Got a New Recorder? Start Here

Step 1 Tune your recorder

Start the microphone and play one note at a time: the dial names the note and how many cents sharp or flat it is. Audio is analysed on your device and never leaves it.

One note to check, one joint to move

A recorder has a single adjustment: the joint where the head slides onto the body, and moving it shifts every note at once. Check it on the note you get with the left hand alone — thumb behind, first three fingers on top, everything else open. On a soprano (descant) that is G; on an alto (treble) it is C. Warm the recorder in your hands first and blow normally, then read the dial.

A new recorder reads sharp

Almost certainly because it is built at A = 442, not 440, and a recorder rises in pitch as it warms. Set concert A to 442 in the tuner’s settings before concluding anything. If it is still sharp, pull the head joint out a millimetre or two — no more than the thickness of a coin. Past that the octaves start to stretch.

The dial says G5 but the music says G

Both are right: a soprano recorder sounds an octave above what is written for it, and the dial reports the pitch in the air. Alto and tenor do not transpose. The full routine, including baroque A = 415 instruments, is on the recorder tuner page.

Squeaks

Nearly always a hole not quite sealed — press with the pads of your fingers, not the tips — or blowing too hard. A recorder needs far less air than people expect: imagine breathing warmly onto a cold window.

Step 2 Learn the layout

Seven holes on the front — three for the left hand at the top, four for the right — and one on the back for the left thumb. A note is which of them are covered. Every recorder method starts in the same place: thumb and top hole for B, add the next finger for A, and the third for G. Three notes, the left hand only, and enough for a first tune. Then the right hand goes on one finger at a time.

Tap a note on the instrument above and the drawing shows the fingering — on, off, half covered or pinched. In Fingers + air you can cover the holes yourself and hear what that fingering really plays. Check the Baroque/German switch matches your recorder (see below), or one note in the first scale will come out wrong.

The full instrument, with every size and key, is on the online recorder page.

Step 3 Your first five songs

Easiest first: the library marks each tune easy or harder, and within that the songs covering the fewest notes come first — on a recorder, range decides more about how hard a tune is than speed does. Every one is a public-domain melody.

Every recorder song · Christmas songs for recorder

Step 4 A seven-day plan

Ten minutes a day is enough, and the same ten minutes every day does more than an hour on Sunday. Tick each task as you go; this page remembers where you got to.

Sizes and types of recorder

The recorder family alternates between instruments in C and in F, and they all share one fingering system: the soprano or descant (in C — the school recorder), the alto or treble (in F), the tenor (C) and the bass (F). The same grip gives a different letter on each, which is why the tuning note changes with size.

Recorders also come in two fingering systems, Baroque (also sold as English) and German, which differ on a handful of notes, the first being F on a soprano. To tell which you have, look at the first two holes under the right hand: on a Baroque recorder the upper one is the smaller, on a German recorder the bigger. The recorder fingering chart draws both, for soprano, alto and tenor, and prints.