E♭6 Recorder Fingering
How to play E♭6 on the soprano recorder: Holes 2-3-4-5-6 covered.
Filled holes in the diagram are the ones you cover; a half-filled hole is half-covered. The thumb hole is on the back of the recorder, so it is drawn to the left. Holes 6 and 7 (the bottom two) are double holes — two small holes under one finger — and a half-filled double hole means covering only its lower small hole.
Hear E♭6 and try the fingering
Pick an instrument and a note and the diagram updates instantly — filled keys are the ones you press. The same finder sits on every note page, pre-set to that note.
The E♭6 fingering, step by step
- Take your left thumb off the thumb hole completely — for these few notes the thumb hole stays wide open, which is what lifts the pitch into the second octave.
- Cover hole 2 with your left middle finger
- Cover hole 3 with your left ring finger
- Cover hole 4 with your right index finger
- Cover hole 5 with your right middle finger
- Cover hole 6 with your right ring finger — holes 6 and 7 are double holes (two small holes side by side), and both small holes must be covered.
- Blow gently and steadily — the recorder needs far less air than most beginners give it, and overblowing is what makes low notes jump the octave and high notes shriek.
In short: holes 2-3-4-5-6 covered.
About E♭6 on the recorder
The second octave is the same instrument played on its next harmonic, and the thumb is the switch. Three notes at its foot (C♯6, D6, E♭6) take the thumb off entirely; C6 keeps it sealed; and from E6 upward the thumb half-holes — the famous pinch. The finger patterns mostly echo the first octave (E6 copies E5, G6 copies G5), so your fingers already know this register better than you think; it is the thumb and a slightly firmer, faster air stream that are new.
E♭6 is the fullest of the thumb-off notes: holes 2 and 3 plus the whole right hand except the little finger, and still no thumb. Students often add the thumb out of habit — resist it; with the thumb down this note will not speak at pitch.
E♭6 is note 16 of the 25 in the full recorder fingering chart, sitting between D6 below it and E6 above it. Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against the Woodwind Fingering Guide and the NoteAtlas recorder chart before publishing.
Practising E♭6
Set the thumb first, then the fingers, then blow. If this note drops back to its first-octave partner, the thumb vent is too small; if it squawks, the vent is too big or the air too hard. Tiny thumb movements, calm air.
Questions about E♭6
What is the fingering for E♭6 on recorder?
Holes 2-3-4-5-6 covered. E♭6 is a second-octave note on the soprano recorder in Baroque (English) fingering. The full step-by-step is on this page, and you can hear the note with the Fingering Finder.
Does E♭6 sound as written on the recorder?
On this site, yes: the soprano recorder notes are named at the pitch students learn them by, so written E♭6 sounds as concert E♭6. (In traditional notation the soprano's part is printed an octave lower than the sound — one honest complication this site deliberately keeps off a beginner's page.)
Is there an alternate fingering for E♭6?
For E♭6, the fingering above is the one to learn. It is the basic fingering both reference charts give for this note, and the one teachers expect to see.
Think this fingering is wrong? Report it — every report is checked against the source charts.