Excuse me if this is an extremely basic question I've just been getting very confused recently.

If a note was written say middle C, and it was meant to be played hand-stopped, what note would you play, and how exactly do you work out how to find the note you should play. Would you play a C sharp??

Thanks, i've just been reading around and hearing some people say it transposes up and others down and all of a sudden I'm just really confused. Thanks

This is actually a good question and it can be confusing for people learning to play stopped horn.

First off regardless of anything else understand that the note written is the note the composer wants you to play. So, if C is written the composer wants a C. No matter if you stop mute, straight mute, or choose not to mute, the note coming out of the horn should be a C.

You have probably read things about "does stopping raise the pitch or lower the pitch". They aren't really talking about what you want to know. It's more of a physics theory question (and the answer by the way is neither (which I can explain later)).

To play stopped Horn you are supposed to close your hand off. As a beginer pick an easy note like 2nd line G. If you are holding your right hand correctly you should be able to close it slowly. Keep the back of your fingers against the bell of the horn and close the base of the palm of your hand against the near side of your bell. As you close it the pitch will go flat and then when everything is shut off the note will appear to jump up. This is supposed to be a half step. You should be doing this on the F side of your double horn. (This is completely different if you are playing on a single Bb horn or decant horn). Going back to your 2nd line G. When you see what the closing of the hand does then you should practice by playing G for about 2 seconds 2 times on open horn. Then finger an F# and close your hand off to play stopped. So, as far as you are concerned stopping the horn raises the pitch 1/2step you need to transpose down a half step. When you get the G down you can try other notes.

People with smaller hands will have more difficulty playing stopped than people with larger hands. So you might have to push your hand in while you are closing it off. Once you get the hang of it on F horn we can then talk about the physics and we can talk about Bb horn fingerings for stopped horn. But wait until you get it down with the F horn fingerings only.

Ah ok...

I always thought that stopping the horn lowered the pitch and I always have done it on the B flat - could that be why it never seems to work??

So to confirm,you stop the horn on the F side and play a half tone lower than what is written.

Thanks a lot, i will give it a go tomorrow :D

EDIT:

I got impatient and tried it out just now...MIRACLE!!!

I can actually handstop?!! It works!! I've always assumed i just had small hands or something but I just needed to play on the F side and raise the pitch!

Thank you so much John, whenever i now play a hand-stopped note it will all be down to you

When you stop on Bb it raises the pitch almost 3/4 of a step. Most of our double horns do not have a 3/4 step valve. Now that I have said that, I prefer playing stopped on Bb horn.

Once you get the F horn under control there are Bb horn stopped fingering charts. Over a period of time you can add these slowly to your skills. I prefer the Bb horn when stopping because it speaks so well. If you decide to learn Bb fingerings for stopped don't forget your F horn fingerings. There are situations where you might want to use one over the other.