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French horns. what a sound


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Yeah. Our youngest horn player up through last season played using an adapter and frenchie mouthpiece. He does the same in his high school marching band. He prefers the feel of that mouthpiece.

When I was director of Cru, we also had a wonderful hornist who played in symphony orchestras who used her French Horn mouthpiece with an adaptor on mellophone... she had no problem...

It could be done well if:

1. you march well (little movement from the waist up)

2. you have a delicate embrouchure that is used to playing with little pressure - as many professional symphonic players do...

I met item 1 well... but had the embroucher of an elephant... I now have hearing aides thanks to trumpeter's ear (nerve damage due to pressure playing)

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When I was director of Cru, we also had a wonderful hornist who played in symphony orchestras who used her French Horn mouthpiece with an adaptor on mellophone... she had no problem...

It could be done well if:

1. you march well (little movement from the waist up)

2. you have a delicate embrouchure that is used to playing with little pressure - as many professional symphonic players do...

I met item 1 well... but had the embroucher of an elephant... I now have hearing aides thanks to trumpeter's ear (nerve damage due to pressure playing)

You need to get a second opinion. There's a very similar constellation of symptoms called hornists rear that will eventually produce voluntary deafness. It comes from marching in front of a drum corps french horn. Almost volunteered one year when I had to march in front of Fran Haring.

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Danny was/is awesome!!!

One year at the DCA I&E show, on French horn, he played Bill Watrous' "Fourth Floor Walkup"...which is an absolutely insane chart. Even more insane to try it on a drum corps French horn. But Danny pulled it off... he might have been the only person who could have done so. :devil:

I've heard Danny play that maybe 10 times. I wish I had a quality recording. A tour de force for any drum corps player. Danny is an absolute lock for BHoF - he simply has never cared if anyone paid any attention to him. He plays for the sake of the music. Unique and one of the world's greatest guys.

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You need to get a second opinion. There's a very similar constellation of symptoms called hornists rear that will eventually produce voluntary deafness. It comes from marching in front of a drum corps french horn. Almost volunteered one year when I had to march in front of Fran Haring.

Bawhahahahahaha

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Someone who knows more about this can answer this I'm sure:

In Sun, my first two seasons we used long valve-rotor French horns...... were they Olds UltraTones, perhaps, or some other brand?

I don't remember.

Whatever they were... those horns were great. ZERO resistance. I mean none. It was "diaphragm straight through to the bell" type of stuff... absolutely nothing blocking the air flow. And I must say..... we put that "free flow of air" concept to the test more than a few times. :tongue:

We switched to two-valves for 1979 and 1980... but during that '80 season, Marty Roche and I switched back to those "long necks." LOL. Just a better sound and less resistance, in our opinions.

We used 'em again in 1981, and then went back to a different model of two-valves in '82... by then the long ones were pretty beaten up and we had no choice but to put them aside. Those newer two-valves, thankfully, were pretty good.

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Someone who knows more about this can answer this I'm sure

The long FHs were the Olds Ultratone BU-10. Played great until they bounced around in the case for a few seasons. The case blocking was improperly designed and put a big dent in Branch #3 (the U-shaped tube next to the rotary.)

Your first stubbies were DEGs. The leadpipe was mismatched to the valve cluster. The first valve slide was way too short. If you instinctively picked one up you ended up holding just the tuning slide, while the horn lay on the ground with a big crinkle in the bell.

The later stubbies were the King K-60.

Edited by HornsUp
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I remember the wonderful sound produced by drum corps when the French horn was used.

Would you like to see it make a come back? thoughts..comments... and why did it disappear anyway?

I've mourned the loss of the :tongue: :tongue: :tongue: French Horn sound in Drum Corps for a long time. I was just telling someone in a completely different, non-drum corps setting why the French Horn sound is so beautiful...well, my Music Appreciation course professor in college made a point to tell us all that it's because the sound is a perfect sine wave. Not so much so with other instruments. He also said that for this reason, it's the only instrument in an orchestra recording session which can't simply be removed [in post production] from a passage or section without it sounding like turning off a light switch, if you will. It would be too obviously noticeable to remove a wrong note, for example. The most listenable singers, he said, have the more sine wavy displays on an ocilloscope.

I've always thought it was a great sound in the hands of good players. BTW, blame my professor if the above is incorrect.

Scott Mescon

Brigadiers 1993-

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There's a reason some professors teach only music appreciation, or music history.

A sine wave is a single pure pitch with NO harmonics. It must be generated electronically.

The tone color of an instrument is largely determined by the strength of the various harmonics (overtones).

Granted, a French Horn might be "closer" to a sine wave than other brass, and a flute is even closer. An oboe tends toward the opposite extreme. A clarinet, having a cylindrical bore, produces only the odd-numbered harmonics.

Finally, the Sine Wave minicorps does not produce sine waves. Nor do they have French Horns.

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The long FHs were the Olds Ultratone BU-10. Played great until they bounced around in the case for a few seasons. The case blocking was improperly designed and put a big dent in Branch #3 (the U-shaped tube next to the rotary.)

Your first stubbies were DEGs. The leadpipe was mismatched to the valve cluster. The first valve slide was way too short. If you instinctively picked one up you ended up holding just the tuning slide, while the horn lay on the ground with a big crinkle in the bell.

The later stubbies were the King K-60.

Thanks, Ken....somehow, I knew you'd have these answers! :tongue:

The "bouncing around in the case" thing was what eventually ruined those great Olds horns for us. I wonder where they ended up. Maybe next to Jimmy Hoffa in a NJ landfill. LOL.

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