Home-Made Bell Keys
Figure 1 - The original bell key
Figure 2 - The low E bell key and a Low G#/High F Key. For most players (ie with whole hands), a modified version of the second key with a hole near 5 might provide both the high F tuning and alternate accoustically unforked fingerings for B and Bb.
In my hypothetical ideal world, alto recorders would be made with longer bores (closer to the free-air wavelength of the notes) for strong low notes and better harmonics for a chromatic third octave up to C or so. And the foot would be extended by a semitone, with a key for a low E. And high F wouldn't be "a challenge", it would just be another note. (Also, there would be a better block material that absorbs moisture like crazy but doesn't swell, but that's off my topic here!)
In the practical world, once I'd been playing a while, I started missing high Fs. With the standard fingering, the position of the thumb and the recorder's voicing (which can change with moisture content) are too critical. The more I played, the more I sympathised with players who just don't like playing music that goes that high!
I tried out some "workaround" alternatives that in the end I wasn't happy with:
(1) If not slurring up to F from E or Eb, initially finger it as / 1-3 45--. This is somewhat flat, but it is more reliable. Once the note is sounding, release 3. A challenge to play.
2) By opening 5 a little bit, as / 1-3 4/--, this fingering becomes in-tune and even more reliable. The challenge then becomes to open 5 by the correct amount. If it's open too wide, the note won't sound.
(3) Replace the thumbhole with a thin washer with a tiny hole in the center (I just used a piece of tape) to make the high notes (in particular, F!) sound more easily. This does work, and well, but tuning in the upper range isn't as good without the thumb, which normally and perhaps unconsciously adjusts the pitch of the higher notes.
legend:
T 123B 4567 - Thumb, left fingers 123, Bell Key (L4), Right Fingers 4567
T,#,B = closed key
- = open key
/ = part-open key
Finally I decided to add a bell key for a truly reliable, easy to play high F that would sound properly with any reasonable thumbing, tonguing and breath pressure, soft or hard, and also for a low E. I picked a design I saw in The Recorder magazine (Dec 1995 - by Denis Thomas) but I made it entirely from brass without his molded plastic-resin bell closer piece (Figure 1). This bell key is closed with the little finger of the left hand.
The low E proved unsatisfactory: weak, hard to tune and easy to fluff. It would seem that a knife-edge reduction in width and/or no extra length, does not make for a decent low E. For high F, the expected fingering / 12-B 45-- that works so well on most altos didn't work on my long-bore recorder. (This is the lone accoustic advantage I've found for the short-bore Baroque-copy recorders.) Some other more complex fingerings did work but either aren't well tuned (/ 1-3B 45-7, just a bit sharp) or seem to be easily "fogged" by an amount of moisture in the windway that doesn't bother any other note (/ 12-B 45-7).
Having come this far, it wasn't long before I experimented with another bell key arrangement that effectively extends the recorder's length a bit for low E with a short piece of pipe (figure 2). A short pin is that protrudes into the bell itself is soldered into a hole beside the bottom edge of the key to provide an end stop for both the open and the closed positions.
At this time I also discovered the high F fingering mentioned above, / 1-3 4/--. Since I already had the original two holes of 6 available, covered over owing to my mod for my short finger, I opened each of them and found the regular low G# hole as an extra open hole gave just the right tuning for high F as / 1-3 45--. And again, having come this far, I added a key, co-axial with the bell key shaft, to hold this hole closed until it was wanted for high F or G#. This is also operated by the left-hand fourth finger, moving it up for the bell key and down for this one. (Figure 2 - The small spring for this key is on the opposite side of the mount to the bell key spring but is difficult to see. The key itself is currently just some duct seal and a piece of cardboard until I think of something better.)
If I wasn't missing the fingertip for 6 (RH3), I'd have experimented with placing a hole in the vicinity of hole 5 that when opened, might hopefully: (a) tune the high F with / 1-3 45--, (b) raise A (T 123 45--) to Bb for a stronger, unforked Bb, and (c) raise the unused fingering T 123 4--- to an in-tune B natural, again unforked and stronger. This would be operated by LH4 as in figure 2, but closing a somewhat differently sized and positioned hole. (If it turned out the hole position could be convenient for the right thumb, there might be no need for a key.) Regular B and Bb would still be available.
With strong low notes down to E, an easy high F, and a chromatic 3rd octave to high C, this enhanced "Modern Alto" recorder has well over two octaves practical range, not just theoretical range. There is no reason to avoid music going down to low F owing to weak sound or up to high F and beyond because it's too scary to play.
Materials
I got most of the parts at a hobby shop. The brass was sold in 1 foot lengths.
* A thin, flat piece of brass 1/2" wide (Bell closer piece, end stop, bearing holders.)
* A brass rod, 3/32" diameter
* A small brass pipe that slips over the rod for bearings (Afterthought: you could also make the bearing holders with bent-up tabs with the rod passing through the flat faces, drilling 3/32" holes as bearings for the rod - no pipe, no soldering.)
* 3 or 4 - 1/4" long flat-head brass screws to attach the bearing mounts to the recorder. These are very tiny screws and may be hard to find. Mine were apparently sold for model ships.
* 2 - #4-40 brass nuts
* Small spring, hopefully a bit stronger than a typical ballpoint pen retractor spring
* A bit of resin-core solder
* A bit of cardboard with a fuzzy side, to glue (contact cement?) to the bell key's contact side, the fuzzy side covering the bell hole when closed.
Tools
* Tinsnips to cut the sheet brass
* Hacksaw to cut the rod [and the pipe]
* Files, x-acto knife, to smooth the brass edges
* Pliers to bend the pipe and brass sheet, and to do up the nuts
* Needle-nose pliers to bend the spring
* Jewellers screwdrivers to drill pilot holes in the recorder body for the screws (cleaner and easier to control than drill bits, imho, though slow) and to do up the screws
* Drill & bit to drill pilot holes for the screws through the brass (drill them so the heads don't stick up much, but not so they fall through!)
* #4-40 threader die to thread the bell end of the brass rod
* Soldering iron to solder the short pipe bits, the bearings, to the mounts
Construction
First, I should point out that I'm no craftsman, and that I had nothing to go by but a couple of inadequate photos of a different model recorder. It was rather experimental as to sizes and positions of everything. I didn't measure anything; I eyeballed it. When I got it together, there was a problem and I had to move everything. In the end it took several hours. Hopefully, you can benefit from this and have a simpler task. Figure 2 shows a few improvements to the design.
The critical thing is the interaction with the little finger. Instead of making a separate lever piece, I bent the rod twice near the end to form a lever about an inch offset from the rod's main shaft. I slipped a short piece of the pipe onto the lever where the finger presses as an added touch. An inch, however, proved too long: the stroke to close the bell was too long and the rest position too far from the recorder for the finger. I shortened it to about 1/2". (BTW, the brass rod breaks if you try to straighten a 90 degree bend.) Then, where I'd mounted the shaft was now too low: it was too hard to reach down there to press the lever. The lever needs to be as shown in figure 1, near the top of the recorder between holes 3 and 4 and a little to their left, just out of the way of the fingers for 3 and 4 (perhaps just a bit lower than I have it, maybe 3/8" left of the holes would be ideal).
With the lever position set, everything else falls into place: where to screw in the top shaft bearing, then with the shaft straight down the barrel, where to mount the lower shaft bearing. The bearings should be placed quite near the ends of the shaft. If your recorder has a wide bell flare, you might just drill a 3/32" hole through the wood or plastic for a lower bearing, but you may then need to bend your brass "key" piece(s) to make room for the upper (inner) nut.
The bell-closer piece and the open-position end-stop piece (figure 1) can be adjusted after everything else is in place, then the nuts tightened together to clamp them. My closed-position stop is simply the lever touching the body of the recorder. In figure 2 I made a one piece bell-closer/stopper having a pin going into the bell hole at the lower edge of the key for a stopper. This requires only one adjustment, for lever position, and the extra "stopper" piece is eliminated. (The key overlaps the bell hole a bit in the open position, but I think you'd need a precise tuning meter and a machine blowing a constant pressure into the recorder to detect any miniscule tuning change.)
The spring has to be shaped and sized with needlenose pliers in harmony with the position of the lever and the upper bearing to hold the key open and also to gently push the flat bell key against the bell. I glued a piece of cardboard onto the key's bell face with the fuzzy side facing the bell for an adequate seal (cereal box type cardboard, with contact cement). It slides easily and the brass doesn't rub directly against the end of the bell.
Be sure the foot joint is rotated to where you want it, because you can't move it or take it off with the bell key assembled.
Carrying Case
Last I needed a new carrying case since the recorder doesn't fit in the original bag with the foot joint attached! After substantial searching through various types of stores, the only appropriate sized case I could find was a flute case. (much pricier than tupperware, but somehow seems more appropo anyway!) I found a nice used one and cut out the bottom part that formed the boehm-flute-shaped cavities. I managed to free the plush velvet from the formed inner plastic piece, cut it to fit the body of the case and glued it back in. It seems about right that way, with the recorder body upside-down and the head joint beside it at its upper end. The top foam presses down enough to prevent motion of the recorder but not too hard. I cut a slit in the top foam for the protruding thumb rest. I had planned to drill some small air holes in the ends of the case to help the recorder dry out faster when put away, but there's already a small gap all the way round when it's closed. This case gives me much peace of mind compared to toting my rather pricey and much customised instrument around in a cloth bag!