In this video lesson, Expert Katherine Liesener teaches how to play with legato tonguing techniques when playing the French horn.



Transcript: KATHERINE LIESENER: "Hi! I'm Katie and I'm here on behalf of expertvillage.com and I'm going to show you how to do legato tonguing on the French horn. Here you see a series of legato marks and they are these long lines above the note and those lines remind you that the note makes it long as possible almost but not quite connected. Now although legato means is that the time for these notes are going to be very smooth; okay very long and very smooth. But unlike in slurs there is going to be a slight break in between notes. They are not going to be completely connected with air so one thing to think about that might help you where imagining where is about tonguing is to think about a paintbrush and how a painter may go one way and then goes the other. It is just a slight motion of picking up the brush and starting in another direction. Okay nice and smooth like that. If I where to play a legato scale it would sound like this. You could hear that the notes are all very long, they are almost connected but there is slight separation. You can hear how long they are you. You can compare that to maybe normal articulation which would sound like this. Legato connects notes a little bit more but you still use your tongue to stop the last note and to start the next one and that is how legato tonguing is done."

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.