What key is the marching french horn in?and what are the fingerings?

Question

I play the concert french horn, but now its marching season and we've switched to marching and a lot of the fingerings are different.

so i would like to have the correct fingerings.

thanks

Answer 1

We always used marching French horns that were in F, just like the concert horns.  But just like you can have a A clarinet, a Bb clarinet, an Eb clarinet, etc. the same is true with other instruments.

Just playing the odds, I'd guess you have an Eb mellophone.  It's been a loooong time, but I think the following is true.  Take it with a grain of salt, though, or look it up on Wikipedia or somewhere.

The fingerings are the same, but maybe an octave down - in other words, the same as a trumpet (C=000, D=101, E=110, etc.), but you've probably been given sheet music in F.  Ideally, just transpose your music by one step, and you should be good to go.

Or maybe your horns are in F but they gave you music in the key of Eb.