Recorder

Playing microtonal music on recorders

From a posting by afmmjr on the MMM forum (this one^{[dead link]}):

It is really easy to play quartertones on a recorder. Honestly. One uses the right alternate fingerings. There is one pitch that requires one to lift a leg so as to point the tube towards full closure (lowering the instrument a quartertone, to F 1/4 flat).

Quartertone fingering chart for alto recorder by Tui St. George Tucker: http://tuistgeorgetucker.com/scores/alto%20recorder.pdf^{[dead link]}

A video by Robin Andrews showing the use of recorder to play an Arabic maqam scale (Sikah): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghttCq9Uuls

Jon Lyle Smith posted fingerings for some just intervals in the following posting on MMM (assumed 1/1 = F):

o= open, x= closed, /=half.
 
7/6:   x - x - x - x - x - o - o
       x (thumb)           x - x
 
11/9:  x - x - x - x - x - o - x
       x                   o - x
 
9/7:   x - x - x - x - / - x - o
       x                   x - o
 
11/8:  x - x - x - x - o - o - o
       x                   o - o
 
13/9:  x - x - x - o - x - o - o
       x                   o - o
 
14/9:  x - x - o - x - x - x - o
       x                   x - o
 
18/11: x - o - x - x - x - x - o
       x                   x - o
 
21/16: x - o - x - x - x - o - o
       x                   x - o
 
12/7:  x - o - x - x - x - o - o
       x                   o - o
 
7/4:   x - o - x - o - x - x - x
       x                   x - x
 
16/9:  x - o - x - x - o - x - x
       x                   x - x
 
9/5:   x - o - x - x - o - o - o
       x                   o - o
 
11/6:  x - o - o - x - x - x - o
       x                   x - o
 
27/14: o - x - o - x - x - o - o
       x                   x - o

Other sources of instruction

Sarah Jeffery

• Introductions to MICROTONES | Team Recorder (2019)