All About F-Natural

3 Ways to Play!

There are three main ways to play the note F-natural, and they all have different uses. You already know the normal fingering for F, but you may have already found out that using only this F natural can get you into some trouble with managing fingerings.

Anytime you need to play F, and it occurs before or after these notes, you will need to use an alternate fingering.

• E-flat, D, C#, Low C, Low B, B-flat

The reason why is because when you have to play before or after the notes listed, you would have to lift and replace your third finger, which would create a “blip” where you play an unintended note while transitioning to F.

There are two alternate fingerings.

The first alternate, “Forked F” is an alternate fingering to be used when necessary. If you have a student model, you will have to use only forked F as these Oboes do not come with a left F key.

The second alternate is the “Left F” fingering. Note that this key is only on certain models of Oboe’s (usually professional models) which have a “Full Conservatory System” which includes the Left F and other trill keys. If you have this left F key, it is the preferred fingering for F (over forked F) when you cannot use the normal F, although, you should still get comfortable with forked F as it can be useful in certain situations.

In general, you should use the basic fingering for F as it produces better intonation and much better tone quality! Forked F and Left F should be used only when necessary to ease technique.

Forked F