Fingering Guides

A fingering guide teaches what a chart cannot: how to read the diagrams, which notes to learn first, why your alto sax sounds in E♭, and how to practise when the instrument is not in your hands. These twelve guides are the teaching layer of this site — written for students, parents and band teachers, and built on the same checked fingerings as the charts.

Start here

New to all of this? How to read a fingering chart explains every symbol the charts use — filled and open holes, half holes, pinky keys, slide positions — in about ten minutes. From there, the First 5 Notes guides take one instrument at a time: clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet and recorder.

All twelve guides

How to Read a Fingering ChartA fingering chart looks like a secret code the first time you see one: rows of circles, some black, some white…First 5 Notes on ClarinetYour first five clarinet notes are not the first five notes of the scale, and they are not in alphabetical ord…First 5 Notes on FluteFlute beginners start in the middle of the instrument, not at the bottom. Your first five notes are B, A, G, F…First 5 Notes on SaxophoneThe saxophone is the kindest instrument a beginner can pick, and its first five notes show why: B, A, G, F and…First 5 Notes on TrumpetTrumpet fingerings are the easiest in the band to memorise — three valves, a handful of combinations — and the…First 5 Notes on RecorderThe recorder is where millions of people play their first instrument, and its first five notes are a mastercla…Recorder in the ClassroomThirty recorders in thirty beginners' hands is the loudest pedagogical challenge in primary music — and also o…Why Your Alto Sax Sounds in E♭Play the note written as C on an alto saxophone, with the fingering for C, reading music that says C — and a p…How to Print and Use Fingering Charts in ClassA fingering chart taped to the band-room wall is either a teaching tool or wallpaper, and the difference is se…The Three B♭ Fingerings ExplainedAsk a room of saxophonists how to play B♭ and you will start an argument, because B♭ is the one note in the fi…How to Practise Fingerings Without Your InstrumentEvery musician has dead time: the bus, the waiting room, the lesson that starts in twenty minutes, the week th…Choosing a First InstrumentSomewhere this term, a child will come home with a letter about school band, and a parent will type some versi…

For the classroom

Three guides are written for teachers first: Recorder in the Classroom (the first six weeks, honestly assessed), How to Print and Use Fingering Charts in Class (wall charts, worksheets and exit tickets) and Choosing a First Instrument (the parent conversation, with real prices). They pair with the printable fingering charts and the For Teachers page.

Browse by instrument family

Prefer to start from the instruments themselves? The woodwind fingering guide collects the clarinet, flute, saxophone, oboe, bassoon and recorder charts in one place, and the brass fingering charts do the same for trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba and euphonium.

What is a fingering guide?

On this site, a guide is the teaching layer around the charts: how to read a chart, how to learn your first notes, how transposition works, and how to use the printables in a real classroom. The charts give the fingerings; the guides teach the thinking.

Are the guides free?

Yes — every guide is free to read, and teachers may link to them from class pages and school sites. The printable charts the guides mention are free PDFs as well.

Which guide should a beginner start with?

How to Read a Fingering Chart first — ten minutes there makes every chart on the site easier. Then pick the First 5 Notes guide for your instrument and work through it with the instrument in your hands.

Do the guides use the same fingerings as the charts?

Yes. Every fingering named in a guide comes from the same checked data as the charts — no guide teaches a fingering the chart does not show.