Also beginners and autodidacts tend to look at their fingers on the instrument and raise the instrument horizontally to be able to see them: this is not optimal to cover holes, especially the lower ones. In certain cases, nails can be a problem, or trying to cover holes with a too vertical angle of the end of the finger. The fleshy part of the fingers should cover the holes with a large margin. Try to find a good angle for the 'pavillon' part, if it moves, so that you are the most comfortable possible. Most likely cause - If you have small hands, have you checked that you can reach easily the last two groups of holes with your ring finger and especially the auricular (=pinky)? Even a slight misalignment can cause some air to go out and change the tone and give variable results. Is the pavillon part of your recorder (the ending part of the instrument) correctly (but gently) pushed against the middle part? This can change the tuning (but mostly on higher notes).ĭo you see any cracks, gaps between the parts of the flute?

There are a few things to check if the fingering problem is out of the way: The instrument You can spot a 'german' model by its quite small fifth hole (corresponding to the semitone between F and E). The 'modern' or 'german' model fingering would use only the index for the right hand (left hand is the same) for a F on a soprano. I presume you have a baroque/english-model recorder, because a school/'modern' recorder has often only one hole instead of two smaller ones for each of the ring and auricular fingers (last two bottom holes of the picture), and you would have noticed that. > The fingering you show in your question is a typical fingering for a baroque soprano recorder. Short answer: the fingering can be the problem, but there are other possibilities, one of which is finger placement.Ĭongratulation for your study of the soprano recorder.

Key to note recorder