F3 Bassoon Fingering
How to play F3 on the bassoon: Whisper 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 F3 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 F3 fingering, step by step
- Press the whisper key with your left thumb and keep it down for the whole note. It is the bassoon’s register vent: it helps this register speak cleanly, but unlike a clarinet register key it does not choose the register for you — the fingering does that.
In short: whisper key.
About F3 on the bassoon
The first octave is the bassoon’s foundation, and it is built from the left thumb upwards. The five lowest notes keep both hands fully down while the thumb’s low keys let go one at a time; the whisper key joins at E2 and stays; and the register tops out at F3, the whisper-key-only note with every finger raised. Almost everything above is one of these shapes with a vent changed — a partial hole, a flick, a pinky key — so this register repays slow, exact learning.
F3 has the emptiest fingering on the bassoon: the whisper key, and nothing else — every finger up, every other key open. Beginners routinely refuse to believe it and go hunting for a finger to add; both reference charts print it exactly this way. It is the top of the first octave and the purest demonstration that on the bassoon the register lives in the vents and the air, not in how many fingers are down.
F3 is note 20 of the 37 in the full bassoon fingering chart, sitting between E3 below it and F♯3 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 F3
Low bassoon notes need slow, supported air and sealed pads. Practise the B♭1-to-D2 ladder as a thumb exercise: hands still, thumb releasing one low key at a time, listening for each note to speak without a bump. If a note will not start, check the reed and the boot-joint pads before blaming your fingers.
Questions about F3
What is the fingering for F3 on bassoon?
Whisper key. F3 is a first 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 F3 sound like on a bassoon?
Exactly F3 — the bassoon is a non-transposing instrument that reads at concert pitch in the bass clef, so written F3 sounds as concert F3. When your conductor asks for a concert F3, this is the note you finger.
Is there an alternate fingering for F3?
For F3, 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.