Rolla, ND | AGR568 - 4/29/2015 12:28
My 10 year old son has chosen to play the French Horn in band next year. At an open house with the band director last evening the local instrument retailer was present with their models and contracts...the situation is that they want upwards of $3,000 for a French Horn!
I chose not to pay this and research a bit on my own to find a better deal; they are all over the place for $250-$550. An email to the band director was less than helpful, she responded to my questions with "well COMPANY XYZ is who we work with"
We are not a musical family, and my only artistic pal is a drummer who couldn't stop laughing at son's choice in instruments.\
So any guidance or insight into this would be greatly appreciated.
I really enjoyed playing the Horn. It's a big help if the student has fairly full lips, the Horn's mouthpiece looks small but is deep. Ideally, if you son completely relaxes his face with his mouth slightly open, if you push lightly on his lip, you shouldn't seem much if any teeth. I started out with trumpet but I had too much lip for it and horn was much better but then I was a bit small. You can buy different size mouthpieces which help make some adjustment.
The thing the horn player really has to have is an ear. He is changing the tuning with his hand all the time. He is blending the orchestra. Bigger bells and throats have a richer sound, but if the student's hand is small, it's hard to tune. You can adjust some by pulling out the tuning slide and moving the hand further into the throat.
Most commonly here, a student starts with a single F Horn. F Horn is easier to give good sounds especially in the middle and lower range. It is at a disadvantage for the higher notes.
Not unusual in Europe for a student to play a single Bb Horn. Good high, really can't do the low notes.
When you get into a double horn, it basically switches between a F Horn and a Bb Horn. So if you look at a high school band, the ticket to the top seems to be a double horn because those playing first part have to be able to hit the high notes so a double horn offers a definite advantage to them.
The big reason not to start with a double horn, besides cost, is that it gets heavy for a lot of kids. Double horns vary a lot in how heavy they are.
Some horns have a bell that screws off and those are really nice to carry. You get a flat case instead of a knee breaker.
There are even 3/4 size horns for smaller people. Triple horns and so on. In any case, you probably don't need to worry about those.
The material makes a difference in the sound. I like the brass, the golden brass is okay too but the nickle sounds harsh to me. Doesn't make much difference to most students. I played a Getzen single F that had wonderful, full sound.
If you buy used, a couple of dents don't mean much if it's in the bell. What is the whole key is the valves. Leaky or sticky valves and you have troubles. I like where they use the strings around the valves, it's very quiet. The mechanical linkage ones are good too but make some noise if you are playing very quietly. I just found it distractive.
No way I'd plop down $3000 for someone to try horn.
The toughest thing about a French Horn is trying to march with it, so if marching is a big thing then there are marching style horns that work well.
Right at the end of school is a good time to buy as the graduates sell.
For a beginner, a real good horn is the Conn 14D, bit smaller throat, relatively easy to get a good sound, yet fairly durable for the bumps and such. When ready an 8D Conn would feel very much the same and take him right through college without any problems. Both are common enough you should be able to get fairly reasonable if you hunt a bit.
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School Band Instrument Purchase
