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left handright handthumb · behindT½123456½7½bellleft handright handthumb · behindT½123456½7½bell
C4sounds C5Thumb on

Baroque (English): F is a fork. On the recorder, hole 5 is bigger than hole 4.

SongsOde to Joy
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2 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the size or key brings some of them into reach.

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Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824. Public domain.

27 notes · C4–D6 written · sounds C5–D7 · 27 notes · The descant: the recorder in every school bag. In C, and it sounds an octave above its written part.

Tap a note, or slide along them to slur from note to note in one breath. On a keyboard the letters on the notes are the ones to press — Q is the bottom note and they climb a semitone at a time.

RecorderFree · printable · plays in your browser

Ode to Joy — Recorder Notes

Ode to Joy, written out for the recorder as letter notes with the fingering drawn under each one and set up above on the Soprano. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the recorder waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes30, 5 pitches
  • RangeC4–G4
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo112 bpm · about 17 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a recorder play Ode to Joy?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • Soprano✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–G4 · loaded above
  • Alto✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C5–G5 · load it
  • Tenor✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, C4–G4 · load it

Ode to Joy: recorder notes

The large line is the note, and the drawing is its fingering — a filled hole or key is one that is down. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Ode to Joy — recorder notes (Soprano) · tonalics.com

The 5 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 5 and you can play the whole tune.

  • CC4×6
  • DD4×7
  • EE4×9
  • FF4×4
  • GG4×4

What to expect on a recorder

  • It runs from C4 to G4, a fifth, using 5 different notes. Its lowest note is the lowest this instrument has, and 19 semitones of range are left above it.
  • Every move is a step or a repeated note — there is no leap anywhere in it.
  • Every note has the thumb hole fully closed or fully open — nothing in it needs the pinched thumb.

About the tune

The theme of the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, first performed in Vienna in 1824, where a choir joins the orchestra to sing Schiller’s poem “An die Freude”. An instrumental arrangement of it has been the anthem of the Council of Europe since 1972 and of the European Union since 1985.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824. Public domain. More about Ode to Joy →

Ode to Joy on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng, which does not have the notes.

More songs for the recorder

All 36 recorder songs · Christmas songs for recorder · The online recorder on its own

Playing it on a real recorder?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The recorder tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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