Yamaha YRA-302B Alto Recorder, smooth brown finish, key of F

Surprised by quality and tone of a plastic instrument. I recently switched from oboe to alto recorder. With oboe the difference between plastic and wood is night and day. However, this plastic recorder sounds gorgeous. I am drawn to playing it. I feel no desire to “upgrade” to wood so far. I did put the head in the dishwasher, not on dry, and it reduced the gurgling and filling with water, dramatically. Playing this instrument with an American Recorder Society instructor has been very helpful to me in many ways and I adore this plastic instrument!

I now own the Yamaha 302 series in Alto, Tenor, and Bass. My favorite is the Tenor, because it is a good compromise between shrillness and breath control. The Alto has a nice woody sound and is quite playable. My only other Alto is a wooden Gill, the difference between them is mostly that the Yamaha wets up more quickly and can be de - wetted more quickly. The wooden Gill plays longer but once it is done, it is done for a while. The Tenor is really my favorite of the Yamaha 302's, you can play it a bit longer before it wets up than the Alto or Bass. I have another Tenor, a wooden one of unknown origin, that is a little trickier to play - and once again, the wooden one lasts a little longer before it becomes to wet to play, but once that happens, you can't just clean it with a swab and blow out the Labium to make it instantly playable again like you can with the Yamaha. The Bass, to play it well, it is more about breath control than fingering. It takes a lot of air at exactly the right pressure, to make the notes sound. The fingerings for the bass are sometimes a little different than the other two. The low G can be hard to sound without harmonics creeping in, and the notes over high C - well I just checked the fingering chart and found I've been trying to finger them wrong, so never mind... I have no wooden Bass to compare this with. I like to just sit and improvise with these instruments. They sound pretty good for plastic. I would give them all five stars, considering the price and the playability. I never even tried to play a high D on my wooden Tenor, on this one it is possible.

I ordered this on a whim. A recorder, low cost. I wanted to learn to compose better melodies, something I struggled with when I was working as a musician. When my wife discovered I bought a recorder, I had to close two doors and play in the bathroom so it wouldn't drive her nuts. And it drove ME nuts that I couldn't control my breathing well enough to play it, but I just loved the sound. A little reverb and it sounds pretty nice! I went to youtube, looked up videos and found some songs I wanted to learn to play. Lamentarola was on top of my list. Within a year I could play it well enough to play for my family. At one point a Christmas concert (I think it was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) was on TV and an alto recorder player stood up and played, solo, the first bit of "What Child Is This." I was able to play along with him for a bit. I was happy that I had come that far in a year. The biggest benefit, though, was the performing musician's mindset. I had other habits, things I would do when I was stressed out that annoyed me. Nothing of terrible consequence, but I'd surf the web too much, or go grab a snack, etc. Now instead I am picking up a musical instrument and playing. I crank up iTunes with one of these guys and it's a nice, productive stress reliever. If you like to ad lib, try one of these: Talulah - Jamiroquai Staple it Together - Jack Johnson Bom Le Bom (Ft. Fred Wesley) - Redtenbacher's Funkestra There is a guy, user "hermeline80" on Youtube -- look him up. He plays an alto recorder and learned to play by copying improv performances. It's beyond impressive.

Great for practice

I've had this recorder for over a month now. I had played a soprano recorder as a child and kept it until it cracked sometime in my 20s. It had been quite a while since I'd played an instrument and this alto recorder turned out to be a great choice for me. It's bigger than the soprano, so it took a few days to get used to stretching my hands a bit for the wider spread, but I've been practicing every day and now it's second nature. I really like the slightly lower voice and I think it has pretty good sound for a plastic recorder, particularly in the lower range. The one downside for me: As others have noted, it can get clogged pretty easily unless/until it's warmer. I took a free class and the instructor swears it's just condensation so the easiest way to unclog it is to suck it up (literally). It's a little annoying, but I sometimes practice for over an hour and clogging lessens once it's warm. Bottom line: Good sound and value for the price!

As always, great for beginners. My 10 year old uses it regularly and loves it. The weight is ok, could have been lighter but then its needed for the quality of tune. Its high quality and feels and plays that way, overall good purchase.

It's a Yamaha recorder. What else is there to say. Less squeaky than a soprano. Cheaper than a tenor. I got it through an importer, so it came with the Japanese instructions, rather than the generic twenty language instructions that you normally get.

I really think you would like this

It's the legit Yamaha Alto Recorder

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Essa é a minha primeira flauta doce contralto e estou impressionado com a sonoridade dela, muito linda, só tenho a agradecer pelo vendedor que veio tudo certo e chegou antes do prazo, estou muito feliz 👏🏼👏🏼

Pour apprendre la flûte...

Fantastic instrument and value for money with the quality assurance of Yamaha. Highly recommended.