Piper's SongbookHow to play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on recorder
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (the main theme) uses 8 notes on the soprano recorder: B, A, G, high C, F♯, low E, F and G♯. The first line goes C′ A C′ B G♯ A G G G.
- Notes
- 8: B, A, G, high C, F♯, low E, F, G♯
- Level
- Cross fingerings
- Time
- 2/4, about 80 beats a minute
- Source
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker, 1892
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy recorder notes with letters
Each box is one note, with its fingering underneath: filled holes are covered, a half-filled hole is half covered or pinched. Wider boxes are longer notes. A ′ mark means the higher octave, so D′ is high D. Bar lines are drawn as thin rules.
Line 1
Line 2
Letters only, for printing or copying
- (rest) C′ A C′ B | G♯ A G G G
- F♯ F♯ F♯ F F F | E A F A E (rest)
Sheet music
Written pitch for soprano recorder, which sounds an octave higher. Press play to hear it on a recorder sound; the slow setting plays at 60% speed.
Fingerings for the notes in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Hole 0 is the thumb hole on the back. Holes 1 to 3 are for the left hand, 4 to 7 for the right. These are Baroque (English) fingerings.
How to practise it
After the G♯ and A in the second bar, the tune slides down by half steps: three Gs, three F♯s, three Fs, each group short, short, long. On a Baroque recorder G♯ and F are both cross fingerings, so practise G, F♯, F slowly until each change moves only the fingers it needs.
Learn one line at a time. Play it slowly until every note is clean, then join it to the next line.
About the tune
The dance comes from Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg in December 1892. The tune is played on the celesta, a keyboard instrument with a bell-like sound that Auguste Mustel invented in Paris in 1886.
Questions
Is Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy easy on recorder?
It is an intermediate piece. It uses cross fingerings or half holes, so learn those notes on their own first.
What notes do you need for Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on recorder?
B, A, G, high C, F♯, low E, F and G♯. Tap a note to see its fingering on its own page.
Do these fingerings work on a German recorder?
Mostly. F♯ and F are fingered differently on a German recorder; the diagrams above are Baroque, and the linked note pages show both. A recorder whose hole 4 is smaller than hole 5 is Baroque.
More recorder songs
Notes checked against the melody of the 1918 Schirmer piano duet edition (arranged by E. Langer), transposed to A minor. No second independent score was found to compare it with. Last checked 6 October 2026.