Those of us who play modern band/orchestral woodwinds are familiar with a system in which, within a family of instruments, a notated pitch always corresponds to a certain fingering. No matter how large or small the instrument, the same fingering always corresponds to that same written pitch, even though the smaller instruments produce higher sounding pitches and the larger instruments produce lower sounding pitches. For example:

	E-flat clarinet	B-flat clarinet	A clarinet	Bass clarinet
Notated pitch
Fingering
Sounding pitch

This is convenient for clarinetists because, essentially, they only need to learn one set of fingerings to be (in that respect) prepared to play any instrument in the clarinet family. Note also that even the bass clarinet is notated in treble clef, as are its even lower cousins. All the major modern woodwind families (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and saxophones) use this approach: consistent clefs, and consistent correspondence of notated pitch to fingering. The transposition is a function of the instrument’s size.

Because of the prevalence of this system in the Western woodwind tradition, it’s an understandable error to assume that the recorder family is notated in the same way. But recorders typically use a different system, in which each instrument is notated in concert pitch, and the fingerings change depending upon the instrument. Or, to be more precise, each instrument is notated in a sort of “concert pitch class,” since some of the recorders are notated as transposing by one or more octaves, but a notated C always produces a sounding C. Bass recorder and lower are notated in bass clef. Here are the most common ones:

	Descant (“soprano”) recorder	Treble (“alto”) recorder	Tenor recorder	Bass recorder
Notated pitch
Fingering
Sounding pitch

Recorder players must learn two sets of fingerings, one with the instrument’s lowest note being C (for descant and tenor recorders), and one with the instrument’s lowest note being F (for treble and bass recorders), and must be prepared to read in two clefs.

The reader who contacted me described a musical theater situation in which a part for treble recorder had been erroneously notated as if the recorder were a transposing instrument: the copyist treated the treble as a band/orchestral instrument “in F,” so the player had to use C fingerings to produce the correct pitches.

The reader asks:

Is this notation common practice in Broadway shows? It would seem counter-productive to me; it’s both incorrect notation for the alto recorder and also makes it more difficult to play the part on flute if necessary (as is surely often done). The only questionable benefit would be making it slightly easier for someone who had only played soprano recorder to pick up an alto.

I’d love to hear your experience and opinions on the matter!

I have seen it done both ways. My preference is that recorders are notated with the non-transposing system for the sake of consistency with the existing recorder tradition; it doesn’t make sense to me to put the burden of adaptation on those who have actually made the effort to learn to play recorders properly. But for the sake of accessibility, it might be wise to provide some kind of ossia or cue notes, for recorder dabblers who either haven’t researched the instrument enough to know its tradition or haven’t spent the time in the woodshed to learn both sets of fingerings.

I hope that helps!

Related posts:

1. Understanding woodwind key nomenclature systems
2. Masato Honda plays recorder
3. The woodwind doubler as orchestral utility player

Most woodwind instruments come in several sizes, and a naming system is required for describing the size and pitch of each. The most familiar for players of modern Western woodwinds is that used for (for example) the clarinet and saxophone families, with most of those instruments being described as “in B-flat” or “in E-flat.” However, there are several other systems in use in the larger woodwind family tree. This can be confounding for newcomers to folk, ethnic, and period woodwinds, but I’ll attempt to shed some light on things.

Here are the four primary systems. The names are my own:

• Modern. This system is used for modern Western orchestral/band woodwinds and brasses. In this system, each member of the instrument family (such as all of the clarinets) match a written pitch to a fingering, so that, for example, a written C can be fingered the same way on any of the clarinets, and the actual pitch produced depends on the instrument’s size. (Playing written C, incidentally, produces the sounding pitch for which an instrument is named: Playing “C” on a B-flat clarinet produces a sounding B-flat, “C” on an A clarinet produces a sounding A, and so forth.) This is convenient to the clarinetist, but awkward for composers, copyists, conductors, and others dealing with multiple transpositions. It also leads to oddities such as the lowest contrabass clarinets, like all their clarinet siblings, being notated in treble clef.
• Non-transposing. The recorder family, for example, is always notated at concert pitch. (Or sort of at concert pitch—all the major recorders but the alto [treble] and tenor recorders actually sound an octave higher than written.) This means that a recorder player must actually learn more than one fingering system: all holes closed on a soprano (descant) or tenor recorder produces a C, but all holes closed on a sopranino, alto, or bass produces an F. Therefore, the recorders are non-transposing instruments (disregarding the octave). This system adds an element of difficulty for the recorder player, but greatly simplifies score reading. The bass recorder reads bass clef, which seems intuitive in terms of score notation but is a surprise to modern woodwind players.
• Six-hole. Pennywhistles, so-called “Irish” flutes, and some other simple-system flutes use a naming system based on the note produced when six fingers (the three middle fingers of each hand) cover their respective holes. Thus, a flute whose six-finger note is D is referred to as a D flute. For most modern woodwind players, it’s familiar for this six-finger note to be a written D, but the fact that the six-finger note produces a sounding D makes this flute a concert pitch instrument, or what in modern nomenclature is a “C” instrument.
• Three-hole. This of course works the same way as the six-finger system, except that it is based on the note produced when the three middle fingers of the top hand (usually the left hand) are covering their respective holes. This system is used most notably for bamboo simple-system flutes such as the Indian bansuri and Chinese dizi. Thus a D flute in the six-hole system would be renamed as a G flute in the three-hole system.

For many simple-system woodwinds using six- or three-hole naming systems, there is no well-established standard for writing parts in Western notation. Among the proposed systems, I think the simplest to understand for modern Western woodwind players is to transpose parts so that the six-hole note is always notated as D below the treble clef staff. This puts flutists, oboists, clarinetists, and saxophonists at ease by playing on the similarities in their fingering systems (with a “six-hole” D), and transposes the parts for different sizes of instrument in the way to which modern woodwind players are accustomed.

Okay, let’s try an example. Suppose that you have a simple-system flute (with an embouchure hole and six finger holes that produce a major scale). When all six holes are closed, the sounding pitch is D. Here is how that instrument would be described in each system:

Here’s another example: a simple-system flute with a three-hole note of B-flat.

I hope this information will come in handy for woodwind players who are new to folk, ethnic, and period instruments when reading notated parts (remember, alto recorder uses different fingerings than soprano) or purchasing instruments (remember, a dizi in D isn’t the same size as an Irish flute in D).

I’ve been to conferences of all the other major woodwind organizations in the US (IDRS, ICA, NASA), and here are some things that I think the NFA did exceptionally well:

• Organization and planning. From what I could tell, nearly everything ran smoothly and according to plan.
• Engaging younger players. There were a number of competitions and masterclasses for high school and college students, and a Saturday “Youth Day” for flutists aged 8-13.
• Engaging non-professional flutists. My sense is that the NFA has a stronger amateur contingent than the other organizations, and that they are working to ensure its future.
• Appealing to broad musical interests. In my opinion, the NFA is doing a better job than anyone, including NASA, of integrating jazz into their convention in a serious way, and is integrating historical instruments at least as well as the IDRS. Ethnic flutes also got some good representation. Thursday night’s big feature concert was Baroque flute, and Friday’s was world music. Saturday’s concert was more standard concerto fare, but with a strong jazz representation. Kudos to the NFA for acknowledging that there is life beyond conservatory repertoire lists, and to its members for seeming to genuinely embrace and enjoy the varied offerings.

Like the other major woodwind conferences, the NFA’s is packed with so many events that it’s impossible to get to everything you want to attend. Here are a few personal favorites among the things I saw and heard (in no particular order):

• A panel discussion by John Bailey, Tadeu Coelho, and Terri Sundberg on tone production. An outlook-changing hour.
• A no-nonsense lecture by Lea Pearson about the anatomical realities of breathing. Can you point to where your diaphragm is? Are you sure?
• Rachel Brown‘s performance of the J. S. Bach solo partita on traverso. Lovely.
• A hands-on introduction to the traverso for modern flute players, presented by members of the NFA’s historical flutes committee.
• Genius/madman Trevor Wye‘s very entertaining performance of The Carnival of Venice on 60 “flutes.” The instruments included modern, historical, and world flutes, and various other noisemakers. Some of the instruments, which I presume are Mr. Wye’s creations, included flashing lights and other surprises.
• Omar Faruk Tekbilek‘s spellbinding performance on Turkish ney and zurna. Goosebumps.
• A very practical, doable approach to Baroque ornamentation on historical or modern instruments, presented by Na’ama Lion.
• Nelson Rangell playing absolutely jaw-dropping after-hours jazz flute. Confession: I enjoy his stellar saxophone playing, but when I’m listening to his albums I skip ahead to the flute tracks.
• A rollicking final concert, featuring some jazz, some klezmer, mass choreography, silly hats, a 10-year-old virtuoso, a low flutes trio, and other oddities and hijinks.

I also participated in a panel discussion on woodwind doubling with a few of my heroes. More details to come in a separate blog post.

I was pleased to meet several of you in person who I have been in touch with by email or Twitter! It was great to match up some names with some faces.

Next year’s conference will be held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and NFA President Jonathan Keeble assured us today at the closing concert: “What happens in Vegas, will stay in Vegas.”

View of downtown Charlotte from my hotel room

Group traverso instruction

The lovely Belk Theater, where the evening concerts were held

Trevor Wye playing, I believe, a bicycle pump

Nelson Rangell playing jazz on, yes, a piccolo

Many of those have been saxophone fingerings, and I attribute this to some kind mentions among the saxophone-blogger community (thanks Doron, Eric, David, Neal, Alistair, and Anton!).

Now I’m pleased to announce the new-and-of-course-improved version 0.2. Go take it for a spin, or read on about the new goodies:

• New instruments!
  • Contrabassoon (choose the bassoon fingering diagram, then open the Keywork menu and click “Keys,”, then select the contrabassoon preset)
  • Akai EWI wind controller
  • Yamaha WX5 wind controller
  • Simple endblown woodwinds. Presets include pennywhistle, quena, shakuhachi, Native American flute (5-hole; 6-holed flute diagrams can be made with the pennywhistle preset), duduk, 6- and 8-hole xiao, and (why not?) valved brass instruments.
  • Simple transverse woodwinds. Presets include “simple flute” (which works well for “Irish” flutes, dizi, and many others) and bansuri.
• You can choose your own filenames now. Or just let the FDB continue to automatically give each one a unique number (the numbers are UNIX timestamps, if you care).
• I’m really excited about this one: Dropbox integration. If you’re not already using this amazing and free service to keep your important stuff synchronized between your computer(s) and handheld device(s), then you are seriously missing out. I personally use it approximately one million times per day. And now you can choose to save your fingering diagrams to your own Dropbox instead of downloading them—just log in using the Options menu. This should be an excellent option for iPhone/iPad folks and others who are download-challenged. [Full disclosure: the Dropbox links I've provided are referral links, and if you use them to sign up, we both get some bonus space. You're welcome.]
• Other general interface improvements for users of at least some mobile and touch devices. I think the best user experience for the FDB is still a large screen and a mouse, but I do what I can for you iPhone/iPad people. Note that I am not cool enough to own those devices (I’ve tested on my iPod Touch, though), so I welcome input and bug reports from people who do use them. I could use input from Android users, too.
• Lots of small improvements to the way the fingering diagrams look and behave.
• Lots of small improvements to the way the interface looks and behaves. I also moved around some menu items into places that I think make more sense.
• Some problem fixes for users of Safari 5. Based on my tests using Safari on Windows, I think everything is okay now, but let me know if you run into continued problems, especially Mac users. Thanks, those of you who reported issues with the previous version.
• Since it seems many people want to create blank diagrams showing all the keys, I’ve added a “Blank diagram” button, which instantly turns on all the keys for the current diagram and keywork preset. You can click “Restore defaults” to go back to something cleaner. To find the buttons, open the Keywork menu and click “Keys.”

I regret to say that I still can’t support any version of Internet Explorer. Maybe if I were a good enough programmer I could figure out how to make the problem child behave. In the meantime, I urge you to consider one of the other excellent, free web browsers, and you may just find that your web experience improves in lots of ways.

As always, don’t hesitate to speak up if you’ve got ideas for future versions, or if you run into issues of any kind. You can get through to me by email or Twitter, or leave a comment below.

One more note. It has come to my attention that some people are using the FDB to create and sell basic fingering charts online. I’m not sure why anyone would pay for them, since good ones are easily found for free. But if you’re using the FDB for commercial gain, it seems to me like good form to make use of my “Send me reed money” PayPal link at the bottom of the page. Just pay whatever the FDB is worth to you—I’m not planning to get rich. But your appreciation, as expressed in U.S. dollars, goes a long way toward spurring on future enhancements and new features. Thanks!

• 

  Here, Dr. Coleman models the new flute case cover from Cavallaro, featuring simulated shearling liner and spacious accessory pocket.

  Flutists in the news: NASA astronaut Cady Coleman makes music in outer space.

• Artist Matthias Adolfsson proposes some new members of the woodwind family.
• Musicians can save the world, over at Betsy’s blog.
• Esther at Obohemia explains how to tell the flute, the clarinet, and the oboe apart.
• And this one is from me: some holiday fun with one of Butch Hall‘s amazing Native American flutes. One of the loveliest instruments I own. Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating it.

This project developed from my own need to quickly and easily create fingering diagrams for the woodwind instruments that I play and teach. Frequently I find myself scribbling saxophone altissimo fingerings onto a scrap of paper during a private lesson, cutting-and-pasting at the photocopier to put together simplified charts for a woodwind methods class, or penciling cryptic markings into musical scores to remind myself which pinky finger to use.

And so, I’m pleased to introduce the Fingering diagram builder. I hope you’ll take it for a spin.

[One caveat: it currently doesn't work in any version of Internet Explorer, due to IE's lack of support for SVG graphics. If you're an IE user, I hope you'll consider downloading an excellent, free alternative browser and give the Fingering diagram builder a try anyway.]

Here’s a taste of what the Fingering diagram builder can do.

I created and downloaded this array of some of my favorite F-sharp fingerings in under two minutes (really). Click to see them larger.

flute	oboe	clarinet
bassoon	saxophone	recorder

These six instruments are immediately available, but I hope to add a few more soon. Hit me up with your requests.

Some of the instruments have cool options if you mess around with the “Keywork” toolbar. Here are a few of the most obvious examples:

The oboe chart has English horn keys, too.	The clarinet chart can do bass clarinet.	And the saxophone chart can accomodate a baritone’s low A (or even a soprano with a high G).

The “Options” toolbar lets you resize or customize the look of the diagrams:

Change the line thickness.		Use colors to show trills or optional keys.

The downloaded images are in .PNG format, which means they are compatible with virtually all current word processing, graphics, and music notation software. Plus the file sizes are small, so they can be easily dropped into an email or blog post. (You may have seen some early versions of these fingering diagrams appearing in my own blog over the past year or more.)

I’m interested in your feedback, so let me know if you run into any problems, or if you have an idea how the Fingering diagram builder can be more useful. Leave a comment below, or send me email.

And, be sure to subscribe to the feed so you won’t miss upcoming articles with tips and tricks on using the Fingering diagram builder.

There’s an interesting woodwind-related post by blogger “MarkCC” at Good Math, Bad Math, entitled “My Newest Flute, made of… Plastic?!”

MarkCC recently acquired a new flute of the type used in Irish traditional music, the kind that are most often made of wood. But MarkCC’s is made of polymer, and it sounds like MarkCC has wrestled a little with the issue of whether a plastic flute can really measure up to a wooden one.

But… Plastic?

I’ve seen several acoustic studies that claim that the material the instrument is made of isn’t that important. In a wooden flute, the physics show that the head joint is the only part of the flute that really has a significant influence on its sound. But the head joint of a wooden flute is actually lined with metal. So the wood isn’t really having too much influence on the sound.

As it turns out, MarkCC is something of a doubler, and also plays the clarinet.

Most people (including me) play on mouthpieces made of hard rubber or plastic – so the primary sound-producing piece of the instrument is plastic. The barrel of a wooden clarinet is (obviously) wood, so according to the physics/acoustics, that’s the only piece of wood that actually has any measurable acoustic effect. And the physics of this isn’t sloppy stuff put together by an instrument company trying to sell their plastic clarinets: to the limits of my ability to understand it, it’s good, solid stuff.

And yet, I’ve played a whole lot of clarinets, and by god, there’s nothing like a grenadilla wood clarinet. Even the best clarinet makers, even when I put my wooden barrel on a polymer body, it doesn’t sound the same. Of course, that’s subjective, and we humans are notorious for hearing what we want to hear in a subjective situation. And, by god, I’m a math geek. I’ve seen the math, and it’s correct.

One of the most-linked articles on my blog makes the same point about our expectations about materials coloring our playing experience. It’s worth pointing out, too, that a different barrel made from the same material will also affect the instrument’s sound.

I do think it’s a grey area to refer to a mouthpiece or barrel (or flute headjoint) as “sound-producing.” The instrument’s parts don’t produce any audible musical sound (unless you hit them with drumsticks)—it’s the column of air contained within them that vibrates in a musically useful way.

But MarkCC goes on, I believe, to hit the nail on the head:

But still, I really do believe that my wooden clarinet sounds better than any plastic I’ve ever played. So why? If the math says it shouldn’t, why does it? I’ve never been sure, but my suspicion is that it’s a matter of craftsmanship … you’ve got a very complex shape, and every contour of that shape has an effect. That distinction, the math supports very clearly: change the shape of the body, and you are affecting the waveform of the sound.

…

This sounds like a wood flute. It really does. It sounds better than any of the beaten-up real wooden flutes that I’ve acquired … I think that that’s more a matter of workmanship than material.

MarkCC reviews the new flute (one of these) in some detail, and his review is very positive in terms of sound and playability. For more information:

• Read MarkCC’s original post in its entirety. I’ve taken a few minor liberties with quoting MarkCC out of context, but with the intent to keep his points basically intact. Still, check it out.
• Read my previous articles on woodwind instrument materials
• Check out the M&E polymer flutes that MarkCC reviewed

Steve Gorn on his beginnings as a woodwind player:

I advanced relatively quickly with the clarinet. When I got into eighth or ninth grade I got into a lot of jazz, and I started playing saxophone at that point. Jazz became much more of a focus. I played clarinet in the school orchestra.

On his path toward Indian music:

All through my college years I was drawn to the avant-garde [jazz] style. I was imitating it. I later realized that a musician has to find his own authentic voice. Here I was playing jazz music that largely came out of an African-American culture, something different from the way I was brought up, and looking back at it I thought the best I could do was to try to imitate that. But for some reason, and it doesn’t make sense from a logical point of view, when I got involved in Indian music I found a music where I could really find my own authentic voice.

On teaching:

One can have many relationships in music. I teach some people who are professionals and have aspirations to really work on Indian music as professionals. And I teach other people just because the flute is an accessible kind of instrument. These are people who just want to step outside of themselves and make some music.

My objective, when I give a lesson to a student, is to help them find their own voice. I try to make it as personal as possible, especially if somebody is really interested in really going at it. Then it’s really a delightful journey that will allow their authentic voice to speak through music.

The instruments are mostly ethnic flutes and reeds, though a few modern Western instruments appear as well. Since some of the instruments are Eustache’s own unique creations or modifications [link auto-plays music], it would seem he doesn’t intend for anyone beside himself to perform this piece. Certainly few woodwind players would have the ability to do so, nor to obtain or make the unusual and customized instruments required.

Here are the movements currently available on YouTube.

Mvts. 1-2: Three different bansuri (Indian bamboo flutes).

Mvt. 3: “Oryxophone,” neys (Middle Eastern flutes), mezoued (Tunisian reed instrument), and flute fitted with ney headjoint

Mvt. 4: Duduk (Armenian reed instrument), blul (Armenian flute)

Mvts. 6-7: Soprano saxophone, flute

Mvts. 8-9: Quenacho (South American flute), “double tarka” (customized version of South American flute)

Mvt. 10: Fjitchu (South American flute)

The missing movements include shvis (Armenian flutes), fujara (Slovakian flute), didgeridoo (Australian lip-reed), and apparently vocal percussion. There is some additional information on Eustache’s website and in a Spanish-language concert program. Even if your Spanish isn’t good, it’s worth looking through the program to find the picture of Eustache surrounded by his instruments.

Elsewhere on this website, I list more compositions involving performance on multiple woodwind instruments.

Related posts:

1. Pedro Eustache: ethnic woodwinds
2. Handout from Mid-South Flute 2010 lecture: Folk, ethnic, and period flutes for fun and profit
3. Getting started with ethnic woodwinds: your holiday wish list

• Folk, Ethnic, and Period Flutes for Fun and Profit: A Few Instruments Flutists Should Know