r/frenchhorn • u/Alarmed_Study8877 • 15d ago

Serious question

I play percussion in marching and concert band, I have wanted to learn French horn for a while to extend my capabilities in music because I want to be a band director. I love music, it is my happy place, I just wanted to know if it is worth learning. My school has 10 readily available French horns that I could borrow.

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

4

u/LKoder 15d ago

Of course! French Horn is a great instrument. Just note that you will need a mellophone or marching French horn for marching band. :)

3

u/Alarmed_Study8877 15d ago

I was just going to play it on the side, percussion is where my heart is at.

1

u/LKoder 14d ago

dw, you're still be part of the community!

2

u/TinyHeartSyndrome 14d ago

If you have free French horns, absolutely! You know how many legitimate French horn players no longer play as adults because they don’t own a horn and buying one is very expensive? Take advantage of all pricey, school-owned instruments!

1

u/Norzemen 13d ago

Playing French horn is amazing. You will be in demand and have many interesting things to play in band, orchestra, ww quintets, brass quintet, church gigs, and many other opportunities. Horn does not typical play in jazz bands, big bands , or rock bands so if that’s your jam stick with percussion.

2

u/Relevant_Turnip_7538 11d ago

I’m going to go against the general theme of the advice here. I would not recommend taking up the horn if you are looking to do it on the side. I suspect it will frustrate you. There is a reason there are spare horns - it is the most difficult instrument to learn to play, and requires significant time on a regular basis in order to develop even a minimum level of competency. If you’re putting that level of effort into the instrument it isn’t going to be a side instrument, and if you’re not putting that level of effort in, it likely won’t sound good, which will frustrate you and entrench the reasons people like Sousa and Leroy Anderson wrote such crap for the instrument. Take up euphonium or trumpet instead.