Tuba Fingering Chart
Every note on the school BB♭ tuba, from low B♭1 to B♭3 — with a valve diagram, the fingering written out in words, and the harmonic each note sits on. This is a three-valve chart: the fingerings below use valves 1, 2 and 3 only, exactly as on a standard school tuba or sousaphone. In bass clef the tuba reads at concert pitch, so every note sounds exactly as written.
Find a note fast
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.
Low register — the tuning-note octave
| Note | On the staff (bass clef) | Fingering | In words | Sounds as (concert) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B♭1 | Open — no valves pressed at all. | B♭1 | ||
| B1 | Valves 1 + 2 + 3 pressed. | B1 | ||
| C2 | Valves 1 + 3 pressed. | C2 | ||
| D♭2 | Valves 2 + 3 pressed. | D♭2 | ||
| D2 | Valves 1 + 2 pressed. | D2 | ||
| E♭2 | Valve 1 pressed. | E♭2 | ||
| E2 | Valve 2 pressed. | E2 | ||
| F2 | Open — no valves pressed at all. | F2 |
Middle register — the heart of the staff
| Note | On the staff (bass clef) | Fingering | In words | Sounds as (concert) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G♭2 | Valves 2 + 3 pressed. | G♭2 | ||
| G2 | Valves 1 + 2 pressed. | G2 | ||
| A♭2 | Valve 1 pressed. | A♭2 | ||
| A2 | Valve 2 pressed. | A2 | ||
| B♭2 | Open — no valves pressed at all. | B♭2 | ||
| B2 | Valves 1 + 2 pressed. Alternate: Valve 3 pressed. |
B2 | ||
| C3 | Valve 1 pressed. Alternate: Valves 1 + 3 pressed. |
C3 | ||
| D♭3 | Valve 2 pressed. | D♭3 | ||
| D3 | Open — no valves pressed at all. Alternate: Valves 1 + 2 pressed. |
D3 |
High register — up to B♭3
| Note | On the staff (bass clef) | Fingering | In words | Sounds as (concert) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E♭3 | Valve 1 pressed. | E♭3 | ||
| E3 | Valve 2 pressed. | E3 | ||
| F3 | Open — no valves pressed at all. | F3 | ||
| G♭3 | Valves 2 + 3 pressed. | G♭3 | ||
| G3 | Valves 1 + 2 pressed. | G3 | ||
| A♭3 | Valve 1 pressed. | A♭3 | ||
| A3 | Valve 2 pressed. | A3 | ||
| B♭3 | Open — no valves pressed at all. | B♭3 |
Seven combinations, six open notes, one enormous tube
A BB♭ tuba is roughly eighteen feet of conical tubing — the longest tube in the band — and like every valved brass instrument it runs on seven valve combinations: open, 2, 1, 1+2, 2+3, 1+3 and 1+2+3. Valve 2 lowers any note a semitone, valve 1 a whole step, and the combinations add those steps up. What the valves cannot do is choose the pitch: each combination is a complete harmonic series, and your lips and air pick which note of the series speaks. The open horn alone plays six notes in this chart — B♭1 (2nd partial), F2 (3rd), B♭2 (4th), D3 (5th), F3 (6th) and B♭3 (8th) — with no fingers moving at all. Every note page names its partial as well as its valves, because on a tuba the partial is half the fingering.
The low register is built downwards from F
Below B♭2, the chart is organised around F2, the 3rd partial. The six notes under it — E2, E♭2, D2, D♭2, C2 and B1 — are that one open note lowered step by step through all six remaining valve combinations, ending at B1 with everything down. Two things follow. First, the pattern is perfectly regular down here: there are no surprise fingerings in the low register. Second, the bottom two notes of that ladder, C2 (1+3) and B1 (1+2+3), use the longest combinations and therefore play sharp — combined valve slides are always a little too short. Every tuba player manages this: lip the notes down, pull the first valve slide, or use a fourth valve if the instrument has one.
Three valves or four? Read this before you worry
School tubas usually have three valves; many step-up and all professional tubas have four (and a few have five). This chart is deliberately a three-valve chart, because that is the instrument in school band rooms — and because mixing the two systems in one table is how fingering charts go wrong. If your tuba has a fourth valve, you do not need a different chart. Yamaha's official chart prints the fourth-valve options in brackets, and the rule is the same one every method book gives: play valve 4 wherever this chart shows 1+3 (in this range: C2, and F1 an octave below the chart) and valves 2+4 wherever it shows 1+2+3 (in this range: B1). Valve 4 makes the same interval as 1+3 — a perfect fourth — but in tune, because its single slide is cut to the full length. The fourth valve also opens the chromatic notes below E1, down toward the pedal B♭0, which a three-valve tuba cannot reach; those notes are below this chart's range. Five-valve and compensating instruments refine the same low notes further — their fingerings vary by make and model, which is why Yamaha itself tells players to consult their teacher for them, and why this site does not print them.
Which tuba is this chart for?
The BB♭ tuba — the standard school and community-band instrument — and the sousaphone, which is a BB♭ tuba wrapped to be carried and takes exactly the same fingerings. Other tubas are different instruments with different open series: an E♭ tuba's open notes sit a fourth higher, and C (CC) and F tubas — the professional orchestral instruments — have their own charts again. If your part is in bass clef and your instrument is the big one at the back of the band, this is your chart. One honest limit: B♭1 is not the bottom of the instrument. The open series continues below it (A1, A♭1, G1, G♭1, F1 and E1, all on the 2nd partial with the same ladder of combinations), and below E1 lie the pedal tones. This chart covers the range the plan of school music actually uses, B♭1 to B♭3, and says so rather than padding itself with notes beginners are never asked for.
A sensible way to practise from this chart
Learn the open notes first — B♭1, F2, B♭2 — until your lips can find each one without the valves changing; on a tuba, most wrong notes are the right fingering aimed at the wrong partial. Then learn each partial's ladder as a family: play F2 and step down through E2 to B1 without changing your embouchure more than you must. Practise the sharp pair, C2 and B1, against a tuner early, so the slide pull (or the fourth valve, if you have one) becomes part of the fingering rather than a repair. And give the lowest notes time: B♭1 sounds at about 58 vibrations a second, it needs a lot of slow air, and it will not be hurried.
Sources
Every fingering in this chart was checked against two independent references: Yamaha's official B♭ tuba fingering chart (Musical Instrument Guide — an overtone-series chart with the valve numbers printed under every note) and the NoteAtlas tuba fingering chart. The two sources agree on all 25 main fingerings in this chart. Yamaha's chart prints its fourth-valve options in brackets under three notes of this range; those are covered in the three-valves-or-four section above rather than mixed into a three-valve chart. The three alternates shown on the note pages (for B2, C3 and D3) are the ones Yamaha's chart itself brackets, and each matches an alternate the NoteAtlas chart describes.
Tuba fingering questions
How many notes are in this tuba fingering chart?
Twenty-five — the standard school range of the BB♭ tuba, from low B♭1 up to B♭3, every chromatic note in between. A three-valve tuba plays further down than B♭1 (the same open series continues to E1, and pedal tones lie below that), and professionals play higher than B♭3 — but B♭1 to B♭3 is the range school and community band parts actually use, and the range both reference charts cover in full.
Is this chart for a 3-valve or a 4-valve tuba?
Three valves — the standard school tuba, and the sousaphone. Every diagram in this chart uses valves 1, 2 and 3 only. If your tuba has a fourth valve, the conversion is simple and is explained on this page: play valve 4 wherever the chart shows 1+3, and valves 2+4 wherever it shows 1+2+3. Those two swaps are the only differences in this range.
What does the fourth valve on a tuba actually do?
Valve 4 lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth on its own — exactly the interval that valves 1+3 make together — but in tune, because one long valve slide can be cut to the correct length where two shorter slides added together always come out short. It also extends the range below E1 toward the pedal B♭, which a three-valve tuba cannot reach chromatically.
Why does the tuba not transpose, when the trumpet does?
Tradition, mostly: tuba parts have always been written at sounding pitch in bass clef, so written B♭1 sounds as B♭1 and a tuba player reading a concert B♭ scale simply plays B♭, C, D. The "BB♭" in the instrument’s name only says which key the open tube is built in — it does not shift the written music the way it does for trumpet or clarinet. (One exception: old British brass-band parts sometimes print the tuba in treble clef, where it does transpose — modern parts are in bass clef.)
Why do low C and low B sound sharp on my tuba?
Because they use the longest valve combinations — 1+3 for C2 and 1+2+3 for B1 — and combined valve tubing is always proportionally too short, so the notes run sharp by design. On a three-valve tuba you lip them down and pull the first valve slide; on a four-valve tuba you use the fourth-valve fingerings (4 for C2, 2+4 for B1), which are built to the right length.
Can I print this tuba fingering chart?
Yes — use the print button above the chart. The printed version keeps the full table with a valve diagram for every note, sized to read at arm’s length on a music stand.