HORN BASICS (Pt.

1)

UNIQUE QUALITIES (cont.)

l
l

The bell faces the wrong way

The hand must be placed in the bell in a
specific way to affect intonation, tone, and
support the horn
Has a darker, more mellow sound than the
other brass instruments, making it a versatile
instruments that blends well in a variety of
ensemble

It is recommended that it be
referred to as the horn and not
the French horn. The IHS
declared this so in 1971.

Orchestra, band, brass quintet, woodwind

quintet (not traditionally a jazz instrument

HORN HISTORY
l

The horn has its roots as not a musical

instrument, but as a means to signal over long
distances, namely during forest hunts prior to
the 17th Century

The horn in fact has Germanic

roots.

UNIQUE QUALITIES

HORN HISTORY (cont.)

l

The horn's shape/construction is rather different

than those of its brass counterparts

Upon being introduced into the orchestra, the

natural horn (being valveless at the time) could
only make use of the notes found within the
harmonic series.

Exaggerated bell flare (i.e. more conical)

Circular wrap of tubing (derived from hunting horn) also several

wraps exist/are accepted

Rotor valves (rotating mechanism rather than the up/down motion

of a piston valve) some other brass instruments utilize the rotor
valve, but the horn is alone in exclusively using them

The notes available to the horn player were dictated by

its length,

Played with left hand (again, a derivation of its historical hunting

horn roots)

varying lengths of tubing called crooks were employed

to change the key that the horn played in, and thus, the
notes available to the player in the harmonic series
changed

Mouthpiece has the smallest rim and a more V-shaped outer and
inner build (more conical vs. cup-shaped)

Widely available in single/double/triple horn models (to be

discussed in more detail later)

Four horn parts were often used in the orchestra to

allow for maximum amount of notes to be heard from
the horn section (Horn 1&2 in one key, Horn 3&4 in
another key) Horns 1/3 = high horn, 2/4 = low horn

Horn Overtones Series:

The horn utilizes it's written mid-range notes
in the middle of the harmonic series, making it
a difficult instrument to play, given that the
notes in the most played region of the horn
are so close together in the harmonic series.
A prospective horn player should have excellent
aural skills and sense of pitch to be successful at
the horn.

HORN HISTORY (cont.)

l

Utilizing a stopping technique, the natural horn

would ultimately be able to play notes beyond
what was available in a single overtone series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAMmYJVwa2c

The advent of valves (c. 1815) allowed for the

for the natural horn player to no longer carry
around crooks, and then as composers wrote as
such, ultimately to play chromatically

Purpose of the hand in the bell:

1 support weight of horn
2 creates a mellow tone color
3 intonation (moving in/closed flattens
pitch, moving out/open sharpens it)
4 for hand stopping

Horn Embouchure
The horn embouchure is different than a trumpet
embouchure. It should be placed slightly higher at a ratio
of upper lip to lower lip equaling 2/3 to 1/3.
As Rider explains (see handout), this isn't foolproof, and difficult to
explain to a beginner. To find the proper embouchure setting, you
need to have enough room in the mouthpiece to get the upper part of
the rim on the skin above the upper lip. Use the tilt up method,
placing the bottom rim of mouthpiece on the lower lip at and 45degree angle, and pivoting it upward. It should resemble something
like this:

Single Horn / Double Horn?

- Most students in the US begin on a single F horn.
- By the start of middle school, students should transition
to a double horn, which retains the F horn that they know,
and adds the ability to play on a shorter Bb horn by
depressing the thumb valve on G#4 (second line treble clef)
and above. This is literally another horn, where the entire
harmonic series is shifted up a 4th, increasing the distance
between partials in the horn's upper range, reducing pitch
inaccuracy (see Horn Change Chart PDF)
- Note that several of the Bb horn fingerings are different (see
fingering chart)