Recorder - Recorder Fingering

Recorder Fingering

Recorder fingerings (baroque): Lowest note through the nominal range of 2 octaves and a tone
Note First octave Second octave Third octave
Tuned³
in F
Tuned
in C
Hole
0
Hole
1
Hole
2
Hole
3
Hole
4
Hole
5
Hole
6
Hole
7
Hole
0
Hole
1
Hole
2
Hole
3
Hole
4
Hole
5
Hole
6
Hole
7
Hole
0
Hole
1
Hole
2
Hole
3
Hole
4
Hole
5
Hole
6
Hole
7
F C
F♯ C♯ ●1,2
G D ●²
G♯ D♯
A E
A♯ F
B F♯
C G
C♯ G♯
D A
D♯ A♯
E B


How the fingers and holes are numbered
Fingers Holes

The range of a modern recorder is usually taken to be about two octaves except in virtuoso pieces. See the table above for fingerings of notes in the nominal recorder range of 2 octaves and 1 whole tone. Notes above this range are more difficult to play, and the exact fingerings vary from instrument to instrument, so it is impractical to put them into the table here. The numbers at the top correspond to the fingers and the holes on the recorder, according to the pictures.

The note two octaves and one semitone above the lowest note (C♯ for soprano, tenor and great bass instruments; F♯ for sopranino, alto and bass instruments) is difficult to play on most recorders. These notes are best played by covering the end of the instrument (the "bell"); players typically use their upper leg to accomplish this. Some recorder makers added a special bell key for this note – newer recorder designs with longer bores also solve this problem and extend the range even further. The note is only occasionally found in pre-20th-century music, but it has become standard in modern music.

Some fonts show miniature glyphs of complete recorder fingering charts in TrueType format. Because there are no Unicode values for complete recorder fingering charts, these fonts are custom encoded.

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