This section gives advice on the following topics: How To Finger The Note F How To Tongue The Note F How To Finger The Note F The eighteenth note we learn, F in the second octave on the descant (soprano) recorder, lies on the top line of the treble clef. Click on the play button in the Sibelius score to hear it. Below that we give the standard fingering for this note, the fingering you would use under normal circumstances. Legend: = hole covered = hole uncovered = pinched thumbhole Recorder Thumb 1 2 3 4 5 6b 6a 7b 7a Bell Descant Tenor   -----left hand------ -----right hand----- F standard Using the standard nomenclature, the fingering for second octave F is written X 1 2 3 4 6a 6b, where X indicates a pinched thumb or vented thumbhole. How To Tongue The Note F in the Second Octave When we introduced E in the second octave of the descant you will have noticed that it had the same fingering as for low E but with the thumbhole slightly open. There are quite a lot of notes in the two octaves that have this similarity. Unfortunately, F is not one of them. If you finger low F and then 'pinch' the thumb, and tongue a little harder than for the low F, the note your recorder produces is E in the second octave and not F. You must raise the bottom finger of the right hand to produce F in the second octave, the note we will also call middle F. If you are moving from middle F down to bottom F you must remember to add the bottom finger of the right hand otherwise the low F will be noticeably sharp. If you play successively the middle and bottom F you should soon find the finger movements you must make become instinctive. In every other way, middle F like middle E before it is an easy note to play and you should be ready to play piece no. 18 to familiarize yourself with this new note.