The recorder is where millions of people play their first instrument, and its first five notes are a masterclass in good teaching design: B, A and G use only your left hand, one finger at a time, and E and D bring the right hand in the same gentle way. Five notes, no keys, no valves — just holes to cover cleanly and the recorder's one great lesson, which is that it wants far less air than you think.
Set up first. Left hand on top (nearest your face), right hand below. The thumb of the left hand covers the single hole at the back. On the front, your left index, middle and ring cover holes 1, 2 and 3; the right index, middle and ring cover holes 4, 5 and 6; the right pinky rests over hole 7, which is a double hole on most school recorders (two small holes side by side). Cover holes with the pads of your fingers, flat and relaxed — fingertips poking at holes leak air, and leaked air is what makes recorders shriek. Blow gently: warm, slow air, as if cooling hot soup. If the note screams, you are blowing too hard. It is always that.
The fingerings below are Baroque (English) fingerings, the system used by nearly all school recorders and the one our chart is built on. If your recorder is German system, only F differs among the early notes — the classroom guide in this series explains how to tell which system you have.
1. B (written B5)
Fingering: thumb + hole 1.
Left thumb on the back hole, left index on hole 1, everything else open. B is the recorder's classic first note: balanced in the hands, easy to sound, and forgiving while you learn how gentle the air needs to be. Play long Bs and listen for a clear, flute-like tone with no edge. A fuzzy B usually means the thumb or index is leaking — roll the finger a fraction so the pad centres on the hole.
2. A (written A5)
Fingering: thumb + holes 1 and 2.
Add the left middle finger. The recorder's ladder begins exactly like the other woodwinds': one more finger, one step down. A should speak as easily as B. Practise B–A–B–A with a light tongue stroke on each note ("doo" — the recorder tongues softly) and keep the air identical; beginners tend to blow the second note harder without noticing, and A is where to catch that habit.
3. G (written G5)
Fingering: thumb + holes 1, 2 and 3 — the full left hand.
The left hand completes. G is the third note of the famous B–A–G trio that opens "Hot Cross Buns" and half the beginner books ever printed. With three fingers down the recorder sits securely, and G's tone is the warmest of the three. Run B–A–G–A–B until the fingers land as a wave. You can now play real music — three notes is a vocabulary, as every folk tradition on earth demonstrates.
4. E (written E5)
Fingering: thumb + holes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Now the right hand joins — and it joins with two fingers at once: right index on hole 4 and right middle on hole 5, while hole 6 stays open. E feels like a bigger step than the others because it is: the tube lengthens past the halfway point and the tone deepens noticeably. The mistake to watch is the right ring finger drifting onto hole 6 for company. It will try. Keep it hovering. E is also the note where hand position pays off: if your right hand has been wandering, E is unplayable, so let E teach your hands where they live.
5. D (written D5)
Fingering: thumb + holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Add the right ring finger on hole 6 and the front of the recorder is fully covered except the pinky's double hole. D is the lowest note of your first five and the gateway to the bottom of the instrument (C, with the pinky, is the next lesson). D wants the gentlest air of all — low recorder notes overblow into a squeak if you push. Think of sighing the note out. Play E–D–E and feel how the pitch drops with one finger while the air must actually decrease. That counter-intuitive softness is the recorder's character; players who learn it early sound musical years before players who don't.
Putting the five together
Your five notes — B, A, G, E, D — are not a scale (F and C are missing, and both arrive soon: F is the famous fork fingering, C needs the pinky). But they are enough for a shelf of real tunes: "Hot Cross Buns" and "Merrily We Roll Along" (B–A–G), "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (E–D… transposed to your five), "Ode to Joy" in its recorder-book key, and every playground chant ever sung. More importantly, you have learned the recorder's three permanent lessons: pads seal holes, gentle air wins, and fingers accumulate down the ladder.
Daily five-minute routine for the first month: long tones on B (count of four, twice), the B–A–G ladder tongued then slurred, E–D–E with deliberately softer air, then one tune. When F arrives, it will feel strange — a hole skipped, the fork — and that strangeness is normal; the recorder fingering chart shows it with the double holes drawn exactly as they are on your instrument.
Looking after the instrument (and the thumb's next job)
Two small habits protect both the recorder and your progress. First, moisture: condensation builds up in the windway as you play and eventually gargles the tone. The fix is a quick suck back through the windway (unglamorous, universal) and a swab or pull-through after playing — and never leave a plastic recorder baking on a radiator or a wooden one anywhere near one. Second, keep an eye on that left thumb. Right now it simply covers the back hole completely, but it is about to get the most skilled job on the instrument: for the high register, the thumb half-holes — sliding so it opens a sliver of the hole — and every recorder player you have ever heard gliding into the top octave is doing it with that thumbnail-sized movement. You do not need it for these five notes, but knowing it is coming explains the chart's half-filled thumb circles later, and it is worth experimenting once D is secure: pinch the thumb a fraction and hear B jump the octave. That experiment, played with once, makes the second register far less mysterious when your book arrives there.