Hi all, returning to horn playing after a long absence and need to ask a dumb question! I've got a Holton descant horn so (as far as I'm aware) no open F side (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong tho!) I'm going back to basics and using the warm up exercises in the Farkas/Tuckwell books, but both of these state to use the open F horn. How would I do this on my horn, or what would I do instead (apart from get a new horn) as an alternative. Many thanks for any help.

For lip slurs and other exercises where you're only using one side of the horn, just transpose the exercise up a fourth. So, if the exercise starts on the 4th open tone on the F horn (written middle C), start it on the 4th open tone on the Bb horn (written first space F). As long as you stay on the Bb side of the horn, the fingerings won't change but it will sound a fourth higher. Transposing into the instrument's range will work for most any modern brass instrument since the resonant frequencies are all designed to follow the same progression (1st to 2nd open tone is an octave, 2nd to 3rd is a fifth, 3rd to 4th is a fourth, etc.).

For any other exercises, I recommend finding a book written for descant horn. Since descant is a smaller horn, there are certain challenges unique to descant playing that a normal double horn book may not address.

Thanks Frederick, I'll give that a go and practice my rusty transposition also!!