Eeviac

Anyone messed around on one? They sound uber-cool needless to say. And for 2 octaves either side of middle C yeah I'd be willing to play something you have to stick your hand into.

Also, Expensive, and by all reports, hard to play.

Anyone messed around on one? Impressions?

misty.sj

I recuse myself, I'm a French horn performance minor. :)

Eeviac

Wow, I'm impressed!

I certainly don't have the money for one .... it's one of those "Someday" interests.

What can you say about it compared to the trumpet?

clousemiester

They have more tubing than an E flat Tuba. You know what that means!

A whole heck of alot of harmonics, you need an excellent ear to play one!

Not to mention the Cleaning Day!

misty.sj

Cleaning isn't too bad, you just have twice the number of valve slides to deal with (on a double horn). Stringing the rotary valves and getting proper valve button height is a pain in the rear.

They are large and delicate. Often the bells are really thin because they need to ring freely.

Because of the way that the horn is held up by the right hand, inside the bell, you can get RSI issues with your wrist. I'm sure there are similar weight issues with euphonium and tuba too, though I never played them.

French horns have a tiny mouthpiece for the size of the instrument. You need a lot of flexibility in your chops. And they don't slot as reliably as trumpets so it's a lot easier to hit a stinker of a note.

You have to learn more alternate fingerings than on trumpet, because some notes, especially toward the top of the range, are either out of tune or have bad characteristics when played with the standard brass fingerings.

You have to know how to transpose from anything to anything, including bass and alto clefs. You have to have a really good ear, because it's really easy to bend pitches. I think that has something to do with the conical bore -- am I wrong?

Also you get tired of lugging the damn thing around. I'm really loving being back to trumpet. It's so small!

Jude

"Messing around" was about what it amounted to, but I took lessons for years (jr and sr high school) and played in the band.

The prices aren't all that bad now - you can get brand-new Chinese French horns for $650 (single) - knock-offs of a Yamaha model (don't remember which one, I was trying to resist temptation and closing my ears). The double horn I saw was a knock-off of a Conn. EBay has had what looked like some pretty good deals ($300 for what seemed to be one of the standard American makes in great shape, a lot less for brutalized student horns).

As I remember the story, the reason for the touchiness in the higher end was that you're playing higher harmonics - they're closer together on the trumpet, too, but so high up it takes forever to build up to them. One reason for adding the higher-range Bb side was to provide more stability, make it easier to finger and go, like on the trumpet.

There are people who play jazz on The Horn, but the horns aren't particularly agile. Not lots of music for solo horn, either. You can't have everything I guess is the moral. You don't want to be playing one on the street in a high wind, either.

Eeviac

Wow. I guess there are Bb horns, single ones, used in HS marching bands in the past, that show up?

I'd rather buy something good, used, than a cheepee new.

A friend's letting me play around on an alto sax, and I already appreciate how nice and small and light the trumpet is!

Jude

It's not so much the weight of the French horn but its awkwardness for marching that's the problem. Nowadays some schools (maybe most?) have kids march with mellophones - straight horns, like trumpets, with great big bells.

The F horn has a better, more characteristic "horn" sound, and is the one beginners usually start on.

(I bet the Xaphoon is even lighter than the trumpet.)

Eeviac

Sounds like it's better to just stick to the trumpet/cornet/flugelhorn family. I guess the enbouchure's different for the "Horns" and our horns lol.

Time to go try out a leadpipe cleaner I've thought up, it's gunky in there and I'm sure not going to spend money on some cleaning thingie when I can make my own.

flugelgirl

My husband is a pretty good hornist, even though he gets paid to play guitar. He's got a nice older Yamaha 861, and plays on a larger mouthpiece that is close in rim size to mine, so once in a while I grab it for a few minutes. It's a heck of a lot of fun, but is definately challenging! He usually gives me about 20 mins before he says "Stop - the neighbors are going to think it's me!" Guess my horn sound needs some work! It is unsatisfying that the bell points the wrong way, though!