The Recorder Karate program was created around 2002 by music teacher, Barb Philipak, from St. Louis, Missouri. 

She dubs this as a "Highly Motivational Method for Young Players" and, honestly, she's right!

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Lots of kids at Heritage got SUPER into learning the recorder because they love the idea of learning a skill that works toward a type of reward. This specific reward is linked to the very cool idea of mixing music and karate! When students reach a new level, they achieve a karate belt, in a very similar order to traditional karate colours. 

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The karate belt is actually none other than a colourful piece of yarn that is tied around the foot joint of their recorder. If a student doesn't have their own recorder, they will still get the yarn and can tie it on to anything they own, like the zipper on their backpack, a cool toy they have, or they can even make it into a bracelet! 

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The ultimate goal of recorder karate is not to get black belt, but to be constantly improving your ability to play and read music. 

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Our Heritage kids are awesome at this!