Over the past several years of teaching, I’ve noticed that lots of students (and a few directors here and there) are thoroughly confused about the proper procedure to tune a French horn. Many students aren’t even sure what all the different slides (anywhere between 8-10) actually do!

John Ericson also posted a question from a music educator about horn tuning, which inspired me to do something about it!

So, to that end, I made a page outlining my thoughts on how best to tune horns. Including information on tuning  horns both with and without independent Bb tuning slides. I’ve also started a collection of horn images with the various slides labeled, so there should be no more guessing on which slide does what!

Check it out: Tuning the French Horn