Where is the correct place to place your hand in the bell of a French Horn?

My festival judge told me I was doing it wrong!

Where is the correct place to place your hand in the bell of a French Horn?
Extracted from this .pdf


http://www.csinstitute.org/content/pdf/B...





One of the most important techniques associated with


horn playing, and one that should be learned from the first


lesson, is that of correct right hand placement in the bell.


The right hand serves three main purposes in horn


performance: 1) adjusting tone quality; 2) adjusting pitch;


3) hand-muting or “stopping.”


Not the least of the factors contributing to the


characteristic tone quality of the French horn is that of the


placement of the right hand in the bell. If the bell is too


open, the horn quality becomes rather blatant; if the bell is


too closed, the tone becomes stuffy and lacks resonance.





The wrist should be bent in sufficiently to make a slight


“cupped” position in the palm. The fingers should be held


straight and together, the bottom of the thumb resting on


the side of the index finger with no opening between the


thumb and the index finger.





In this position, the right hand should be placed on the


far side of the bell, with the thumb knuckle lightly


touching the upper part of the bell and the fingers


following the contour of the bell. The distance which the


right hand should be placed into the bell, and the amount


of cupping, will be determined by the size of the player’s


hand and by the quality of tone desired.





The player should imagine the tone passing along the


palm of the hand, but not directly into it. It is important


that the player also assume this hand position when


tuning. Furthermore, in the interests of matching tone


quality, the player should cup the hand slightly more when


playing on the Bb side of the double horn.





The right can do much toward correcting slight


intonation problems. Increasing the amount of handcupping


in the bell can lower the pitch by at least a semitone


and, conversely, opening up the bell can raise the


pitch slightly. Such hand adjustments naturally affect, to


some extent, the quality of tone and this technique should


be employed only for minor pitch adjustments on isolated


tones.



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