Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 44: Introduction to the Alto Recorder

  • Hold an alto recorder comfortably and play a one-octave F major scale.
  • Play a Baroque sonata movement written for alto recorder, at pitch.
  • Lessons 0–43 read on soprano (or, if you have started on alto, the equivalent alto progression).
  • Alto recorder.
  • Reading at sounding pitch.
  • Larger instrument ergonomics.

The Baroque recorder is the alto. The soprano is the children's instrument.

The alto sounds a fifth lower than the soprano: soprano-C fingerings produce F major. Most canonical Baroque solo repertoire — Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi — was written for alto, so if you want that music at original pitch, you need an alto in your hands.

You have been reading and playing on the alto since Lesson 0. This lesson is the formal landmark — the point in the curriculum where soprano players cross over to your instrument. The technical content is mostly review for you: confirm that the F major scale on your staff (the alto's home key) is even, and use the new repertoire below. Soprano players reading this lesson are doing for the first time what you have been doing all along.

Holding and fingering

Keep the fingers curved — do not flatten to span the wider holes. The patterns are identical to soprano; the pitches that come out are a fifth lower. Read alto music as written.

If you have been playing alto throughout the curriculum, your hands already know the alto's wider holes. Keep the fingers curved; read alto music at sounding pitch as you have been doing.

Read this in the alto register. The fingerings are the same as for the soprano C major scale you have played a hundred times; the pitches that come out are F major.

The F major scale — your home key from Lesson 5 onward. Confirm it is even, both directions.

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Play: a Baroque sonata for alto

The Handel A minor sonata, HWV 362, was written for alto recorder. At its original pitch it sits in the alto's most resonant range.

Now play these

Handel: Sonata in A minor, HWV 362
Read this on alto for the first time. The pitch you get is the pitch Handel wrote.
Telemann: Sonata in F major, TWV 41:F2
F major sits beautifully on alto. The composer's original.
Vivaldi: Concerto RV 443
Written for sopranino, often played on alto. Try it.

When you can hold the alto in playing position for five minutes without re-gripping and play the F major scale at quarter = 96, both directions, with no audible dip on B-flat (a cross-fingering on alto), move on to Lesson 45.