tune. Sounds like F#

It sounds great and durable. However, it has a BIG problem. Its F is almost Fsharp. I also bought a blue one and found it had the same problem.

Will not play low notes. yes I know how you are supposed to use it.

We would love to suggest using a hemp plastic is toxic and we have cut enough trees down on this planet!

came in wrong key?

I should have read the reviews. It's only one recorder, not three. Otherwise, it's a very good product and if it says Yamaha, then you know it's good.