A4 Bassoon Fingering
How to play A4 on the bassoon: Left thumb C♯ key · A flick key held down · left hand 1-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 3.
Filled keys and holes in the diagram are the ones you press or cover, and a part-filled first hole is partly covered — a quarter, a half or three quarters, exactly as the fingering states. The column down the left is the left thumb’s nine keys: the whisper key at the top, then the C♯ key, the three flick keys and the four low keys; a dashed flick key is touched only as the note starts, then released. Below them sit the left pinky’s E♭ and C♯ keys — drawn as two keys, because on the instrument they are two. The columns on the right are the right thumb’s four keys and the right pinky’s three, and the narrow key between the right hand’s second and third holes is the sliver B♭ key.
Hear A4 and try the fingering
Pick an instrument and a note and the diagram updates instantly — filled keys are the ones you press. The same finder sits on every note page, pre-set to that note.
The A4 fingering, step by step
- Press the C♯ key with your left thumb — the separate thumb key that sits apart from the low row and the flick keys.
- Keep the A flick key pressed down with your left thumb for the whole note. Up in this register the flick key stops being an attack aid and becomes part of the fingering itself.
- Cover hole 1 with your left index finger.
- Cover hole 2 with your left middle finger.
- Cover hole 3 with your left ring finger. The third left-hand hole is closed by a ring key rather than a plain hole — your finger presses the ring and the pad seals the hole.
- Press the E♭ key with your left pinky — the upper of the two separate pinky keys on the long joint. (Some charts draw the E♭ and C♯ pinky keys as one merged shape; on the instrument they are two keys, and this note uses E♭.)
- Cover hole 3 with your right ring finger.
In short: left thumb C♯ key · A flick key held down · left hand 1-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 3.
About A4 on the bassoon
The third octave is the bassoon’s top register in the basic charts — five notes, each assembled individually. The left index finger leaves its hole or half-covers it, the left pinky’s E♭ key anchors almost every fingering, the whisper key survives only on G4, and at the top the flick key returns in its second job, held down as part of the fingering. Above B♭4, fingerings stop being standard at all.
A4 is where the flick key changes jobs. At A3 the A flick was a dashed key — tapped at the attack and released. Here it is drawn filled and held for the whole note, part of the fingering itself, alongside the C♯ thumb key and the E♭ pinky key. Same key, opposite treatment, one octave apart: the clearest example on the instrument of why the diagrams distinguish flicked from held.
A4 is note 36 of the 37 in the full bassoon fingering chart, sitting between G♯4 below it and B♭4 above it.
Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against Yamaha’s Musical Instrument Guide bassoon chart, the Woodwind Fingering Guide’s bassoon charts and the First 5 Notes bassoon chart before publishing.
Practising A4
Third-octave notes need firm, fast air and a still embouchure — biting makes them sharper, not surer. Check each one against a tuner, learn whether your own bassoon prefers the published alternate where one exists, and keep the left pinky’s E♭ key relaxed: it is down for most of this register and a tense pinky slows everything else.
Questions about A4
What is the fingering for A4 on bassoon?
Left thumb C♯ key · A flick key held down · left hand 1-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 3. A4 is a third octave note on the bassoon. The full step-by-step is on this page, and you can hear the note with the Fingering Finder.
What does A4 sound like on a bassoon?
Exactly A4 — the bassoon is a non-transposing instrument that reads at concert pitch in the bass clef, so written A4 sounds as concert A4. When your conductor asks for a concert A4, this is the note you finger.
Is there an alternate fingering for A4?
For A4, the fingering above is the one to learn. It is the basic fingering the reference charts agree on for this note, and the one teachers expect to see.
Think this fingering is wrong? Report it — every report is checked against the source charts.