Standard and alternate fingerings for the standard range of the keyless flute: first two octaves and third-octave D. (Third-octave fingerings are on a separate page.) Use this table if the most common fingerings aren't working for you. The best choice depends on you, your instrument, and whether you need a clear sustained note or a high-speed ornament. Try several and use a chromatic tuner to assess pitch.

O is an open hole, X is a closed hole, % is a half-closed hole. R means that the hole can be either open or closed, though one version might work better on your instrument. When very few holes are covered, closing the lowest hole (8) may improve response or create a more solid grip on a vertically-held instrument (e.g. whistle). Slightly venting the top hole ($) can make it easier to sound notes in the lower part of the second octave, especially D.

D# is hard to sound. Experiment with different approaches to half-closing the hole: cover the side, cover the upper end, hover slightly above the hole.

	lower octave	upper octave	third octave
D	XXX|XXX	$XX|XXX	0XX|XXX (esp fifes) 0XX|000 (esp flutes)
D#/Eb	XXX|XX%	same
E	XXX|XX0	same
F	XXX|X%0 XXX|X0X	same
F#	XXX|X00	same
G	XXX|000	same
G#/Ab	XX%|000 XX0|XXX	XX%|000 XX0|X0R
A	XX0|008	XX0|000
A#/Bb	X%0|000 X0X|XXR	X%0|000 X0X|000
B	X00|008	X00|000
C	%00|000 0X0|XXR 0XX|0R0 0XX|R00 0XX|X0X	%00|000 0X0|XXR X0X|0X0 0X0|0X0
C#	000|008	000|008