In this video lesson, Expert Katherine Liesener teaches how to hand mute the bell when playing French horn.



Transcript: KATHERINE LIESENER: "Hi! My name is Katie and I'm here on behalf of expertvillage.com and I'm going to show you the correct way to hold your hand in the bell of a French horn. First of all the reason that horn players put there hands in the bell is that first it effects the sound of the horn, it gives the horn and part it characteristic mellow quality and second of all you could control intonation with your hand. So first I'm going to show you what your hand should look like the first thing I'm going to do is you want to put these four fingers together as tightly as possible. Make sure that there is hardly any space between them and then what you want to do is you want to scrunch your hand up like this. This is about the shape that you want, you are going to put your thumb just like so and hopefully you could see that is up against the other fingers just as tight as they are with each other. The shape here is almost like the Nike swoosh that is what you are going for so once you have the proper position of your hand you are going put inside of the bell. What is important here is that the back of your fingers is out against the far side of the wall of the bell. Like so. You don't want to end so fine that your hand is blocking off the air but as you could see you want it in pretty far you want to point when you could see my knuckles are just visible. If you keep your hand just like this, then you would be in a good position to change intonation and to ensure that you have the mellow tone that you want."

1. How to Play French Horn: Getting Started
2. How to Hold the French Horn
3. How to Use Mouthpiece Pressure on a French Horn
4. How to Use Embouchure & Lips on a French Horn
5. Sounding Notes on a French Horn
6. How to Play a French Horn with Complex Fingerings
7. Understanding Volume Dynamics on a French Horn
8. Changing Pitch With Embouchure on a French Horn
9. How to Adjust French Horn Intonation With Slides
10. Hand Stopping the Bell on a French Horn
11. Adjusting French Horn Intonation with the Hand-in-Bell Technique
12. Stopping & Muting on a French Horn
13. Slurring Notes on a French Horn
14. Legato Tonguing on a French Horn
15. How to Play Staccato Notes on a French Horn
16. How to Play Accenting Notes on a French Horn
17. How to Play Glissando Notes on a French Horn
18. Emptying the Spit Valve on a French Horn
19. How to Oil the Valves on a French Horn
20. How to Grease the Slides on a French Horn
21. French Horn Practice Tips
22. French Horn Training Methods
23. How to Play the French Horn Standing Up

In this course, eHow Expert Katherine Liesener gives 23 video lessons on How To Play the French Horn. Learn basic tips and techniques for playing this brass instrument, including how to hold the horn, form proper embouchure, and changing pitch using your lips, the rotary valves, or by putting your hand in the bell. Also learn some intermediate French horn skills involving orchestral music, like how to play slurs, legato, glissando, staccato, and accent notes. Finally, get some practical care and maintenance tips for your horn, as well as some basic guidelines for creating a practice routine.