Yamaha & Aulos fifes fingering chart

Fingering chart for the Yamaha YRF-21 and Aulos C-21 Pipit fifes. ● means to cover the hole. ○ means to uncover the hole. ◐ means to half-hole. To make reading the charts easier, I moved the thumb-hole to be the first hole, instead of being sandwiched between the B and the A hole. For the right hand I separated the last hole to make it easier to see the similarities between other simple system flutes.

Both fifes are made of ABS resin plastic and are not true fifes. They have one thumb-hole and seven finger-holes instead of the traditional six finger-holes. The Aulos fife has a double hole for the first finger of the right hand, while the Yamaha has only single holes. Both of them have fingerings that resemble other simple system flutes, but with an extended C at the bottom.

Yamaha YRF-21

You can download the original fingering chart here. On this chart, the pinky keeps covering the first whole most of the time for stability. It’s a bad habit that should be avoided. C#, Db on the first octave isn’t on the chart, but can be played by half-holing.

C ● ●●● ●●● ● C#, Db ● ●●● ●●● ◐ D ● ●●● ●●● ○ D#, Eb ● ●●● ●●◐ ○ E ● ●●● ●●○ ● F ● ●●● ●○○ ● F#, Gb ● ●●● ◐○○ ●
 ● ●●● ○●● ● G ● ●●● ○○○ ● G#, Ab ● ●●○ ●●● ● A ● ●●○ ○○○ ● A#, Bb ● ●○● ●●○ ● B ● ●○○ ○○○ ● C'' ○ ●○○ ○○○ ● C#'', Db'' ○ ○○○ ○○○ ● D'' ● ○●● ●●● ○ D#'', Eb'' ● ●●● ●●◐ ○ E'' ● ●●● ●●○ ● F'' ● ●●● ●○○ ● F#'', Gb'' ● ●●● ◐○○ ● G'' ● ●●● ○○○ ● G#'', Ab'' ● ●●○ ●○○ ● A'' ● ●●○ ○○○ ● A#'', Bb'' ● ●○● ○○○ ○ B'' ● ●○○ ○○○ ● C''' ○ ●○○ ○○○ ● C#''', Db''' ○ ○○○ ○○○ ● D''' ● ○●● ○○○ ● E''' ● ●●○ ●●○ ●

Aulos C-21 Pipit

You can download the original fingering chart here. Aulos prefers to use half-holing instead of forked fingerings, but the forked fingerings from Yamaha should still work. The chart includes a high-F.

C ● ●●● ●●●● ● C#, Db ● ●●● ●●●● ◐ D ● ●●● ●●●● ○ D#, Eb ● ●●● ●●●◐ ○ E ● ●●● ●●●○ ○ F ● ●●● ●●○○ ○ F#, Gb ● ●●● ○●○○ ● G ● ●●● ○○○○ ○ G#, Ab ● ●●○ ●●●● ○ A ● ●●○ ○○○○ ○ A#, Bb ● ●◐○ ○○○○ ○ B ● ●○○ ○○○○ ○ C'' ○ ●○○ ○○○○ ○ C#'', Db'' ○ ○○○ ○○○○ ○ D'' ● ○●● ●●●● ○ D#'', Eb'' ● ○●● ●●●◐ ○ E'' ● ●●● ●●●○ ○ F'' ● ●●● ●●○○ ○ F#'', Gb'' ● ●●● ○●○○ ○ G'' ● ●●● ○○○○ ○ G#'', Ab'' ● ●●○ ●●○○ ○ A'' ● ●●○ ○○○○ ○ A#'', Bb'' ● ●◐○ ○○○○ ○ B'' ● ●○○ ○○○○ ○ C''' ○ ●○○ ○○○○ ○ C#''', Db''' ○ ○○○ ○○○○ ○ D''' ● ○●● ○○○○ ○ E''' ● ●●○ ●●●● ● F''' ● ●●○ ●●○○ ○

A little bit about those fifes... Aulos started production of plastic Fifes in October of 1968, two years after they started producing recorders. I’ve contacted someone at Aulos about their first model (known as model No.101) and its current iteration.

Their goal was to create an instrument aimed at kids, as a practice instrument for the flute. They also wanted an instrument that could play the scale of C Major chromatically, had the least amount of forked-fingerings as possible, and played equally well in both the low and high register.

With those goals in mind, they produced their first model: a dark-brown fife with a raised mouthpiece in white to help with the embouchure. It had 3 double-holes (● ●●●● ●●●●● ●) to make playing semitones easier. It came in a cloth bag, similar to what the Yamaha YRF-21 fife has now.

The instrument was then redesigned to have improved tuning and response. The current design (C-21) has a mouthpiece flush to the body, and it has one double-hole (● ●●● ●●●● ●) instead of three. I don’t have any information about the bore of the old model, but I’ve been told that they changed the inner diameter of the current fife. It comes in a faux-leather bag now.

As for the Yamaha YRF-21, I don’t have any information about it, or its history. You can infer from its design that it serves the same purpose and targets the same market as the Aulos fife.

Yamaha started making recorders in 1967 and I know some of their flutes dates back to at least 1969. It makes sense for them to make an instrument targeted at kids so they can step-up to the flute later, but I have no idea when they started producing those fifes. If anyone has any information, please send me an email.