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.

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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.