Recorder Fingering Chart (Soprano)

How to read this chart

Filled circles are holes you cover; open circles you leave alone. The diagram is drawn with the beak at the top and the foot at the bottom, so it reads down the instrument the way you hold it. The hole shown at the top on its own is the thumb hole on the back — left thumb. Then come holes 1, 2 and 3 for the left index, middle and ring fingers, and 4, 5, 6 and 7 for the right hand.

Two things on the diagram need a word of explanation:

• Double holes 6 and 7. On a modern recorder these are drawn as pairs, because they are pairs. Covering both circles seals the hole; covering only one gives you the half-hole, which is exactly how you get E♭4 and C♯4 without the old bell-against-the-knee trick. On an older instrument with single holes you have to roll the finger to expose about half the opening instead.
• The pinched thumb. Every note from E5 upward needs the thumb hole roughly a quarter open rather than sealed. The chart shows that as a half-covered thumb hole, so a second-register note is visibly different from the lower-octave note that uses the same fingers.

One quirk of the notation: the soprano recorder sounds an octave higher than it is written, which is how school parts are printed. The chart shows both, so written C4 appears against a sounding C5.

Baroque vs German fingering — F is the tell

There are two fingering systems, and every chart has to pick one. This one is baroque (English) fingering, the system used by essentially every recorder sold today and by all standard repertoire.

F is how you tell them apart. On a baroque recorder F is a forked fingering: hole 5 opens while 6 and 7 close again below it. That fork makes F slightly stuffy but keeps it in tune, and the same idea returns for F♯, where hole 4 lifts while 5 and 6 stay down. A German recorder does the opposite trade: F is played the obvious way — hole 4 open, 5, 6 and 7 closed — which is easier for an absolute beginner but leaves F♯ and B♭ badly out of tune, which is why the system fell out of use.

So: play F from this chart. If it sounds right, you have a baroque instrument and everything here applies. If it is noticeably flat and thin, yours is German-fingered — check the fingering-system mark near the joint before you buy another one, because the two are not interchangeable.

The classic school order: B, A, G first

Almost every recorder method starts with B, then A, then G, and it is a good order for a reason. B is thumb plus the left index finger, A adds the middle finger, G adds the ring finger — three notes that build one on top of another so you can feel the grip without looking down.

They also teach breath control immediately. With so little of the tube closed, B is the easiest note on the instrument to overblow into the register above, so a squeak on your first note is a breath lesson, not a failure. Once B, A and G are steady, the method books go down to E and D (which expose leaks in holes 6 and 7) before tackling the forked F.

The second register and pinching

The second register starts at E5 and it works by pinching: you slide the left thumb so about a quarter of the thumb hole is uncovered, which lets the instrument sound the octave above. The fingers of the lower octave stay exactly where they were — E5 uses the fingers of low E, G5 the fingers of G4, A5 the fingers of A4. Only the thumb changes, which is why the chart draws the thumb hole half covered for all of them.

Getting the pinch right is the whole skill. Too wide and the note shrieks; too narrow and you drop back to the lower octave. F♯5 is a good place to find it, because its fork stabilizes the pitch — set the pinch there, then keep the same thumb shape for E5 and F5. From B5 upward the notes want a narrower pinch and faster, more focused air, never more volume: loudness only makes the note split. The two notes at the very top, C♯6 and high D, really do differ between makers, so expect to try the alternates on your own instrument.

Common recorder mistakes

• Too much air. Squeaks are nearly always breath, not fingers. The bottom register takes the gentlest breath on the instrument, and low C in particular wants barely any — blow harder and it jumps a register or stops speaking altogether.
• Leaks. A hole that is 90% covered is an open hole as far as the recorder is concerned. Lay the flat pads of your fingers over the holes rather than pressing with the tips, and suspect holes 6 and 7 first when D and E will not sound.
• Half-covering hole 2 on B♭. B♭ is a forked fingering — hole 2 opens while 3 and 4 close below it. Lift that middle finger clearly, or the note sags towards A.
• Counting up instead of down. E♭5 has holes 2 to 6 closed with the thumb hole fully open — a shape that looks like a low-register fingering. Count down from hole 2, never up from hole 1.