This article will give you the standard tuba and euphonium fingering charts. It also provides some commentary on why they work to help you understand them.
I’ll use a non-standard set of charts that build in concept rather than giving all the charts in one giant block.
This should help you understand new fingerings when you don’t have a chart available and will help you work out good alternate fingerings.
How to Read the Fingering Charts
Fingerings are given below with the standard notation of “1, 2, 3, 4.” A 1 means press the valve down under your “first finger,” otherwise known as your index finger.
A 2 means the “second valve,” otherwise known as the valve under your middle finger. The 3 means your ring finger, and the 4 means the fourth valve, if you have one.
So, the notation for a low E given by 1-2-3 means press down the first, second, and third valves.
The notation of 0 means a totally open fingering (no valves pressed down).
Basic Three Valve Euphonium Fingering Chart
If you’re just getting started or learning some new notes, you probably just want the basic chart.
I’ll still urge you to read further down about partials and alternate fingerings.
The sooner you start to understand these things, the better.
Basic Three-Valve Tuba Fingering Chart
Notes on Partials
Brass instruments work by producing a distinct set of notes over top of a fundamental for each length of tubing. This is called the overtone series.
You may have noticed that fingerings repeat in the above fingering charts.
For example, the open fingering on euphonium has a fundamental as B-flat, and then all the other notes in the overtone series can be produced with the same fingering.
A valve instrument changes the length of tubing by pressing a set of valves down.
A good concept to remember is that the collection of notes made by pressing down a valve combination is the same as the overtone series above just shifted down. This is because changing the number of valves down moves the fundamental.
The length of tubing gets gradually longer in the following pattern:
- 0
- 2
- 1
- 1-2
- 2-3
- 1-3
- 1-2-3
It’s good to look at your instrument and convince yourself of this and then look back to the chart to understand the pattern.
The third valve length is a tiny bit longer than 1-2, but they produce the same notes.
I’ve put the high A-flat in parentheses because it is theoretically part of the overtone series, but it cannot be played in tune or with clarity with no valves pressed down.
All of the notes between two sets of open fingerings are called a partial.
For example, the low B-flat to the next B-flat up is called the second
Tuning Issues
It turns out that the overtone series doesn’t produce notes as we think of them in our standard Western 12-note scale system (equal temperament).
Some of the notes are pretty close, and others are very far off. The earlier you start learning this, the better. It will take quite a bit of time and practice to become natural.
Every instrument will be slightly different, but the general trends are the same. It’s just a basic fact that comes from the math behind the physics of sound.
Here’s some of the ones to get used to.
Third Partial:
This is known as the third
These notes will naturally be a little sharp.
Fifth Partial:
The fifth partial is when you play these notes with the given fingerings (again down an octave for tuba). The fifth partial is quite low and these might require alternate fingerings on your instrument.
Note: Alternate fingerings just change the partial you are in.
Seventh Partial:
The seventh partial is extremely flat to the point that I put parentheses around it in the first position chart. You should never play any of the seventh partial notes as written.
Each partial has its own tendencies, and each instrument is slightly different. But knowing these three tendencies already puts you into advanced low brass technique.
For more information, check out my article on intonation.
What is the Fourth Valve?
You may be wondering why I’ve put the fourth valve so far down in this article when it’s such a common thing.
The fourth valve basically exists to give you a set of tube lengths that help you fix the problems mentioned in the previous section on partials and tuning.
Now, you could just memorize the fingering charts with a fourth valve, but I think it’s much better to understand it.
The fourth valve gives roughly the same length of tubing as the 1-3 combination. But the low C played with 1-3 is extremely sharp, so the fourth valve is actually a longer tubing length to fix this.
Now that you know this, you don’t have to memorize anything. Any time you used to play 1-3, you can replace this with 4.
In practice, this only affects a couple of low notes. Low E is played 2-4 instead of 1-2-3, low F is played 4 instead of 1-3, low B-natural is played 2-4 instead of 1-2-3, and low C is played 4 instead of 1-3.
If your eyes just glazed over with confusion, I strongly urge you to keep thinking about this until it makes sense (or consult the fingering charts below).
The fourth valve also allows you to extend the length of tubing with combinations not possible before, like 1-2-4. This opens up an extended range of notes not possible on a three-valve instrument in the second partial.
Four Valve Euphonium Fingering Chart
All the notes above this are the same as the three-valve chart above.
The extended notes are a bit more complicated because it will depend on whether your instrument has compensating valves. Here are the extended notes with non-compensating valves on top and compensating on bottom:
I’ll stick in a cautionary note that everything in this range is in flux, depending on the instrument. Double check with a tuner. Non-compensating horns can technically “play” the B-natural with 1-2-3-4 and then lipping it down.
Four Valve Tuba Fingering Chart
All the notes above this are the same as the three-valve chart above.
The extended notes are a bit more complicated because it will depend on whether your instrument has compensating valves. Here are the extended notes with non-compensating valves (since most B-flat tubas are non-compensating):
I’ll stick in a cautionary note that everything in this range is in flux, depending on the instrument. Double check with a tuner. Non-compensating horns can technically “play” the B-natural with 1-2-3-4 and then lipping it down or pulling out a slide.
If you’re at the level that you’re doing this, you probably don’t need this chart, though.
Common Alternate Fingerings
I’m assuming that you found this page because you don’t have a lot of experience with fingerings. I’ll stick to the two most common alternate fingerings.
One of the best exercises you can do is to check your tuning of every note with a tuner and then experiment with alternate fingerings. Every instrument is different.
You’ll also learn a lot when you start to notice the trends of your instrument.
As I pointed out
High G is normally quite sharp, and so people bring the note down by playing it with the third valve instead of 1-2.
