French Horn B Flat Finger Chart

The widget above is an exploration into sound of the B-flat side of a double french horn. You can click on it using your mouse as an instrument or navigate via keyboard on your computer. You can also just visually see what goes on when air passes through the instrument and different fingering combinations is made. There’s some interesting relationships here around the harmonic partials and which valve combination make what note.

First, you choose an air partial from that column on the right. These are the natural harmonics available to the instrument. As you can see, the higher partials needs to be blown at a quicker rate. They also provide greater numbers of note. You then select your desired partial which updates the interface with the possible notes. Then tap any of the petals on the central rosette of valves. There’s a mini rotor within each valve petal that is either full or empty. Depending on whether it’s engaged or not. Using two specific valves together will result in one specific sound (the note). The center display shows a graphic of the written note and plays the corresponding pitch in an audio tone for immediate hearing.

How to Use the Horn Tool

For an even smoother ride, you can actualy control it from the keyboard as well. Simply focus in on one of the petals. Then, you can navigate through the combination of valves around the circle using your left and right arrows until you get to the combination that works best for you. That way you don’t have to take your fingers off the board while comparing neighboring fingerings. On a single valve combination you can alter the harmonic partial by pressing the up and down arrows. This demonstrates that if you play one fingering, you will get a different note at each octave of your instrument. Hit Enter or Space to hear what pitch you have highlighted. It provides an audible response to your testing of the instrument.

Below that is the volume control, which you can adjust to hear things clearly. Below that is the fullscreen button. It enlarges the widget to take over the whole screen. That leaves more room for the rosette making it easier to view all of the valve combinations. In case you’re not sure what the controls are, there’s a help panel that will help you quickly look them up. To enable the control help panel, click on the How to play button located at the top right of the screen. It will show you all of the controls with their respective keyboard and mouse shortcuts so you can access them easily. You can then close out the help panel and continue using the main interface.

You might also wish to stick with one set of valves and work your way up or down the partials. As you do so, listen out for the intervallic distances between notes and you’ll hear that certain partials is naturaly flat (relative to equal temperament). To clarify what I mean by these tuning inclinations, the widget shows the cent deviation. Try out various combinations of valves on a single partial and listen to what pitches they change to. You can see how each valve is used in the B-flat side of the tubing and how it lower the pitch by a known semitone interval when added. This reinforces the purpose of each valve. The middle visual route links up the currently played note to its active petal.

Memorise the fingerings across each octave using this widget. Double horn players tend to play from the B-flat side for high-register playing. Getting used to these pairings in an auditory and visual way will help you develop your mental map of the horn. Keyboard or mouse input can be changed at any point. Designed to function across different screen sizes, its interface also adjusts and is easy to use. Whether you’re viewing it on a phone or a desktop, the tool works well and automatically adjusts based off screen size. There’s no need for any plugins or special software; it all works within your browser and relies only on standard web technologies.

Spend some time investigating the connection between pitch, fingers, and air. Experiment freely with it as an aid to your learning. It isn’t right or wrong and it will help you become familiar with how the layout of the horn work. You should of begun now and listen for guidance.