G5 Saxophone Fingering

How to play G5 on the saxophone: Octave key · left hand 1-2-3. This fingering is the same on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophone — only the sounding pitch differs.

OctFront FDE♭FPalmBisSideG♯C♯BB♭Left pinkyE♭CRight pinky
Written pitch: G5 Register: Middle On alto (E♭): sounds B♭4 On tenor (B♭): sounds F4 On soprano (B♭): sounds F5 On baritone (E♭): sounds B♭3

Filled keys in the diagram are the ones you press. The small key marked "Oct" is the octave key, worked by the left thumb; the three keys at the top right are the palm keys; the three small keys down the right side are the side keys; and the clusters at the bottom are the pinky keys.

Hear G5 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 G5 fingering, step by step

  1. Press the octave key with your left thumb — it stays down for the whole middle and high registers.
  2. Left hand: press keys 1, 2, 3.

In short: octave key · left hand 1-2-3.

About G5 on the saxophone

The middle register repeats the low register’s fingerings with the left thumb on the octave key and a faster air stream. Learn it as "the low fingering plus the thumb" and only a handful of notes — the palm-key approach at the top — are genuinely new shapes.

G5 is note 22 of the 32 in the full saxophone fingering chart, sitting between F♯5 below it and G♯5 above it. The same fingering serves the whole family — see it with each instrument’s own concert pitches on the alto sax, tenor sax, soprano sax and baritone sax chart pages. Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against Yamaha’s official chart and the Woodwind Fingering Guide before publishing.

Practising G5

If this note drops to its low-register partner, the octave key is the first thing to check: the thumb must be pressing it cleanly, and the neck’s octave pad must be opening. Then think air speed, not force.

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F♯5

Questions about G5

What is the fingering for G5 on saxophone?

Octave key · left hand 1-2-3. G5 is a middle register note, fingered identically on soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophone. The full step-by-step is on this page, and you can hear the note with the Fingering Finder.

What does G5 sound like on each saxophone?

Written G5 sounds as concert B♭4 on alto saxophone, concert F4 on tenor, concert F5 on soprano and concert B♭3 on baritone. The alto and baritone are E♭ instruments; the tenor and soprano are B♭ instruments — the fingering is the same on all four, only the sounding pitch changes.

Is there an alternate fingering for G5?

For G5, 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.