F2 Tuba Fingering
How to play F2 on the tuba: Open — no valves pressed at all. — on the 3rd 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 F2 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 F2 fingering, step by step
- Leave all three valves up — this is an open note. On a tuba the pitch comes from a big, slow column of air and a relaxed buzz: hear the note in your head before you play it, because the open horn alone can speak six different notes.
In short: open — no valves pressed at all.
About F2 on the tuba
The low register runs from the 2nd partial (B♭1, open) through the 3rd partial’s ladder (B1 up to F2). These notes want a large, slow, warm column of air and a relaxed, wide buzz — a tuba is not blown harder down here, it is blown bigger. The two longest combinations, C2 and B1, play sharp and need the slide pull or the lip to bring them home.
F2 is the anchor of the low register — the 3rd partial, open, and the note the six notes below B♭2 are all lowered from. If a low note will not speak, come back to F2, settle the buzz here, and step down again.
F2 is note 8 of the 25 in the full tuba fingering chart, sitting between E2 below it and G♭2 above it. Like every fingering on this site, it was checked against Yamaha’s official chart and the NoteAtlas tuba chart before publishing.
Practising F2
Low notes speak with slow air and an open throat — think of fogging a window on a huge scale. If this note cracks upward, your lips found the partial above: drop your jaw, slow the air down, and let the note settle rather than pushing it.
Questions about F2
What is the fingering for F2 on tuba?
Open — no valves pressed at all. F2 is played on the 3rd partial (harmonic) of the BB♭ tuba in the low 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 F2 sound as written on tuba?
Yes. In bass clef the tuba is a non-transposing instrument, so written F2 sounds as concert F2 — 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 F2?
For F2, 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.