Using the Right Hand

  I've talked a lot about using the right hand in the bell to change the pitch but I think I'll a take step back and explain the basics of this to answer question that every horn player has asked at one point or another...

How do we change the pitch with our hand?

  The basic idea behind using the right hand is that as you close your hand in bell the pitch will go down. Also the sound will get "stuffier" and more veiled. As the hand opens more the pitch goes up, and the sound will get brighter and clearer. This is used to make slight adjustments to notes that use multiple fingers like A, Ab, and so on, since they are naturally too sharp on the horn to just bend down with your lips.

  Now if you completely create a seal with your right hand in bell, this is what we call stop horn, and it has a brassy, metallic sound. It can either be notated with a "+" above the note or simply have "(stopped)" written in the music. This is actually raises the pitch a half step since you're cutting down the horn's length to make it a horn in E. This means you can generally only use the F horn when using stop horn, or else it'll be horribly out of tune.

    - If you only make a light seal and don't blow too much air through the horn then it creates a warm muted sound. This is used in Gliere's 2nd and 3rd movements since they don't give enough time for a mute change but it's marked "con sord." This still requires the F horn to be in tune.