Introduction to the Natural Horn

This course is meant for French horn players at conservatoire level, who are looking for information about and experiences with playing the historical horn.

In these step by step lessons I guide you through the principles of natural horn playing. By doing easy but progressive exercises you will quickly become more accustomed with controling the harmonic series on all the different crooks.

I will demonstrate you how the right hand technique works and give you exercises to train the coordination of the right hand, embouchure, and air support in a most accurate way.

After finishing this course and by doing the assignments, you will already be able to succesfully participate on the natural horn in ensembles and orchestras. In the last lesson we will study the first movement of Mozart's first horn concerto into detail, in order to give you an idea of your soloistic possibilities on the natural horn.

Video's
3 hours

Skill Level
Intermediate

Language
English

Certificate
Certified from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam

Feedback
Personalised video feedback every lesson

Watch this video for more information:

Content of this course

Lesson 1
Warming up

Lesson 2
Right hand technique: Slightly stopped and fully stopped notes

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5
Intonation Exercises on Stopped Notes

Lesson 6
Low Crooks, Orchestral Excerpts

Lesson 7
High Crooks, Orchestral Excerpts

Lesson 8
Stamina Exercises

Lesson 9
Mozart Horn Concerto No. 10

How it works

The course is a series of related video lessons, each structured around a specific topic or topics. By the end of this course, you will have developed a strong sense of direction in your daily study routine.

Weekly video lessons
After joining the course, you will be able to view a new video lesson weekly. Each video lesson consists of:
- Examples that musically define the sound of the topic you are studying in each video
- A study routine section in which we first discuss how to study the specific topic of each lesson. We will then play several exercises specially written to show you how to structure your daily study routine
- Assignments that will help you consolidate and practice what you have learned in each video.

Weekly assignments
After each lesson, you will be asked to study, practice and then video record yourself playing an assignment which may consist of several exercises. When ready, you submit the video of your assignment. The process of having to record yourself every week, significantly helps to internalise the material discussed in this course - quickly and naturally.

Weekly feedback
You will then receive a video with individual and personalised feedback to each assignment, every lesson. The personal feedback that you receive will enable you to improve and clarify any questions that might arise during your weekly study. You can view the feedback as many times as you like.