h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i, myself, play the recorder. i have done my enissial and grade 1 exam, but how come they are soooo hard. im not being sorry for myself, or am i making myself look like a wuss, but the exams are like for grade 1, its grade 4 (i think). why is this???
please reply

by the way i lurv

I couldn't say, as I've never done any recorder exams. As far as I can tell, the grades for most woodwind instruments are much easier than the equivalent grade on a piano.

As a recorder player myself...
ABRSM exams go from grade 1-8 then three levels of diploma (DipRSM,LRSM,FRSM).
the gradings of exams are meant to be equivalent across all instruments. piano may look harder but recorder players have different stuff to learn such as multiphonics and also have to play across a wider range of history - mediaeval, renaissance, baroque, modern - which all require entirely different techniques.
also conventional dynamics (more air=more volume) cause huge tuning problems on recorder, so players must learn to create dynamics only using articulation - and if you think about how many sounds you make when speaking and all the different positions of your tongue youll be a little closer to understanding how many variants in articulation there are!
the main problem with recorder is that everyone thinks its so easy cos they "played" it when they were small...this is only because plastic ones are cheap cos they dont require complicated key work like a flute or clarinet. also you dont need much breath pressure at all to make a sound and they come in many sizes so kids can reach all the holes!