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

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.

I have been doing some research on custom horns for myself. Not sure if I’m thinking about this the right way, but many seem to incorporate specifically a certain type of German valves. I suppose I was surprised that a custom horn can include many premade parts, especially one that can sell for 20k+ USD like a medlin horn. Which based on what I saw, possibly, the flare, valves, and bell tail are premade? So what parts are actually being made by horn makers? It seems like 50% (or more) is someone else’s work so can they really be called handmade? And I know this is not something that affects playability at all but some custom horns are sterile in areas where they could have some artistic qualities like the valve caps. Berg has shown this with designs, but going back to medlin - smooth caps. If I’m paying the cost of a cheap car I would like some shiny bits. Like, a Yamaha even has a basic design. But above all, I’d like it to seem like it’s actually worth it in a way and not like rebadging parts already made. Again, I might be seeing it wrong or missing the point but I’m leaning more and more to other things.

Hello! I played French horn for about 3–4 years before deciding to quit in 8th grade. When I got to 9th grade, I realized how much I missed it and decided to start relearning.

My issue is that I’ve been trying to get back into playing for about a year now, but I still feel like I sound awful and I can’t remember how I improved so much the first time around.

Does anyone have any good practice tips or resources I could try? Anything from buzzing exercises, free apps, online lessons, or even good YouTube channels/videos would be really helpful!

After quitting, I realized that French horn is something I’m truly passionate about, and I really want to improve during the years I have left in high school so I can hopefully pursue music in college. Any advice or tips would mean a lot. Thank you!!

🇺🇸can’t do the rest of the solo due to: skill issue lol

The brass instrument repair person everyone used in Southern Maine just retired. Someone please move here who does instrument repair. :)

Maine is awesome. Portland is expensive, but lots of more rural nearby parts are much more doable.

I wish this were satire.

This week, the Trump administration declared tubas, trombones, trumpets, and French horns a national security threat.

Yes, really. Brass instruments could soon face a 25% tariff on imports, parts, and accessories, as part of a wider push to expand tariffs on aluminium, steel, and copper.

The six-page proposal, published this week by the Department of Commerce, uses the words “national security” nine times.

If you don't want the price of your brass instruments to rise 25%, please contact your representatives. You can input your address here and it will pull up the contact information for your federal, state, and local representatives. Just copy-pasting a quick email to all of them could go a long way!

https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/

Ive been looking at it for a while now and i cant seem to find any people reviewing it