D5 Flute Fingering
How to play D5 on the flute: Thumb key · left hand 2-3 · right hand 1-2-3.
Filled keys in the diagram are the ones you press. The two levers at the top left are the thumb keys; the three keys along the bottom are the foot-joint keys, worked by the right pinky — the same pinky that holds the E♭ key on most notes. Piccolo players: this fingering is identical on piccolo and sounds an octave higher.
Hear D5 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 D5 fingering, step by step
- Put your left thumb on the thumb key (the B lever is its home position).
- Left hand: press keys 2, 3.
- Right hand: press keys 1, 2, 3.
- Keep your right pinky off the E♭ key for this note — it is one of the few notes played with the pinky lifted.
In short: thumb key · left hand 2-3 · right hand 1-2-3.
About D5 on the flute
The middle register mostly repeats the low register’s fingerings with a faster, better-aimed air stream — the flute overblows at the octave, so the fingers often do not change at all. The genuinely new shapes are the two Ds and the two Cs at the top of the register.
D5 vents through the lifted left index finger — that open key is what makes the second-octave D speak instead of dropping to the low octave. Like D4, it is played with the right pinky off the E♭ key.
D5 is note 15 of the 37 in the full flute fingering chart, sitting between C♯5 below it and E♭5 above it. Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against Yamaha’s official chart and the Woodwind Fingering Guide before publishing.
Practising D5
If this note drops to its low-octave partner, the answer is almost never a different fingering — it is air speed and angle. Aim the air slightly higher and speed it up before you change anything with your fingers.
Questions about D5
What is the fingering for D5 on flute?
Thumb key · left hand 2-3 · right hand 1-2-3. D5 is a middle register note. The full step-by-step is on this page, and you can hear the note with the Fingering Finder.
What does D5 sound like on a flute?
Exactly as written: D5. The flute is not a transposing instrument, so the note you finger is the note that sounds. On piccolo, the same fingering sounds one octave higher, as D6.
Is there an alternate fingering for D5?
For D5, 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.