# I want to play french horn



## Harrytjuh

Hello everybody,

I want to play french horn but should I do that? They say it's really hard so I don't know...
So my question is: Why should I or should I not play french horn?

Harry

By the way I'm 14 years old and I have played the piano for five years.


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## Manxfeeder

Someone else will give you more practical advice, but your question reminds me of an old comedy skit done to the tune of the last movement of Mozart's 4th Horn Concerto .


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## Ukko

Harrytjuh said:


> Hello everybody,
> 
> I want to play french horn but should I do that? They say it's really hard so I don't know...
> So my question is: Why should I or should I not play french horn?
> 
> Harry
> 
> By the way I'm 14 years old and I have played the piano for five years.


Well, it would be a Very Good Thing if you rented a horn, got lessons, practiced assiduously throughout high school and while studying in physics at university, and then redesigned and perfected the horn as a musical instrument.

Anything less would be less of a good thing. What I'm saying is: you are looking down a hard road, with a difficult instrument _at the end_ of it. My impression is that even the finest horn players have a love/hate relationship with their instrument.


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## OboeKnight

Horn is an amazing instrument. My favorite brass instrument! The sound is incredible (when played correctly.) Horn and oboe are the candidates for the most difficult instruments to master, so you are definitely in for a long road ahead if you decide to play horn. Don't waste your time if you aren't willing to practice like mad. If you are, horn will be very rewarding. I know oboe has been rewarding for me haha.


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## CoCo

I think the french horn is *the* best instrument to play. No, it's not an easy choice but it has a wonderful sound & it's the instrument that composers write-for when they want a 'noble' noise!
My advice would be to make sure that you learn with someone who plays the horn themselves, if at all possible. Many peripatetic music teachers who instruct in brass instrument-playing in schools, tend to be trumpet/trombone players. But if you are tutored by a french horn player, you will be taught the correct and best fingering...which is frequently not necessarily the case with non horn-playing tutors...in my experience.
And try to learn how to play the single F horn and B flat horn...here is a useful source of information....

http://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/beginners.html

Good Luck and Happy Blowing!

CoCo.


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## Ryan

Well if it's French make sure you learn the horn of retreat, it should be well practised. 

That is of course only a joke! France has a great infantry, especially the Foreign Legion who are made up of at least 20% French men.


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## Ryan

Correction:

17% as of may 2012.


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## Harrytjuh

Thank you all, I'm convinced now so I'm going to play this beautiful instrument. But I have one last question, my sister plays violin but she is worried that when we play together you won't hear the violin because the horn is too loud. Is that true?


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## Ukko

Harrytjuh said:


> Thank you all, I'm convinced now so I'm going to play this beautiful instrument. But I have one last question, my sister plays violin but she is worried that when we play together you won't hear the violin because the horn is too loud. Is that true?


If you play _together_, i.e. at the same time, it is true. There are several compositions for chamber ensemble which feature both instruments, and the violin and horn compliment each other well; but mostly they aren't played simultaneously. You and you sister can 'take turns'. When your skills become sufficient you can 'echo and embellish' each other - that could be great fun.


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## Jobis

Its harder work than say the piano, and requires more patience. I can practice on the piano for a couple of hours straight and feel pretty good afterwards, whereas my practice sessions on the horn are shorter as i'm not very fit and breathing is exhausting! then again I'm only about grade 4 level for the horn so perhaps my endurance will improve with time. 

Its a beautiful sounding instrument and well worth the time you put in.


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## jamallax89

Manxfeeder
Thanks for your advice.


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