Jude

Sam Ash has a "Junior French Horn" which is obviously a novelty - it's a half-size French horn in F that plays an octave higher than the regular size. Its sound is described as halfway between that of the horn and the flugel - maybe just right for you? You could try it while your right hand is recuperating (and then report back about it).

stchasking

Is this the horn we need to play the Brandenburg 2?
Maybe Wilmer will see this. He wanted an F trumpet for the Brandenburg.

The Sam Ash site says the Junior French Horn is not available.

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flugelgirl

Out of curiosity I looked for it on the site, but didn't find it. Post a link if you can! I'm back to playing normally now, anyway - just a few clicks slower than I was, and with an extremely ugly scar! I call my right index finger "Frankenfinger" now - kind of looks like someone else's knuckle was sewn to my hand, but it's working normally, so that's all I care about! So I'll never be a hand model...oh, well - at least I'm still a trumpeter!

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Jude

Real Jean Baptiste JBFH741L Junior French Horn reviews in Brass Instruments - Buzzillions.com

Glad to hear you're recovering - funny that the US military would be so much more accommodating about it than a university music department.

stchasking: "The Sam Ash site says the Junior French Horn is not available."

It seems to come and go - and the price, I believe, keeps going up, but I could be confusing it with other instruments I keep visiting.

Jude

So I got one of those "Junior French Horns." It sounds pretty much like a French horn, but without the volume or richness. One review said it plays an octave higher than the standard horn, but as far as I can tell it's normal, although the fingering is like the trumpet's (D is 1-3, not 1, E is 1-2, not open). It doesn't slot worth a darn, or maybe I'm just having problems with the mouthpiece, or maybe lipping everything is part of horn technique - I've forgotten pretty nearly all of what I ever knew.

The big problem with it is its size - how do you hold the thing? you can't brace your left palm against it, so you end up supporting too much of its weight with your little finger, and there's really no room in the bell for the right hand. You can't rest it on your knee (without bending halfway over... Probably designed for kids in elementary school. The mechnanical linkage - not twine - would give it a fighting chance to survive them.

The keys are stiff and slow, as though somebody used grease instead of oil in the valves, so playing anything faster than eighth-notes at this point is impossible. (And would be even with the right hand - I checked.)

One nice property is that it's unbelievably easy to blow, and that, combined with its sweet sound, makes it hard to put down. A toy, maybe, but a very nice one.