Fingering (music)

(2) Control of finger movements and position to achieve physiological efficiency, acoustical accuracy [frequency and amplitude] (or effect) and musical articulation.

Fingering applies to the rotary and piston valves employed on many brass instruments.

The trombone, a fully chromatic brass instrument without valves, employs equivalent numbered notation for slide positions rather than fingering.

[10] Guitar music indicates thumb, occasionally used to finger bass notes on the low E string, with a 'T'.

Guitar music indicates position with Roman numerals and string designations with circled numbers.

[11] It is usually only notated in scores where a passage is particularly difficult, or requires specific fingering for the plucking hand.

Fingering of woodwind instruments is not always simple or intuitive, depending on how the acoustic impedance of the bore is affected by the distribution and size of apertures along its length, leading to the formation of standing waves at the desired pitch.

Simple flutes (including recorders) as well as bagpipe chanters have open holes which are closed by the pads of the player's fingertips.

One advantage of the Giorgi flute was that it removed the necessity of fork fingering for playing chromatic notes.

When the note is played in such a way as to draw the distinction from the expected tone quality[d] it is often called a false fingering.