G4 Bassoon Fingering
How to play G4 on the bassoon: Whisper key · left hand 1 (half-covered)-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 1 · 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 G4 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 G4 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.
- Cover only half of the first hole with your left index finger: slide the finger up the key so the stated fraction of the hole stays open. This partial hole is the bassoon’s vent for this note — the exact fraction matters, so find it by ear against a tuner.
- 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.
- Press the F key with your right pinky.
In short: whisper key · left hand 1 (half-covered)-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 1 · right pinky F key.
About G4 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.
G4 is the third octave’s exception: the only note up here that keeps the whisper key, paired with the half-covered first hole it used an octave below at G3. Every other third-octave fingering in the chart drops the whisper key — one more sign that in this register the bassoon’s fingerings are assembled note by note, not generated by a single rule.
G4 is note 34 of the 37 in the full bassoon fingering chart, sitting between F♯4 below it and G♯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 G4
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 G4
What is the fingering for G4 on bassoon?
Whisper key · left hand 1 (half-covered)-2-3 · left pinky E♭ key · right hand 1 · right pinky F key. G4 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 G4 sound like on a bassoon?
Exactly G4 — the bassoon is a non-transposing instrument that reads at concert pitch in the bass clef, so written G4 sounds as concert G4. When your conductor asks for a concert G4, this is the note you finger.
Is there an alternate fingering for G4?
For G4, 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.