Spectral Analysis of the French Horn and the Hand-in-Bell Effect

Adam Watts Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ABSTRACT With the goal of investigating the effects of hand-in-bell playing of the French Horn, a technique was developed to quickly and accurately measure the input impedance of the instrument to determine intonation and playability of resonant modes. This technique is a continuation of previous work done by Professor Steve Errede and Dave Pignotti on the impedance spectra of trumpets and other wind instruments, but uses the HP3562A spectrum analyzer to achieve much lower measurement times at the cost of increased noise. This allows for measurements to be made using a genuine player’s hand technique in situ. Specifically, the effect of hand muting the instrument, or “hand stopping” was investigated in an attempt to clear up some of the confusion about transposition and the use of this technique.