B♭4 Bassoon Fingering
How to play B♭4 on the bassoon: Left thumb C♯ key · A flick key held down · left hand 1-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 1-2 · right pinky F key.
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 B♭4 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 B♭4 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 1 with your right index finger.
- Cover hole 2 with your right middle finger.
- Press the F key with your right pinky.
In short: left thumb C♯ key · A flick key held down · left hand 1-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 1-2 · right pinky F key.
About B♭4 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.
B♭4 is the top of this chart and the top of the bassoon’s standard basic range: the held A flick key again, the C♯ thumb key, and the right pinky’s F key completing a fingering that uses both thumbs and both pinkies. Above B♭4 the fingerings stop being standard — they diverge between makers and individual instruments — so this is where the chart honestly stops, and your teacher’s fingerings for your own bassoon take over.
B♭4 is note 37 of the 37 in the full bassoon fingering chart, sitting between A4 below 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 B♭4
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 B♭4
What is the fingering for B♭4 on bassoon?
Left thumb C♯ key · A flick key held down · left hand 1-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 1-2 · right pinky F key. B♭4 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 B♭4 sound like on a bassoon?
Exactly B♭4 — the bassoon is a non-transposing instrument that reads at concert pitch in the bass clef, so written B♭4 sounds as concert B♭4. When your conductor asks for a concert B♭4, this is the note you finger.
Is there an alternate fingering for B♭4?
For B♭4, 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.