French Horn Tips & Tricks

Holding a French horn

Holding the Instrument

When playing the horn, place the edge of the bell on your right knee and bring the horn to your lips.  Never lean forward to play it, and don't pick it up and hold it so the bell is pointing directly to the right.

Using the Right Hand

The right hand is always placed inside the bell; this is a characteristic of the French horn that has remained throughout history.  Usually younger students are told not to worry about their right hand since they have smaller hands, but more experience players who would like to play with good intonation will have to learn. The hand should go comfortably inside the bell, curved with the inside and not blocking it. The sound is muffled if you block the bell.

Single vs. Double Horn

A single horn can only play in F, whereas a double horn has extra tubing that allows it to play in both F and Bb.  (A thumb trigger switches between the two sides.)  This extra tubing makes it heavier and much more expensive.  Students usually start on a single horn because their repertoire isn't advanced enough to require the extra notes.  However,

all experience horn players will need to be able to switch between F and Bb.  The music store I go to doesn't rent double horns for this reason; they only sell them.

Cleaning out the Instrument
Mrs. Harvison showed me how to get the spit out of a French horn.  It requires emptying four different tuning valves since there isn't a spit valve (unlike other brass instruments.)  Take out the tuning slide one by one and shake them.  There’s a special wrist maneuver to perform with one that’s particularly curvy.  It's important to keep the valves pressed down while inserting and removing the slides in order to help with the pressure.  I've also seen a French horn player I know spin his French horn while he's holding it to distribute the spit.  This must make it easier to clean out later.

Embouchure
French horn requires a lot of stability in the lower lip and a small embouchure, so clarinet players are often good horn players.  Clarinet has a firm embouchure, especially in the bottom lip, and a strong foundation is essential with French horn.  (This was probably why French horn is easier for me to play than trumpet.)

French horn embouchure

Since the French horn embouchure is so small, it also tires easily at first.  If you find yourself unable to get notes out, no matter how hard you try, you should put the horn down for a few minutes and go do something else.  It happens sometimes.  Then, once you've rested for a bit, go back to playing.

As you play higher, the hole that you’re blowing air through gets smaller and your lips get tighter.  The lips are looser for low notes.  Mrs. Harvison suggested directing your air upwards and focusing on a point above you to help get the higher notes out.  Singing the note or hearing it in your head before you play it also helps.  (Yes, I just admitted that singing can actually help!)

Finally, becoming familiar with the embouchure is very important to playing music correctly.  Since the partials are so close together, it’s easy to start on the wrong note.  One of the first things to teach kids on French horn is to instantly start over if you don’t get the correct starting note.  If you don't start on the right note, the whole song could be thrown off.  Teaching students to reset their embouchure if they don't start correctly teaches them to listen to the other parts in the band and helps them develop and become familiar with their embouchure.

History of French horn

The French or orchestral horn, often referred to as simply a horn, acts as a bridge between the woodwind and brasswind sections of an ensemble.  It has an early history similar to the trumpet's.  It originally didn't have valves, so players used their hand to alter the pitch.  Half-covering the bell lowered the pitch by a half step, and completely covering the bell raised it by a half step.  By the mid-18th century, this so-called "hand stopping" was the norm.  Even after the introduction of valves, a player still puts their right hand in the bell because it's part of the instrument's character.

Players still needed to change crooks to make the key of the horn closely match the key of their music.  One attempt to change this was the omnitonic horn.  It included all of the different crook lengths on the horn's body.  Instead of manually inserting and removing these crooks, players switched between them by turning a dial.  However, the instrument was heavy and cumbersome, so it never caught on.

Valves were introduced in the early 19th century by Stölzel and Blühmel.  These new valved horns had a consistent tone, were easier to play, and could play all chromatic notes.  They became standard by the late 19th century.

Today, the horn consists of a body, bell, valve system, mouthpiece, and mouthpiece.  The shape of its mouthpiece produces a mellower sound than other brass instruments.  The most popular horn is the F/Bb horn, which utilizes two sets of tubing to play in two different keys.  This allows the player to play some extra notes and keep others in tune.  The horn's compass extends from D to c'''.