F6 Recorder Fingering
How to play F6 on the soprano recorder: Thumb half-holed (pinched) · holes 1-2-3-4-6 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 F6 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 F6 fingering, step by step
- Half-hole the thumb: slide your left thumb so it covers only about half of the thumb hole, leaving a small crescent open at the top — this is the "pinched" thumb that speaks the upper registers. Roll the thumb rather than lifting it.
- Cover hole 1 with your left index finger
- 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 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: thumb half-holed (pinched) · holes 1-2-3-4-6 covered.
About F6 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.
F6 repeats the Baroque fork from F5, now with the pinched thumb: hole 5 opens, hole 6 closes below it. On a German-system recorder the second-octave F is again the straight version — pinched thumb + holes 1, 2, 3 and 4 only. German recorders are rare above the first octave in classrooms, but if your F6 will not tune, that is the fingering to try.
German-system players: on a German recorder this note is not forked either — pinched thumb + holes 1, 2, 3 and 4 only. The fork above is the Baroque fingering for F6.
F6 is note 18 of the 25 in the full recorder fingering chart, sitting between E6 below it and F♯6 above it. Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against the Woodwind Fingering Guide and the NoteAtlas recorder chart before publishing.
Practising F6
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 F6
What is the fingering for F6 on recorder?
Thumb half-holed (pinched) · holes 1-2-3-4-6 covered. F6 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 F6 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 F6 sounds as concert F6. (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 F6?
For F6, 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.