They cover two octaves and are tuned to either C or F. The kind of recorders most of us would be familiar with from school lessons are known as 'descant' recorders. What's the best ever recorder song? In Led Zeppelin's iconic Stairway to Heaven, it's actually John Paul Jones's recorder that makes the song, not Jimmy Page's guitar! As Wayne would say: 'DENIED!' Why is it classic? Various sources claim that, traditionally, composers would use the recorder to create associations in the listener's mind with any of the following: 'Birds, shepherds, miraculous events, funerals, marriages and amorous scenes.' Personally, I find the thought of a recorder documenting an amorous scene appalling, but I guess it's nice that people find such a simple instrument so evocative. Bone was a favoured material, in those days. Where does it come from? Various recorder-like whistles and flutes feature in medieval tapestries and paintings, and the earliest surviving eight-hole recorders (the defining recorder characteristic) date back to the 14th century. The pitch of this whistle can be changed by altering the length of the column of air in the recorder, which you do by covering and uncovering the little holes in the recorder body with your fingers and thumb.

When a player blows down the mouthpiece, their breath hits the labium and the air begins to oscillate and resonate – whistle, basically. The labium is a kind of hard-edged ramp, cut into the body of the recorder, just after the mouthpiece. How does it work? It's all to do with something called a, ahem, 'labium'.

Simple recorder solo