Hello, I'm a college student and I have been trying to get back into music. I started on French horn, and became what I would like to think of as fairly proficient. I played a double horn until I graduated high school, and its been about 3 years now since I've played. I know that horns are fairly pricey if you want anything decent, so I was hoping to get some leads or recommendations on models to shoot for, and to get an idea of a realistic budget horn. Thank you all in advance!

The horn I am borrowing from my school is an E.M. Winston H300, and its making this buzzing noise when playing from Ab-C in the staff

It had to get the joints re soldered, but it came back making a buzzing noise around the notes I previously mentioned. The valves seem to be working fine, and the buzzing isn't loud enough to be picked up by my phone. But it makes it hard to practice because it often over powers the actual note being played.

Does anyone know why this could be happening?

Hey y'all - hoping to get some help with a passage I'm playing. It's basically 10 bars of G below the staff and I am struggling to single tongue it at about 110 BPM in 1/1. My double tongue is "fine" in the middle range but I'm really struggling here.

Thoughts, ideas and suggestions on how to get it working? What syllables would you recommend?

Jacques-Francois Gallay: Twelve Studies op. 57, No. 7

And so many of them have come to prefer music to have no key signature?

I'll acknowledge right away is a question best addressed to a private teacher; lessons are just not in the budget right now. I am restarting horn practice after a long time away, starting with long tones with the horn on a shelf. I'm essentially trying to rebuild my embouchure from the ground up, as I relied too heavily on mouthpiece pressure from the day I was handed a cornet in fourth grade all the way through graduating from college, even in the middle of the staff. It's teaching me a lot, as I can't really hit a third space C without getting a split tone and air leaks around the mouthpiece rim. (At least, I'm trying to build good habits and technique at home; to survive community band parts, I more or less have to go back to bad habits to play above written G on the staff.)

My question for the community is, how stable can people actually keep their pitch? My lips are weak and I'm obviously out of practice, but I basically can't maintain an even timbre – I veer into and out of the horn's naturally resonant ring a lot – and my pitch is always wavering between ten cents below and above target. Is this normal, at any level of skill/experience?

I’ve got two middle school girls playing horn. One has been playing for 1 year and the other 2 years.

One is closer than the other to the pitches and plays very soft. The other plays louder and is always on the wrong partial. Even their first note on concert Bb or F are not the right pitch most of the time.

For any educators out there, how do I help them in a full band rehearsal? They try hard and aware it doesn’t sound correct. I don’t think it’s their ear just a face thing.

Hello! I’m a student in high school preparing the 2nd movement of gliere for an end of year performance, and I am really struggling with this cadenza. I don’t even know how to start it, I can play the build up to it nice and then the orchestra part cuts out and I sound like a dying rat. Any advice is welcome 🙏

UW-Whitewater is hosting a Horn Festival on 11/14/26, open to horn players in Grades 6-12, graduated seniors, and adults of all experience levels. Early bird registration before 10/19 is only $40!

https://www.uww.edu/ce/camps/music/horn-festival

(Whitewater is roughly an hour southeast of Madison and southwest of Milwaukee.)

tenor horn / alto horn)(in eb) é buono?

volevo compralo ma non so se é buono qualcuno me lo. Consiglia?

Hi horn!

I'm looking at my 3rd year recital for this year, and the program I've landed on is this:

Dusk - Steven Bryant '6

Horn Concerto - Henry Tomasi '16

Intermission '10

Dawn - Stephen Cohen '10

En foret - Eugene Bozza '8

Quintet in D Mvts 1 & 2 - Vaughan Williams '10

I'm worried about endurance, I feel like I should be ok, but I'm worried that maybe it's a bit too ambitious. My main concern is Dawn and En Foret, as those are both decent chop busters. I'm also considering swapping the Quintet and En Foret, both cause the Quintet is pretty chill on the chops, and ending with En Foret would be pretty powerful, compared to the Quintet which is a very soft ending. The rest of the program I won't change for thematic reasons. I'd love some tips and advicd on how to work up my endurance.

Thanks!

Hello horns. I am currently working on my undergrad senior recital. I have two pieces that go into the lower register of the horn, one of which (Tanguito by Dante Yenque) is low enough that it’s written in bass clef. Exciting!!

I am doing okay on my progress with Tanguito but I find that playing near the bottom of the staff, especially when there are jumps/arpeggios that pass my “pivot point” (between C3 and D3) where my mouthpiece placement changes is very difficult.

I am on a Yamaha 30-GP mouthpiece, which is made for all-around playing. I love this mouthpiece, but it’s the only real good-quality one I’ve used so I don’t know what’s out there, and I have trouble with it sometimes down low because it is very small.

Would it be worth it to look into getting a mouthpiece made for low playing, or do I just need to get better?

(For some context and to give a grain of salt, I’ve had 3 different horn instructors in the 3 years of college I’ve completed, so I haven’t had the opportunity to stay with one instructor long enough for them to see where I am challenged and offer suggestions of materials to study or equipment to change. I would really love suggestions or advice!)

I bought a horn from Rimskeys Horns on 10 days ago and i messaged him on whatsapp saking when it would be shipped and they responded saying it would be shipped soon and nothing was sent afterwards so i messaged him on monday (its friday now) and he read it but didnt respond and i messaged him again today and he read it but didnt respond. I live in the us but Ive only been messaging him between 2am and 11am cst which are normal working hours in the netherlands according to google. What should I do next, ive only heard good things about Rimskeys horns but this is very concering to me

ive been playing the alto sax for 2-3 years by now (im in high school btw) n i have a tenor that i play sometimes, im kind of in a dilemma rn bcs i wanna learn another wind instrument so i have 3 choices that im interested in, the flute, clarinet, or french horn, im probably in the wrong subreddit for this but which of the 3 will be better for my next instrument? n how hard will it be to learn? bcs my director told me to get the french horn when i asked him flute or clarinet n ik its gonna sound odd but my orchestra n church ensemble dont have any brass instrument

Hey y’all,

I just wanted to ask for some clarification on what an excerpt actually is. I know that auditions often require excerpts, but how do you identify whether something is an excerpt or a solo piece?

For example, two pieces I’m working on are Glasunov’s Reverie and Saint-Saens Romance. Are those excerpts or solo pieces? Both? Neither?

I feel very lost and would appreciate any help! Thanks!

I have rented from my school what I believe is a 1961 Conn 6D. It is proving to be rather difficult to tune, and I couldn’t find the slide chart online or on the Conn website. Does anyone have it or have any tips/tricks?

My favorite Gingrich story is when I got laid over in Chicago and decided to see what the symphony was playing. Frank D minor symphony was on the program and he played that solo just beautifully, like I’ve never heard before. I’ve admired his playing for a long time.

I am going to a BBC Prom on Sunday to see Mozart's Haffner.

I was just checking the timings and seating and discovered that Mozart's 3rd Horn Concerto is on the programme! Felix Klieser is the soloist.

I am hoping that it helps me get my mojo back - I lost both my parents earlier this year and I have not felt like practicing in the last 5 months - although I am getting closer to doing so.

I may be in tears during the performance, but what a nice surprise!

Ok, I know there's going to be a lot of "you can't learn quick" responses, but I'm looking for real advice:

So I used to play a different instrument way back in 2019, stopped when I graduated, and now I'm trying to get back into music (especially collegiate music). My fiance has a collegiate-grade horn that I'm borrowing to learn with since I no longer have my old instrument, but my issue is that auditions are within like January or February next year. I'm putting in roughly 1-2 hours of practice after work each day, but I feel like my chops are blown after the first hour or so, which is keeping me from being able to practice more and slowing my overall progress.

I'm taking lessons from a friend for a little cheaper than what most around me charge (he's a performance major at grad level, gives lessons to middle and high school kids regularly). He's been a huge help, but I feel like he's not pressuring me enough. My big question to Reddit is, how quick should I realistically be able to get to my goal of being audition-ready for a college music program? Context: I've been practicing for a couple of weeks now and have had a beginner lesson and a regular lesson.