So I’m an intermediate horn player who might have my first solo In January of next year. So I need to know what mouthpiece you would recommend for lead and solo horn playing.

Hello! I've been struggling with playing loud especially in solo work. I play in a band of about 100 and have had many solos before but am always told to play louder and cannot hear them in recordings. I have a few coming up and am wondering if you guys have any tips, I am using good air but my tone and intonation falls off when I start to play loud and honestly no one can hear the playing which is needed in the solos and such. Any advice would be great, thanks!

Took a 1 month break from horn (moving and stuff). Came back to it, struggled to play. Switched to a smaller mouthpiece and I sounded better than before! But after about 3 weeks I can now barely play with a good tone, and cannot play for more than 1 minute without completely running out of strength in my embouchure. Working on Strauss 1, 3 weeks ago I could hit those high Bb’s like nothing, now I can barely play the first page without crapping out. Help!

Does anyone know where i could find the god of war theme sheet music for horn? its got a really cool horn part

Hi, I'm a former trumpet player trying to help a kid learn the French horn... We got sounds but anytime the sound sustains longer than a beat or two they say it makes their throat hurt. I don't remember experiencing or hearing of anyone else having throat pain from playing. Any ideas, tricks or resources would be greatly appreciated.

Hey! I've been trying to look for a really specific youtube recording of a piece someone wrote a few years ago. If anyone happens to know it that would be extremely helpful (I've spent hours looking already) Here's what I remember:

• The thumbnail was blight blue with yellow and pink rays from the middle and text in the center
• It was written for and performed at someone's final recital
• It finished on a two octave gliss to the high A
• It was written after 2000

If anyone knows what the piece is it would be so so helpful. Thank you!

Hello guys!

I'm writing to find out if anyone has had the same problem I've been having this past year, which is that I basically can't release my tongue whenever I want to start a note.

Everything works normally (sound, articulation, flexibility, etc.), but without being able to play my first articulated notes in time I can't do anything... I feel enormous tension as soon as I have to start a phrase and I totally lose control of my embouchure and get the air trapped inside me...

Has anyone been through this and can help me? I'm getting a bit desperate because it's been a long time and I can't figure it out...

thank you in advance!

Hello good morning. I'm writing here to see if you can help me. Currently this and playing with a Vincent Bach 3 and I notice it a little narrow and the edge very thin. I'm looking for something bigger but not much, since I've tried 18-26mm and 17.7-25.7mm mouthpieces and they are big for me (schmid, alexander, werner schmidt). I'm looking at the jk 2dm SD and the 2dk. For advising me on these or some other.

I have also tried the Schilke 29 and the cup was too small for me.

I'm currently playing with a Holton 179.

Thank you and greetings

So my bad has a concert in two days and I just realized I’ve been playing the song all wrong, a whole octave lower then it’s supposed to be, how screwed am I?

My daughter has one-sided cerebral palsy that weakens her right arm and hand. She’s also a promising horn player. She gets on very well with the Yamaha single (YHR 314) we got her originally, but the school is now providing a Conn 6D which she struggles with the weight of.

What are the most lightweight double horns that are still good? I’m also looking into supports, but she doesn’t want an aid that is different from the other kids.

So I just began my junior year of high school and I'm looking to try and get first chair this year but I've been having horrible stamina issues. The etude I have to play does contain a lot of notes in the upper range, all the way up to a Bb and I can usually hit notes in that range but even practicing them for 10+ minutes kills my cheeks. I begin not even to be able to close my lips tight enough together for the high notes. I've also been playing all summer and have been playing mellophone, nothing has changed when it comes to my chops (this issue does also occur on the Mello just not as dramatic). Lastly, even though it's not really the subject of the matter, I always play on the Bb side of the horn and rarely even play on the F side unless a note requires it, will this be an issue if I continue to play the horn? Hopefully I gave enough information to try and get some help from you guys as I would really like to play etudes consistently haha. Thanks in advance guys, love this community.

https://preview.redd.it/q4qx67gz5eud1.png?width=991&format=png&auto=webp&s=042b292d0b34ca09d4f68dce38b6e91f2b9d8bfa

Hi all!

I've recently put in an order for a new French horn, following getting back into it after 15 years. I've bought this horn as it is a double so I can learn to use both sides together. However I really want the horn to stand in Bb as that is my preference from when I learnt 15 years ago.

My questions are:

1. Looking at this picture of the horn I've ordered, can someone verify from looks alone as to if this horn is swappable?

2. Provided it is, can anyone give some step by step guides on what I would need to do? There is very little I can find online that guides how to swap the linkage and it's not a big brand that I can contact.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help :)

I’m a recently graduated Music Education major, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse to stop playing my horn, I want to keep growing and practicing as much as possible. But what I’m wondering is what I should be practicing when I don’t have music for a jury or for a recital? I have etude books but that seems a bit lame to play etudes all day. Should I just buy a horn solo song and play that till I feel good about it?

I’ve played French horn my whole middle school career, now with me changing to Highschool next year I have to learn the Mellophone because I want to be in marching band, I’m just wondering how hard it will be

I’m making a playlist on Spotify and would love some recommendations for pretty horn pieces :)

I play percussion in marching and concert band, I have wanted to learn French horn for a while to extend my capabilities in music because I want to be a band director. I love music, it is my happy place, I just wanted to know if it is worth learning. My school has 10 readily available French horns that I could borrow.

Hello!! So, for some background, I played French Horn throughout middle school and high school, and I took a ~2 year break from the instrument, only to pick it back up in uni. But, since picking it back up, I've had some major issues with tuning. At first, I thought it was my horn (for context, I have a shitty "Frankenstein horn" that I got for like $75 on Craigslist, but it's tone is heavenly for some reason lol), but I seem to be having similar issues on my old Eastman from middle school, though I've had slight improvement with switching the actual horn itself. I've tested 3 different mouthpieces (1 generic, 2 different Holton ones), and I just keep struggling. I've tried almost everything with adjusting the slides and my hand placement, and I've exhausted about any and every tuning exercise I could find. It's weird, since, to me, the pitch will sound well-tuned, but if I listen back to a recording or if I use a tuner, I can get up to, like, +/-30 cents off (I have always ran a little sharp, but never this bad). It got to the point where I would work on only tuning and embouchure adjustment for upwards of an hour before rehearsals, to no avail.
I think it boils down to an issue of intonation. I've tried adjusting my embouchure, but I just can't find anything that works consistently. Could it really just be the horn itself, or should I be doing something different? It has caused me some major frustrations in playing, esp since I've never dealt with being this consistently out of tune in 6+ years of playing, and I used take a lot of pride in my abilities on the horn :(
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you so, so much!

hi! so it’s my first marching season ever and so i’ve been playing the mellophone and whatnot. i’ve been pretty away from my french horn for a while because of that. today, i was cleaning my room and decided, “hey! why not mess around with my horn!” … i sound horrible. maybe because mellophone has a different sound that i’ve gotten used to or something, but im definitely not as good as i was a couple of months ago! :( now, i know it’s going to be a while before i go back to playing horn for concert season, but i still want to sound good when we go back to it. i sound very beginner band 😢 if anyone has experience with this, please help!

Hi all! I’m located in The Netherlands and I’m looking for a new gig bag for my detachable Yamaha 567(-d).

The Marcus Bonna ones are far above my price range, and marketplace/second-hand searches don’t yield that many results. I suppose it’s a niche market.

Any gig bags you recommend below the €250/€300 price point?

Another French horn in my band took this from our instrument room. It has no markings and it was just with a random Jupiter horn

Hi so I’m auditioning for the music honor society (Tri-M) at my high school. I wanted to play Strauss Nocturne op.7 but couldn’t find an accompanist to play with me, so now I am trying to find something with no accompanist but it’s hard. I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions. Thank you

Hi,I just joined my high school band and playing the French horn for the first time, I am very confused about the lip placement in switching between notes for example the f,d and b flat, they all have the same fingerings and I cannot seem to get it. Thank you for helping me

I'm currently trialing a few mouthpieces, including the Denis Wick-Paxman 4 and 5.

I'm leaning towards getting the no. 4, but the fact that it has an inner diameter of 18 mm is making me second guess myself even though I like it so far (I'd say I have average lips). I really like how they both sound. Another thing I'm a bit vary about is the rim, which isn't as comfortable as what I'm used to.

Opinions on these are really hard to find online. Anyone tried these? If so, what did you think?

So Im pretty new to playing French Horn and was practicing and a screw came loose on the 1st valve and now the string on the valve is screwed up and I have zero clue how to fix it. Please help

To start I have no knowledge of instruments nor French horns. My girlfriend loved it so much she went to college and planned to be a concert player. Long story short she had to drop out after her first year. She no longer has a French horn and refuses to play her trumpet as she has no passion for it. To try and encourage her to pursue her passion i want to get her a French horn for Christmas.

We both work minimum wage jobs so money is tight I want to spend about $400 but all the horns she looks at are around $4000. I'm sure she would be happy with anything I get her but I have some questions about what to look for and what to avoid.

1st. Are all modern hors "double" or is that something to avoid.

2nd. And brands to look for or avoid? I understand different brands have different sound quality

3rd. Are used horns a option or something to avoid?

4th. should I just save up for years to afford the expensive horn? Would it be offensive to offer a lower tier instrument to what she wants?

I have no musical talent or experience, any tips are greatly appreciated.

Tldr want to gift a French horn around $400

Edit: I have readjusted my expectations and will save for something quality, thank you for the advice everyone!