Four sizes, one fingering system, and one note that matters
A recorder has no strings to bring up one at a time and no valve slides to set individually. It has one adjustment — the joint where the head slides onto the body — and moving it shifts the entire instrument at once. So the whole job is choosing a single note, reading it honestly, and nudging that one joint. The catch is that the note is not the same for everybody, because it depends on which size you picked up.
The family alternates between instruments in C and instruments in F, each a fifth or an octave from its neighbour, and they all share one fingering system. That is the point of the family: a player moves between sizes without relearning the instrument. It also means the identical grip produces a different letter name depending on what you are holding. Cover every hole and a soprano gives C5 while an alto gives F4. Lift to the left hand alone — thumb behind, the first three fingers on top — and the soprano gives G, the alto gives C. That left-hand note, a fifth above the bottom of the instrument, is the one to tune on.
| Size | Lowest note (sounding) | Tuning note | Written vs. sounding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soprano / descant in C | C5 | G5 | Sounds an octave above written |
| Alto / treble in F | F4 | C5 | At pitch — no transposition |
| Tenor in C | C4 | G4 | At pitch — no transposition |
| Bass in F | F3 | C4 | Sounds an octave above written bass-clef pitch |
Pick your size, then play the highlighted tuning note. The third tone in each set is that same note an octave up — if the two disagree, the head joint has moved past where the maker voiced it.
The head joint is the only adjustment, and it is not free
Pull the body away from the head and you lengthen the air column, which flattens the instrument. Push it in and you shorten it, which sharpens it. The distances involved are far smaller than most beginners expect: one to a few millimetres covers the entire useful range on a soprano or alto, and a routine correction is a fraction of that — no more than the thickness of a coin.
Two things about that joint are worth knowing before you move it, and neither is obvious. The first: fully pushed in is often not the correct home position.Many modern altos are deliberately voiced to play their best with the head already drawn out about 3 to 4 mm, so “all the way in” is not a neutral starting point but an instrument playing sharp of where its maker intended.
The second is the real cost: the head joint lengthens only the top of the bore, not the whole thing in proportion. Every note does not move by the same number of cents. The maker voiced the instrument at one particular joint position, and at that position it is in tune with itself — its octaves line up. Move well away from that position and you buy overall pitch at the price of internal tuning: the octaves begin to stretch, and notes that used to agree with each other stop agreeing. That is why each size above offers the tuning note and the same note an octave higher. If the octave was clean and goes sour after you adjust, you have gone too far, and the honest fix is a different instrument at a different pitch standard rather than a bigger pull.
Why a brand-new recorder reads sharp
This is the single most common reason someone opens a tuner and concludes their recorder is broken. It usually is not. Three separate effects push the pitch up, they are cumulative, and none of them is a fault:
- It is probably not built at 440. Most modern recorders are made to A=442, which is about 8 cents sharp of a dial sitting at 440 before you have played a note.
- It rises as it warms. Pitch follows the temperature of the air inside the bore. Makers know this and voice instruments slightly low when cold, because the stated pitch refers to a warmed-up instrument — so a recorder that reads correct straight out of a cold case will read sharp ten minutes later.
- Blowing harder raises it further. More breath pressure means a higher pitch on any note of the instrument. Play a firm forte into a tuner and you will see it.
Stacked together, a warm, confidently blown 442 instrument read against a 440 dial can sit 20 cents sharp or more, entirely legitimately. Set Concert A in this tuner’s settings to match what your instrument was built to before you conclude anything about the joint.
Warm it, blow normally, then move the joint
The order matters more here than on almost any other instrument, because two of the three effects above are under your control and will silently corrupt the reading if you adjust first and warm up second.
- Bring it up to playing temperature. Take it out of the case, hold it, tuck it under your arm for a few minutes, or play some long notes. Do not read anything off a cold instrument.
- Set Concert A to the pitch you are playing at — 440 for most modern ensembles, 442 if that is what your instrument is built to and what the group uses, 415 for baroque pitch.
- Play your size’s tuning note at your normal playing volume. Not softly, not carefully — the dynamic you actually use. This is the step people get wrong, and it is worth its own callout below.
- Read, then adjust a fraction of a millimetre. Sharp, draw the joint out; flat, push it in. Twist gently rather than pulling straight, and re-check after every movement.
- Check the octave before you call it done. Play the tuning note, then the same note an octave above. If the upper one has drifted sharp relative to the lower, you have pulled past the position the instrument was voiced at.
- Finish by playing a phrase, not by holding a note. A steady long tone is the easiest thing on a recorder to blow at exactly the right pressure. A real phrase, with leaps between the registers, is where your pressure actually wanders — and that is the tuning that reaches an audience.
Baroque pitch: reading a 415 instrument on this dial
Baroque recorders are commonly built at A=415 Hz, a little over a semitone below modern pitch, so that they play at something close to the pitch the repertoire was written for. Makers such as Moeck offer their historical models in both standard and low pitch, and it is a real, deliberate choice rather than a defect.
What that looks like on a tuner set to 440 is instructive. 415 Hz sits 101 cents below 440 — a semitone is 100 — so finger a G on a 415 soprano and this dial will name it F♯5, sitting about one cent off centre. Not a vague reading between two notes, but a confident, nearly perfect F♯. That near-miss is exactly why 415 gets described as “a semitone down”, and exactly why it fools people: the tuner looks like it is working correctly, and it is, just against the wrong reference. Set Concert A to 415 and every note gets its proper name back. The setting spans 400 to 500 Hz, so instruments built at A=466 for high-pitch work are covered too.
Equal temperament, and what a consort actually does
This dial measures equal temperament, where every semitone is exactly 100 cents. That is the right grid for calibrating one instrument against a fixed standard, which is what the head joint adjustment is for. It is not what a recorder consort is doing.
Renaissance consort recorders are typically built meantone tempered and tuned as a matched set, to each other rather than to an abstract standard. In meantone the major thirds are deliberately narrowed toward pure — around 14 cents flat of where an equal-tempered dial calls a major third centred — in exchange for slightly narrow fifths. Hold the third of a chord in a consort, tune it perfectly by ear, and this tuner will report you as flat. You are not. The two systems disagree by a known, predictable amount, and our guide to cents explains why both readings are correct.
The practical division of labour: use the tuner to set the head joint and to learn where your own breath pressure habitually puts each note — a fixed objective grid is the right tool for both. Use your ears the moment you are playing in a consort, where the pitch you should aim at shifts with the chord underneath you, and the third in particular wants to sit below this dial’s centre rather than on it.
Frequently asked questions
Which note do I tune my recorder to?
The note you get with the left hand alone — thumb behind, first three fingers on top, everything else open — played in the bottom octave. On a soprano/descant that note is G, on an alto/treble it is C, and because every size shares one fingering system, the same grip gives G on a tenor and C on a bass. It sits a fifth above the instrument’s lowest note, which puts it in the stable middle of the range rather than at either end. Be aware that there is no single agreed tuning note in the literature: some players and makers instead check the A in the second octave, just above the register break. Both choices follow the same rule — pick a note in the middle, never the lowest or highest.
Why does my brand-new recorder read sharp?
Almost certainly because it is not built at A=440. Most modern recorders are made to A=442, which reads about 8 cents sharp on a dial set to 440 — nothing is wrong with the instrument. Two more effects stack on top of that and both push the same way: a recorder rises in pitch as it warms to playing temperature, and blowing harder raises pitch further. A warm, firmly blown 442 instrument measured against a 440 dial can read 20 cents sharp or more with nothing at all wrong with it. Set Concert A to 442 in this tuner’s settings before you conclude the head joint is in the wrong place.
My soprano shows G5 but my music says G — which is right?
Both. A soprano/descant recorder sounds one octave above what is written for it, so the G you finger and read as G4 leaves the instrument as G5, and this dial reports the pitch actually in the air. Alto and tenor recorders do not transpose at all — what you read is what sounds — so no correction is needed on those. Bass recorder music written in the bass clef sounds an octave above the printed pitch. If the dial ever names your note an octave away from what you expect, check this before you touch anything: it is the single most common misreading on a recorder.
How far can I pull the head joint out?
A millimetre or two for a correction, and that is genuinely all — a common rule of thumb is no more than the thickness of a coin. Note that fully pushed in is often not the correct home position: many modern altos are voiced to play best with the head joint already out about 3 to 4 mm, so that is the position to return to, not zero. The reason to stay near it is that the head joint lengthens only the top of the bore, so it does not shift every note by the same amount. Move well past where the maker voiced the instrument and you buy overall pitch at the cost of the instrument being in tune with itself — the octaves start to stretch. If you need more than a couple of millimetres, the problem is temperature, breath pressure, or an instrument built at a different pitch standard.
Can I use this for a baroque recorder at A=415?
Yes — open the settings and set Concert A to 415 Hz, and the dial will name the notes your instrument is actually built to play. Without that, a 415 instrument reads roughly a semitone flat: finger a G on a 415 soprano and a dial set to 440 will call it F♯5, about a cent off centre, because 415 sits 101 cents below 440. That near-miss is exactly why 415 is described as “a semitone down” even though it is not exactly one. The setting accepts 400 to 500 Hz, so it also covers instruments built at A=466 for high-pitch consort work.