All About The French Horn - Part 2

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[@aidan_c0rny418]

Most anticipated sequel ever

[@skraegorn7317]

3 years in the making

[@indieWellie]

see you guys in 2023 for part three.

[@iradam]

And here we are ! (... still waiting LoL)

[@SamuelPlaysBrass]

Let’s hope!

[@pressplay6430]

still waiting

[@saidoof9369]

Uh

[@breadboy6598]

I have bad news for you, its almost 2024

[@RyanAlexanderBloom]

I like how the normal playing range of the Horn is high enough that the fingerings start to become meaningless near the top because the harmonics are so close together. Cracks me up.

[@davidshead7370]

That's actually the great historical advantage of the Horn. Before valves came along, having a brass instrument that played so high up in the harmonic series meant that you could play scales and melodic lines just like (almost!) any string or woodwind instrument. Yes, it makes it much harder to play accurately, because it's so easy to accidentally hit a neighbouring harmonic, but you get nicer music in the end. I suspect that's why (along with the mellower, less "brassy" tone) the Horn has ended up being placed next to the woodwinds rather than the brass in the orchestra, and why it's used so much more often alongside "woodwind" ensembles than any other brass instrument (eg., the normal wind quintet is flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon). It's a brass instrument with something like the agility of a woodwind instrument.

[@blackmage1276]

Well any brass instrument can do that lol

[@masonvannort6875]

When part 1 came out I was just barely staring to get into French horn Now that part 2 is here I’m a music education major studying French horn under one of the best horn professors in the US

[@TrentHamilton]

Yeah... Sorry about the delay. Hope you weren't relying on my videos :P

[@maagic2031]

Its been 84 years.....

[@peterdegelaen]

Perhaps some interesting additional info. On a double horn, the fourth key (to switch between the F and the Bb side) can usually be connected in two ways: 1) free = F side, actuated = Bb side or 2) free = Bb side and actuated = F side. American horn players usually use option 1) while European horn players usually use option 2). Professional classical horn players also have to be masters in transposition. They get scores for horns in all possible tunings while they have to play them with their F and/or Bb tuned horn so they have to transpose the score on the fly.

[@saxking650]

He sounds so much better at French horn from the first episode, his tone is so much better

[@TheAppleGeek52]

Matthew James I would hope so it's been three years.

[@martineyles]

Yes, definitely improved.

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

Yeah! But how does Trent sound on the shofar "Ram's Horn?" 😉

[@CptGallant]

As a horn player, I can tell you that water keys are always disappointing. They only seem to get half the water out compared to just removing the tuning slide and dumping it. And because of the very narrow bore, water accumulates much faster than in a trumpet, for example. That said, a lot of modern horns have water keys anyway. More importantly though, I am overjoyed that part 2 was finally made!

[@martineyles]

I think water keys on the leadpipe are very common. Perhaps less on cheaper instruments. I find the water key on the leadpipe useful when you don't have much time (useful enough that I wouldn't like to be without it), but if there's time, it's definitely more effective to empty the main slide. I'm often empty both 3rd slides and the F tuning slide too, though sometimes the water just hides.

[@malthuswasright]

Bang on. Never saw the need for a water key on a horn.

[@lih3391]

My water key just doesn’t work on my horn as it drips everywhere and will leave spit on the bottom of the water key that will eventually drip on me. Mine’s probably badly made but it could be many other things as well.

[@Rayxl1]

I play brass but condensation water has always been the bug bear. However I've now made a device that allows water to drain from the instrument while leaving the tubing air tight. I can't get one on every place that needs one but I can generally play for a long time without hearing that dreaded crackling sound of water!

[@andy-gt2kc]

lmao yeah my horn always has spit in my 2nd valve

[@NonTwinBrothers]

I NEVER THOUGHT THE DAY WOULD COME

[@tsakeboya]

2:18 We also call it "French Horn" (Γαλλικό Κόρνο) in Greek

[@bob5510]

The altonium, much like the American-bore euphonium and the trombonium, were all in vogue in marching bands prior to the design of the modern mellophone and marching baritone, which took their cues from advances in competition bugles in the drum corps world in the 2nd half of the last century. Note that each set of instruments would allow for a uniform look across sections; so everyone can carry and move their instruments in the same way.

[@frenchhornwoman]

I am a french horn player and this was fun. Joy key for water issues, I have one and it works very well. I have a King Eroica, best horn ever, and more people/kids need to start playing. xxxx

[@whale4304]

Watching Trent read the sponsorship script thing is the best thing i’ve seen all day.

[@nathannoregreb138]

Hello,I love your videos. Finally someone who's talking of other brass than trumpets and trombone

[@NonTwinBrothers]

Twisty trumpet

[@trainliker100]

I played horn at one time before going over to the dark side (the trumpet). I have heard the horn called "The Coil of Toil" and that's about right. However, if you put the work into it, the reward is quite satisfying. You have probably heard more horn music than any other instrument and don't know it. A studio musician named Vincent DeRosa had a career from 1935 until 2008. He was so good, that more and more music was written for movies and TV that involved the horn. DeRosa himself has played on a vast number of movie and TV soundtracks and accompanying a vast number of singers from Frank Sinatra on down. Want to hear some great DeRosa horn playing? He was principle horn for the Star Trek II movie soundtrack.

[@stickom]

stunning presentation, I've been an amateur single F for four decades and I've never had a courage to proceed to double for the one reason only, it is solely a professional instrument. Thanks for part 1 too. (Conn f hands down being the best single out there a good starter or just playing for your own jest, B horns are either professional used in operas or as an entry level band instruments)

[@CHICHI-vn9kd]

I am a French horn player and Thank you for your video here I have been a fan of your channel and it’s great to see you doing a video on French horn Just want to talk about some experiences, harmonic series are tricky to get in the modern double horn, especially in the F side and in the high register ..

[@4351steve]

As a sophomore I volunteered in my high school band to learn the French Horn. I had been playing cornet. There was only one other French Horn player in our HS band and plenty of Trumpet/Cornet players. I learned on a single F Horn. We moved to another state the next summer and the High School band I joined had Olds double horns. The band director was a horn player. I guess I was reasonably good at it. Even though I never advanced to more than 4th chair, I was expected to play in all the seasonal small ensembles. After High School, with no Horn, I never got to play one again. In my forties I went back to Trumpet/Cornet.

[@jean-pierredevent970]

I just bought a second hand instrument (Blasom) which resembled a single French Horn but once home I saw the tuning was E flat, not F. Further the mouthpiece is bigger and a normal one doesn't fit. I didn't check but the bore is probably slightly bigger. It is also right handed and seems heavy. It plays dark and noble (with good embouchure) but perhaps a bit more like a small tuba. It misses some typical color although it's there. It's hard to transport with the bike with that fixed bell. I am happy with the instrument since it plays so easily and I see so many real horn players suffer because their instrument is so stuffy and hard.

[@skraegorn7317]

Congrats on 75k! You deserve it Trent!

[@pauls5745]

yes! there is a bagillion different Horns. I got my 1st horn, a single F, then wanted a Bb, and got addicted to the different styles they come in haha. my 3rd was is a F double, now I have too many and still want to explore the natural horn and some weird vintage variants anyone that needs convincing of how broad the tonal quality French horns can envelop, search Vienna Horns here on YT. I think that was what got me addicted to the French horn haha

[@matthesdittmann6165]

"The advantages of the double horn outweigh the disadvantages of the additional weight." Got it? Outweigh! :)

[@bikkies]

That altonium looks very cute. As for the more complex triple French horns I could imagine they are torture to tune up, with more slides than Disney water parks...

[@NigelRamses]

Excellent video. I wish that my high school band director could have seen the part about reading music in one key while going back and forth on the horn. He insisted on giving us Bb versions of music, though we only understood how to read in F.

[@marka5478]

Being from Cleveland, Ohio, King instruments supplied the music departments of Cleveland Public Schools. Therefore, we all had our share of Altoniums and Tromboniums. Not bad instruments for horn students to play in marching band.

[@KMO325]

When I was in school, I played trumpet and French Horn. In the 7th & 8th grade I played the trumpet exclusively, when I went to high school I was made to switch to the French Horn for symphonic band & mellophone for marching band (for about two years, then our band teacher decided he didn't care for mellophones and I went back to trumpet for marching band) while still playing trumpet for jazz band. I ended up learning French Horn on a double horn so I only had to learn the F-key fingering (though I ironically found the Bb-fingering harder to play with for awhile, until I got use to the Horn overall).

[@laurencefinston7036]

Thank you for this enjoyable and informative video. The term "French horn" may have been created as an analogue to the term "the French disease". I think it would be worth mentioning that French horn players have to be "veritable wizards" at transposing, as a book on playing from scores put it. In the old days, horn parts were always notated in C and you either had to have a horn in the key of the piece, use a crook, or transpose. In more recent scores, the horn parts are almost always for an F horn (i.e., down a fifth), even if a Bb horn is called for. There is also the extremely confusing "high bass clef" notation and the unnecessary treble clef notation, with the result that occasionally it is _not possible_ to determine in what octave a horn part was intended to be played. In my opinion, insisting on calling a French horn a plain horn is a bit snobbish. It seems to me that it expresses the attitude that only "classical" music is important and other styles of music which use other instruments called horns, are beneath notice. On the other hand, it is true that in musical scores "corno" meant and means the French horn and the trumpet was "tromba" and that trombone therefore means "big trumpet". In German, a French horn is called a "Waldhorn" ("forest horn") and you get the same snobbish insistence that it's "really" just "Horn".

[@bassboydavid]

The long awaited part 2 of the Horn series! Very nice video!

[@lethargicstove2024]

I was searching this up yesterday

[@isaiasfm4228]

I had to wait 3 ywars

[@gavintantleff]

Great video. I would like to note that marching French horns are much less popular nowadays, and that mellophones (trumpets that sound like French horns) are much more common in marching bands.

[@Xzyum00]

From my knowledge, I remembered actual "French" horns having piston valves. I assume that was because piston valves are also called Périnet valves because François Périnet was a French instrument manufacturer that is sometimes credited with invention of piston valves on brass instruments. François Périnet is also a very French sounding name so perhaps Piston valve horns were called French Horns and the rotary valve horns were called German horns and then perhaps in English speaking countries the just kinda melted together and called all of them "French Horns". I could be completely wrong but it's a theory.

[@euphinism1]

Great article! Didn't hear the Wagner tuba mentioned as an alternative...

[@chacmool2581]

If I pick up the trumpet today, how long before I can play A Night in Tunisia like Arturo Sandoval? 🔥

[@wavewright62]

Why does the 'altonium' / alto horn exist? It was pretty much an early phase of a horn to play on the march, with the bell crooked to point outward, similar to the American eupho/baritone. The F mellophone was a later refinement, and much more fit for purpose. The whole point of the design is to bring the general tonal range of a french horn into a format that allowed the player to blow the toupee off the hack sitting in the press box at the top of the stadium. See also: shoulder-mounted cannon tuba. Edit: aww, sorry Bob, I shoulda read down a-ways before commenting.

[@garypaisley]

Thanks!

[@trainliker100]

It is typical for a horn player to think of fingerings differently than, say, a trumpet player. A trumpet player, whether playing on a B flat, C, E flat, or whatever, tends to think in terms of the same harmonic series regardless of the key of the instrument. A horn player (talking about a double horn now) will think in terms of multiple fingerings for many notes thinking in terms of the four valves taken as a group. Not really thinking in terms of the harmonic series so much. For example, in the range where the F horn and B flat overlap nicely, and where you might choose to play on one or the other, there are at least two fingerings. For many notes, there are more than two fingerings. You simply think in terms of a selection of fingerings. You might select a fingering because it works out better for an ascending or descending run. Or to perhaps improve intonation (and that might vary from horn to horn). For choosing whether to play on the F or B flat side, the same notes might also be played on one horn or the other based on the music being played. For example, if playing a descending broken chord starting somewhat high on the B flat horn, you might finish it on the B flat horn. If an ascending broken chord started on the F horn, you might finish on the F horn. Even though the final note in each case might be the same note.

[@iohannesfactotum]

I inherited my mother's double F horn and I remember her talking about this. Wish she was here to ask about it now 😟

[@KariIzumi1]

The only long awaited sequel I needed, lol

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

0:13 Those first few notes sounded like you were going to play the song "Blue Moon."

[@ItsMe-ic5oc]

I thought of Georgia on my Mind

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

@@ItsMe-ic5oc Upon further review, I still think it sounds like a few bars from "Blue Moon." Regardless, we can agree that it's from the "Great American Song Book." 😁 It looks like Trent is going to abstain from commenting. 😉

[@ItsMe-ic5oc]

@@christophertsiliacos8958 yeah. And about Trent, He is gonna comment after releasing part 3😆

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

@@ItsMe-ic5oc 👍 All right! 😊

[@danny_tubas]

el manicero

[@jimmybarr9411]

Before I clicked on this, I legitimately was looking in my notifications for part 1 to make sure that I had watched it first

[@sierrameriedeth]

I have a single Bb with a stopping valve. Im looking to get a double sometime soon as that obviously will fit my needs more.

[@masternip]

the time has come

[@johnmason7838]

Very good Trent! Did you ever get your Lidl compensating horn restored?

[@demetrioalexandre8787]

Wagner Tuba! Watched this series hoping to see it in the 'honorable mention of French Horn derivatives'. Will you do, or have you done, a chapter about this not very well known instrument?!

[@ymp6345]

Finally!!!! i play horn and have been waiting for the second

[@KevinAllOver]

I was gonna mention the King Altonium and ask what the deal is. I recently purchased one off eBay, thinking I was getting a Tenor/Alto horn. Took a ton of research to realize what it is and what mouthpiece it takes. Such a weird instrument, but I guess it sounds nice...

[@dmccauley19]

Could you make a video showing how the Viennese pumpen valves work?

[@justintounsi]

In french, the french horn is actually called "Cor français" which also has the "french" part. So I guess we're both in the same boat xD

[@tac0belle666]

No one says that but ok

[@justintounsi]

@@tac0belle666 Maybe that's a Canadian thing

[@TRUMPETSIZZLE]

📯📯1st time to hear that lick on F HORN!📯📯

[@andrewiwai3881]

Once I mastered the French horn, all the other brass instruments were easy to play. Glad my first instrument was the French horn, made life easier😝

[@imbad207]

You should see my kruspe wrap horn it's made from Nickel Silver and had a small bell and it makes a really bright tone it plays like a kruspe but sounds closer and is closer to the size of a geyer

[@Foxchase92]

I play a Hans Hoyer compensating Bb/F horn. Pretty new to it (about two years now), and I don't think I need a new one for some time. Even long-time hornists that have tried it commented on how good it sounded. Seems that compensating horns are relatively uncommon these days. Which is a shame, considering it's sort of a fast-track to learning the "proper" double horn, at a significantly reduced cost.

[@Foxchase92]

@Damian Giese Thank you for your advice! Will definitely look into them, don't think I'll put the horn aside for a while. Played the cornet for a while, but I feel the horn gives me so much more :)

[@TracySmith-xy9tq]

I bought a Holton H179 in 1976 that had a spit valve

[@charleswolfe619]

The frumpet will now haunt my nightmares

[@tjsogmc]

I have 4 valve trombones and the water keys are next to useless. I end up taking off the tuning slides and dumping the water that way. When I'm done playing, I have to rotate the horn and actuate the valves like it was a french horn so I can get the rest of the water out.

[@peep__4387]

Hey Trent, can you do a video on French horn brand reviews? I graduated high school, now I need some recommendations on reliable horns

[@alexg.5850]

0:13 Latinos (Including myself) be like "MANICEROOOOOOOOOO"

[@alanroman190]

De que pais eres?

[@lolbruhyeet4644]

I know this isn't about the video, but is the intro played by the brass band you're in (are you in a brass band)?

[@TheVirIngens]

In german we call it "Waldhorn" (= forest horn) or also just "Horn", but we don't have a tradition of calling most other wind instruments horns :)

[@andersringstrom825]

In Swedish, we just borrowed the German name, making it valthorn - but there is no such Swedish word as "valt"...

[@garpog2458]

i see you have new lighting

[@adamzimmerman2464]

After learning how to play the French horn and the Alto Trombone I like the Alto Trombone much better. It’s a lot simpler and easier to play and it is much more rare and cool. Alto Trombone is the cooler, better and more interesting Alto-ranged brass instrument in my opinion.

[@logofmusic]

Speaking of horns in the key of f or b-flat: Do tuba players with an instrument in the key of f use different fingerings to those in the key of b-flat? So far, I have only seen tuba parts written as if all of them are in the key of c. But I might be wrong.

[@shealinbanta4169]

I would love to try that instrument

[@willemkossen]

what is that piece called you played at the beginning? I know it from an old youtube video where some trombone players make a great show of it. what's it called?

[@andrewheltz9874]

The Peanut Vendor

[@hakunakahuna]

Do you have a video on the differences between a marching French horn and a mellophone (I have the latter)?

[@baportabo8156]

This takes longer than Avatar 2. 😂😂😂

[@anthonymurray545]

I’ve played horn for 15 years now and when I was at uni, we referred to kruspe as the “cwispy waps” and Geyer as just... Geyer

[@allmusic962]

Longest waited

[@trainliker100]

Since to thoroughly cover the horn will, in my estimation, take at least 168 parts, potential horn players haven't been born yet that will see the final installment.

[@MrInitialMan]

Okay, I'm laughing over the fact that you're STILL dissing the Frumpet.

[@johannesschlegel7310]

Its called Waldhorn in F * angry german noise *

[@Potter5416]

The mellowfone is a marching French horn.

[@Lostkin413]

The horn and the mellophone are not related to each other in anyway other than the fact that they are both brass instruments that can play in an alto-ish register. The mellophone has much less tubing than the horn(a whole octave difference), which gives it basically no resemblance to the horn. The mellophone is really just a trumpet that’s pitched down a 5th with a bigger bell

[@AndyMarsh]

Great fun and as informative as always...

[@williambibee2240]

what was the song he played after his intro music? it sounds v fun

[@Nicoissimo]

Would you say the altonium is less of an abomination than the frumpet? (And the frumpet does exactly what you said - joins the worst of both instruments. I bought one when I was transitioning from French horn to trumpet, thinking it would be ‘just the thing.’ Yeah, I never thought there would be a brass instrument with more difficult intonation than the French horn….).

[@TrentHamilton]

Yes, it is less of an abomination

[@jakenowell5211]

Yes!

[@isaiasfm4228]

AmAzInG

[@MiningSkullz36]

What if Trent Hamilton reacted to DCI?????

[@rakutzimbel4539]

It was about time, but apologies accepted 🖤

[@freakyfrederick]

IT ONLY TOOK YOU THREE YEARS HAHAHAHA thank you

[@isaiasfm4228]

Yayyyyy , He actually did it

[@lapiswake6583]

I still find the french horn to be an outdated instrument, the parts being better served by the tenor horn. This last year in concert band, I used a tenor horn to play F horn parts, was no issue (except my horn is an 1890s instrument pitched in high pitch (A=452), a quarter tone sharper than the normal low pitch (A=440)). I might even get it modified to have a custom 4th valve, the added tubing for which could help lower the pitch by that quarter tone, the valve bringing it down to Bb as an Eb tuba's 4th valve does.

[@martineyles]

(・o・)

[@malthuswasright]

Tenor horn is far less subtle. The tone is not as warm to start with, and the gradations of tone you can obtain with different hand positions in the bell of the french horn make it a completely different animal. Add to that the fact that horns blend in with woodwind much more easily, and you can't compare the two.

[@lapiswake6583]

I would say that the tenor horn is the most subtle brass instrument there is. You can almost always hear a french horn in an orchestra, but rarely do you hear a tenor horn in a brass band. Plus, larger bore leads to a warmer sound, and tenor horns are much easier to store and carry than bulky french horns (removable bells add awkwardness). A french horn always sounds harsh compared to a saxhorn (tenor horn, baritone, euphonium, british tuba).

[@martineyles]

I have played many horn parts that don't suit the range of the tenor horn well, though these are more common in orchestral parts than they are in concert band parts for some reason. My most confusing concert band moment was playing the hand stopped section of Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Post from an Eb part, requiring double the transposition.

[@zebulon9307]

2:16. So the French horn didn´t originally come from France? (Btw, it´s German name is "Waldhorn" (literally "Forest Horn") because you do NOT play it in the forest, but in the concert hall. The signal horn you can actually hear in the forest is the "Jagdhorn" (Hunting Horn). Ok, and so the French took revenge on the English with the "Cor Anglais" (which is, alas!, not a horn at all but an Oboe, and also not invented in England, but in Germany). And with all those peculiar instruments, the old-time musicians liked to play the "Allemande", a dance unheard of in Germany, or the "Sicilienne", that is of course unknown to every Sicilian. I´ve heard somewhere that in America they call the French Horn also the "English Horn", which, as I said above, is not a Cor Anglais. Whatever.

[@forveillelier]

Name of the song in 0:17?

[@DatOneGamer9870]

We did it. We got part 2!

[@thatotherboi8044]

oh how the world has waited

[@Ellaplayzsz_7.32]

most music refers to this instrument as the Horn In F.

[@aneeshrg1876]

Super

[@alanroman190]

Did you do a video of the F trumpet ?

[@spliffern2662]

i just watched the ensemble de trombones video and you play that, strange

[@nivek326]

He didn’t mention the Wagner tuba 🤧

[@indieWellie]

he did in the first part tho

[@mexicanmayo3450]

Cruspy wrap gang😎

[@Bubbamacomb]

Coincidentally, I got my French Horn back.

[@trombonewithlewis6015]

Hi Trent can you do a full trombone family video please

[@davidwinfrey2861]

The kinder horn tho

[@brucealanwilson4121]

An ill wind that no one blows good. How do you make a trombone sound like a French horn 📯? Stick your hand in the bell & play lots of wrong notes.

[@noahloum0015]

It’s thanks to my guy Trent Hamilton that I can fluently play all brass instruments

[@theafellacomposer]

Noahloum001 Trent has inspired me to become specialized in composing brass and aspire to become like him someday, to be able to fluently play multiple brass instruments as well :D

[@Galfrid]

Copper bones, triple stones...er...horn.

[@mr.starfish4965]

He did it. He make part 2

[@mal2ksc]

Why should horn manufacturers care what you think about water keys when you won't even let these into your brass bands? ;) Seriouusly though, would it be that hard to ship a slide with a water key and one without, to please the purists? Wait five years, then see which one the players are actually using, and why. I bet resistance to the idea will be gone by then.