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Transposition

Transposition
The purpose of this post is not to completely teach you how or why we transpose, but rather a few ideas on how to work on transposition. The short of it is, we transpose because of our tradition coming from the natural horn where you could just change a crook and be in the right key. The how gets a little more complicated, but with proper guidance and lots of patience is easily achievable. Further reading can be found at: http://hornmatters.com/?s=transposition
I highly suggest that you find a teacher who knows what they are doing when you start learning transposition. It is a tricky matter that if learned incorrectly to being with can hurt things down the road.
When you are first learning transpositions, give yourself some baby steps. First, identify the key you are transposing to and the interval over which you need to make the chance. Take Horn in D for example. This means you are transposing down a minor third. Check the key signature and see if there are any accidentals to be included and then figure out the key the piece is in. If you are looking at something that on paper looks like it is in C major and says Horn in D, you are playing in the key of A major. Play your A major scale and arpeggio. These are the notes you will be transposing to, minus any accidentals.
To apply this, find exercises and etudes that are written in C. Pick any transposition that you are working on and play the etude in that key. Kopprasch etudes are a great place to start with this and some of those etudes even suggest keys for transposition. When you feel more comfortable, move into keys that are not C major and work on transposing when you have something in the key signature. The Horn Matters guys made a handy chart that I like to use with my students: http://www.hornmatters.com/PDF/French-Horn-Transposition-Reference-Chart.pdf

Again, I suggest you work on this with someone who understands the horn and transposition. Having someone that can quickly check that you are doing it correctly and help you in tricky situations when you are getting started can be invaluable.

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