Oboe

F4 on the Oboe

Written F4. Tap the diagram to hear it.

F4
Beginner note
Written F4 on the treble staff

The regular F: left hand down, right index finger, and the F key pressed by the right ring finger instead of hole 6. The forked F (index and ring, no F key) is the one to use coming from or going to D, E♭ or C, and the left F lever avoids the problem altogether.

About this note

The regular F: left hand down, right index finger, and the F key pressed by the right ring finger instead of hole 6. The forked F (index and ring, no F key) is the one to use coming from or going to D, E♭ or C, and the left F lever avoids the problem altogether.

  • Primary fingering: Left index plate + Left middle plate + Left ring plate + Right index plate + F key (right ring finger)
  • Written pitch: F4
  • Sounding frequency: 349.23 Hz

Alternate fingerings for F4

  • Forked F (right index and ring fingers, with the E♭ key): Left index plate + Left middle plate + Left ring plate + Right index plate + Right ring plate + E♭ key (right little finger). Approaching from or moving to D, E♭ or C, where the right ring finger is free and the regular F key would be awkward. The E♭ key can be left off on oboes with an F resonance key.
  • Left F (left little-finger F lever): Left index plate + Left middle plate + Left ring plate + Right index plate + Left F lever (left little finger). When neither the regular nor the forked fingering fits — F next to E♭ or D♯, for example — on oboes fitted with the left F key.

Oboe fingering data last updated . Every diagram here, in the printable PDF and in the chart image comes from one dataset, so the paper and the screen cannot disagree.