A♭3 Tuba Fingering
How to play A♭3 on the tuba: Valve 1 pressed. — on the 8th partial, in bass clef, sounding exactly as written.
Filled valves in the diagram are the ones you press. Valve 1 is nearest you and is worked by your right index finger, valve 2 by the middle finger, and valve 3 — nearest the bell — by the ring finger. These are three-valve fingerings for the BB♭ tuba; the staff is in bass clef, and in bass clef the tuba sounds exactly as written. The same fingering serves the sousaphone.
Hear A♭3 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 A♭3 fingering, step by step
- Press valve 1 with your right index finger — press it straight down, all the way, with the pad of the finger. Half-pressed valves leak, and on a tuba a leak means a gargly, unfocused note.
- Keep the fingers you are not using curved and resting lightly on their valve caps, ready for the next note.
In short: valve 1 pressed.
About A♭3 on the tuba
The high register rides the 6th partial (E♭3, E3, F3) and then the 8th (G♭3 to B♭3), stepping clean over the unusable 7th partial. The fingerings up here are short ones — open, 2, 1, 1+2, 2+3 — and accuracy comes from hearing the exact partial before you play, because the rungs of the ladder are close together now.
A♭3 is the note students most often try to play open, because the flat 7th partial sounds almost like it. Almost is the problem: it sits about a third of a semitone low and cannot be lipped up credibly. Valve 1, on the 8th partial, is the real fingering — both reference charts are explicit about it.
A♭3 is note 23 of the 25 in the full tuba fingering chart, sitting between G3 below it and A3 above it. Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against Yamaha’s official chart and the NoteAtlas tuba chart before publishing.
Practising A♭3
High notes on a tuba still need volume of air, not pressure: keep the air moving in a big column and let the aperture do the aiming. Practise this note in short bursts, approaching by slur from the open note a partial below.
Questions about A♭3
What is the fingering for A♭3 on tuba?
Valve 1 pressed. A♭3 is played on the 8th partial (harmonic) of the BB♭ tuba in the high register, with the three-valve fingerings this site charts. The full step-by-step is on this page, and you can hear the note with the Fingering Finder.
Does A♭3 sound as written on tuba?
Yes. In bass clef the tuba is a non-transposing instrument, so written A♭3 sounds as concert A♭3 — the same pitch a piano plays. The same fingering also serves the sousaphone, which is a BB♭ tuba wrapped for marching.
Is there an alternate fingering for A♭3?
For A♭3, 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.