In this video lesson, Expert Katherine Liesener teaches how to use proper mouthpiece pressure when playing French horn.



Transcript: KATHERINE LIESENER: "Hi! I'm Katie and I'm here on behalf of expertvillage.com, to show you how to use correct mouthpiece pressure when playing the horn. Now when you are playing a brass instrument, you need some kind of pressure. You need to have some tension between the mouthpiece and your vibrating lips; however a temptation among younger players is press as hard as possible to try to get those high notes when they are not coming out. So what happens is that they end up pulling the horn very hard to their face like so. If you are playing too hard, your are going to notice maybe two things. First of all you would very quickly develop a ring around your mouth that is a indentation from the mouthpiece. Now if you have been playing for a extended period of time, that ring is going to show up no matter what. But if you have been playing for very short period and you are pressing very hard and you notice that you have very red ring you are probably pressing too hard. Also although your lips are going to hurt the more you play or ache a little bit. Your teeth should never hurt. If you are pressing too hard against the mouthpiece, then your teeth would most likely hurt and that is a good indication. So what you want is just a relaxed tension but not too much. The reason if you think about it is simple the lips are muscles and just like any muscle if you are constrict it can't do its job. You could imagine it would be very hard to lift something with your biceps if someone is holding your bicep as tight as possible. It is the same thing with your mouth. You want to give it room to do its job. That is how you apply the correct amount of pressure to a mouth piece."

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.