French horn fingering?

I recently gave up my double horn and will not be playing it any longer so I am now on a single F horn. The problem I am having is playing pedal F. First valve does not speak at all, and am wondering is there any other fingering?

2011-02-03T14:47:14Z

Good lord. No I can play first line F and the F below middle C just fine.

I am talking about PEDAL F, one octave below the F below middle C.

Anonymous2011-02-03T14:21:24Z

Favorite Answer

Presuming you're talking about the F below middle C, I'm pretty sure playing it on first is the only real fingering. You can mess around with the valves and try bending notes around a bit, but that probably won't do much to help.

Ed: @Siegmund... And the cor anglais is neither English nor a horn... Who named all of these instruments?!

coolpotatoeslive2011-02-04T04:32:45Z

From your other posts I think you are playing a Vienna horn, am I wrong? That pedal F does not exist on the horn. The fundamental pitch of the single F horn is C below that pedal F, the next harmonic is C an octave higher, but 123 will only lower the pitch from C to F#, thus F doesn't really exist for a single F horn. However you could either
1)play it 123, cover the bell, and lip it down
2)play it as a factitious note

Siegmund2011-02-03T22:46:44Z

Missing your double horn already, huh?

With brass instruments, the lower you go, the fewer ways there are playing notes. Consider the tenor trombone, for example. The lowest E can only be played in first position (or seventh, I forget which). But if you have a trigger, no problem, you have a couple other ways of playing that note.

But you asked about the horn. I have a feeling that your problem has more to do with embouchure and posture than anything else. If we're talking about a school instrument rather than your own purchased brand-new instrument, there could be something mechanically wrong with that first valve. But only a live teacher can help you rule out these problems until finding the actual cause of the problem.

And sorry to be a pedant, but it's not a French horn. It's a freedom horn ;-) Seriously, the French call it cor a pistons, not cor francais.

HoTTiE2011-02-03T21:52:48Z

there shouldn't be a problem with playing first valve to be an F. Be careful with your partials, they are very touchy with a horn. I don't even think there is an alternate fingering. You're talking about a first space F, right?