Recorder notes: a fingering chart for every note

A recorder is a tube with a whistle on top. Covering every hole makes the air travel the whole length of the tube, which gives the lowest note. Each finger you lift lets the air out sooner, so the note goes up.

Your left hand goes on top: the thumb on the hole at the back, then the first three fingers on holes 1, 2 and 3. The right hand covers holes 4 to 7 below it.

• Hole 0 is the thumb hole, on the back.
• Holes 1, 2 and 3 are the left hand: index, middle and ring finger.
• Holes 4, 5, 6 and 7 are the right hand, little finger at the bottom.
• On most recorders holes 6 and 7 are pairs of small holes, so half of one can be covered for a sharp.

This is the scale from low C up to the D above the next C, with baroque fingering, which is what most school recorders use. A filled circle in the chart is a covered hole.

• Low C: thumb, 1 2 3, 4 5 6 7 (every hole)
• D: thumb, 1 2 3, 4 5 6
• E: thumb, 1 2 3, 4 5
• F: thumb, 1 2 3, 4, 6 7
• G: thumb, 1 2 3
• A: thumb, 1 2
• B: thumb, 1
• C: thumb, 2
• D: 2 only, thumb off

Almost every recorder method starts with B, A and G, because they use only the left hand. You can learn them before your right hand does anything at all.

B is the thumb and hole 1. Add hole 2 for A, then hole 3 for G.

• Hot Cross Buns: B A G, B A G, then G G G G, A A A A, and B A G once more.
• Mary Had a Little Lamb: B A G A B B B, A A A, B B B.
• Merrily We Roll Along uses the same three notes in the same order as Mary.

Two of them come up in the first songs most classes play: F sharp, for tunes in G major, and B flat, for tunes in F major.

• F♯ / G♭: thumb, 1 2 3, 5 6 (hole 4 open)
• B♭ / A♯: thumb, 1, 3 4 (hole 2 open)
• Low C♯ and D♯: cover half of the double holes at the bottom, 7 for C♯ and 6 for D♯.

A sharp and the flat above it are the same note, so they share a fingering.

Above the second D, the thumb does something new: it half-covers its hole. Bend the thumb so only the edge of the nail rests against the hole, leaving a thin gap. Players call this pinching.

With the thumb pinched, the same finger shapes from the low octave play again, an octave higher.

• High E: pinched thumb, 1 2 3, 4 5
• High F: pinched thumb, 1 2 3, 4, 6
• High G: pinched thumb, 1 2 3

Recorders come in two systems. Baroque (also called English) fingering is the one in the chart above and the one most teachers use. German fingering makes F simpler, thumb and 1 2 3 4, but makes F sharp and several high notes harder.

To tell them apart, look at holes 4 and 5. On a German recorder hole 5 is smaller than hole 4. On a baroque recorder hole 4 is the small one.

HitJam does not have a recorder yet. The flute is the nearest sound: both are flutes that make their note by blowing across an edge, and both play from the same middle of the keyboard.

A soprano recorder sounds an octave higher than its music is written. On the flute, at the starting octave, the Q row plays the notes at that real height:

1. Q: low C
2. W: D
3. E: E
4. R: F
5. T: G
6. Y: A
7. U: B
8. I: C
9. O: D

The bottom row, Z to M, plays the same notes an octave lower, the way they look on the page. Key 5 is F sharp and key 7 is B flat.