Woodwind Trainer

Fingerings for flute, clarinet, saxophones, oboe, and bassoon with Speed Match and Key Builder.

About Woodwind Trainer

Learn woodwind fingerings, then play them

Woodwind Trainer covers flute, clarinet, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone, oboe, and bassoon. For fingerings it has two modes. Speed Match shows a written note and asks you to pick the correct fingering chart quickly. Key Builder asks you to press the keys and cover the tone holes yourself on an interactive diagram, which is closer to what your fingers really do.

Speed Match builds quick recognition for sight-reading. Key Builder builds exact recall, including the side keys, trill keys, and register keys that are easy to forget.

Play the Note checks the real thing: you see a note and play it, and the microphone listens for the right pitch. It catches the wrong octave and a missing register key, and with strict tuning on, it also checks that you are in tune.

Scales has you finger a whole scale in order, up and back down, using concert pitch names with your written key alongside, like "Concert B♭ Scale (Clarinet C Scale)." Pick a level, single keys (drill their signatures in Key Trainer), relative minors, the chromatic scale, or two octaves, and turn on timed mode to build tempo for chair tests.

How to practice

  1. 01Choose your instrument and start with Speed Match at the Beginner range.
  2. 02Switch to Key Builder for any note you keep missing.
  3. 03Finger along on your instrument as you answer, even without playing.
  4. 04Say the note name as you finger it, so your eyes, name, and hands connect.
  5. 05Before a new piece, drill the notes that sit just outside the range you already know.

Written pitch vs concert pitch

Many woodwinds are transposing instruments: the note you read is not the pitch that sounds. When a clarinet plays a written C, the band hears a concert B♭. When an alto saxophone plays a written C, it sounds a concert E♭. This trainer uses written pitch, the notes on your part.

Clarinet overblows a twelfth, not an octave. That is why its upper-register fingerings don't simply repeat the lower ones the way flute and saxophone fingerings do.

Who it's for

Beginning woodwind players, students doubling on a second instrument, and saxophone or clarinet players moving into a wider range.

Read more

WoodwindsClarinet fingering chart: the first 12 notes, then every noteThe first 12 notes most band books teach and the order to learn them in, plus a full chart from low E to high C.WoodwindsFlute fingering chart: why low and high notes use the same fingersBeginner flute fingerings, and how air speed (not your fingers) moves the same fingering up an octave.WoodwindsHow to make your first sound on fluteStart on the headjoint, shape your lips, aim the air, and balance the flute, then play your first three notes.WoodwindsHow to get a better sound on fluteWhy a flute sounds airy, and how air direction, a smaller lip opening, alignment, steady air, and long tones fix it.WoodwindsHow to tongue on fluteHow the tongue starts and separates notes while the air keeps moving, "too" and "doo," and tongued vs. slurred notes.WoodwindsHow to play high notes on fluteA smaller lip opening, air aimed slightly higher, octave slurs, and third-octave fingerings for a clear upper range without blowing harder.WoodwindsWhy won't my flute play low notes?Why low D, C♯, and C crack or jump up an octave, and how lip coverage, slower air, finger coverage, and a leak check fix them.WoodwindsHow to clean and care for your fluteTaking the flute apart safely, cleaning it after every practice, storing it, and the signs it needs a repair tech.WoodwindsWhen do you press the octave key on saxophone?Which notes need the octave key, why the saxophone jumps an octave (not a twelfth like clarinet), and how to switch smoothly.WoodwindsThe clarinet register key and crossing the breakWhy the clarinet overblows a twelfth, and exercises that make crossing the break smooth.WoodwindsHow to make your first sound on clarinetAssembly, reeds, embouchure, and air, then your first three notes, plus fixes for the problems almost every beginner hits.WoodwindsWhy does my clarinet squeak? Causes and fixesUse when the squeak happens to find the cause, then fix fingers, reeds, embouchure, air, or a leaky clarinet.
Practice tools
Tuner
Uses your microphone
Drone
Tune by ear
Transposer
Concert ↔ written