A4 Clarinet Fingering
How to play A4 on the clarinet: A throat key.
Filled keys and holes in the diagram are the ones you press or cover. The thumb hole is on the back of the clarinet, so it is drawn to the left; the small cluster at the bottom is the pinky keys.
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 A throat key — one of the two small keys at the top of the upper joint, worked by the left hand.
In short: a throat key.
About A4 on the clarinet
The throat tones are played at the top of the upper joint with very few fingers down. They are easy to finger and hard to make beautiful — with so little of the instrument involved, air support does most of the work.
A4 is note 18 of the 42 in the full clarinet 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 official chart and the Woodwind Fingering Guide before publishing.
Practising A4
Practise this note long and slow. Throat tones need firm air support and a stable embouchure to stay in tune, because so few fingers are helping.
Questions about A4
What is the fingering for A4 on clarinet?
A throat key. A4 is a throat register note. 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 clarinet?
The clarinet is a transposing instrument in B♭, so written A4 sounds one whole step lower, as concert G4. When your band director asks for a concert G4, 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 both reference charts give 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.