Video: How to Adjust French Horn Intonation With Slides

Change intonation using the slides when playing French horn; learn how with tips from our expert French horn player in this free orchestra video music lesson on French horns.

Video Transcript

Hi! I'm Katie and I'm here on behalf of expertvillage.com to show you how to adjust intonation using your slides. So you'll see on the French horn there are quite of number of slides and what these do is control intonation and intonation is basically where your pitch lies. You want to be in tune with the people around you who you're playing with. If you feel that you are too sharp that means that you are too high, that you are higher then the people around your. If you are flat that means that your lower then that people around you and you want if your playing the same pitch as some one else to be as close to them as possible. So if you're sharp or too high you want to bring your pitch down to meet everyone else and the way that you do that is to pull out slides. For example, pull this slide out like I did just there would lower my pitch on my horn. So if I'm already higher then everyone else and I lower the pitch then I should come down and meet everyone else. Now it is very .......... like you think of a low instrument and you think of the tuba something that is very big. The more tubing the lower the note. You think of a high instrument like a piccolo it is very small so the least tubing the higher the notes. So same thing with the horn when you are pulling the slide out you are in fact making the horn longer you are creating more tubing therefore it makes more sense that the pitch would lower. Now if your feeling flat or sharp, the first place that you want to start missing around is with these main slides right here on this side of the horn. However, it is also possible that certain notes that you play might also require intonation and that is in this part right here. If for example every time I press down my middle finger and I feel that I'm sharp or high, then I what to extend the tubing here I'm pulling up the slide for the second valve here that correspond my middle finger. So again if you feel that you are on the low side and you want to get higher, you shorten the tubing or press the slides in it makes sense. So you will find that most horns when you get them there ideal intonation has all the slides at least out to some extent and they build it that way so you have room to push them in or to pull them out as you play. So just remember as you are playing with other people to constantly be aware of weather or not if you are higher or lower then people who are playing the same pitch as you and remember you could use your slides to adjust that intonation.

How to Adjust French Horn Intonation With Slides

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