Listen to the French horn
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
How the French horn makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the French horn belongs to the brass (lip-vibrated aerophones): the player's buzzing lips set the air column vibrating – trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas and the didgeridoo.
More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.
Press play above and watch the spectrum: the evenly spaced peaks are harmonics, and their relative strength is what gives the instrument its character.
Range of the French horn
The typical range of the French horn runs from B1 (61.7 Hz) to F5 (698 Hz) – about 3.5 octaves. Harmonics extend its sound far higher.
From Wikipedia
The horn is a brass instrument in the horn family, made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a large flared bell and rotary valves. The term French horn refers to horns with piston valves, seldom used today; the double horn in F/B♭, a variety of German horn, is the horn most often used by players in professional orchestras and bands, although the descant and triple horn have become increasingly popular. A musician who plays a horn is known as a horn player or hornist.
Other brass
Trumpet
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Trombone
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Tuba
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Brass instrument
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Vuvuzela
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Didgeridoo
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Cornet
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Flugelhorn
Brass (lip-vibrated aerophones)
Questions people ask
Real questions from the Stack Exchange community – follow a link to read the discussion.
Frequently asked questions
What does the French horn sound like?
Listen to 5 recordings on this page. As one of the brass, its sound comes from the way the player's buzzing lips set the air column vibrating.
What type of instrument is the French horn?
It is classified as brass (lip-vibrated aerophones) (Hornbostel–Sachs 423.232).
Sources & credits
- Pararira v1 - Horn 3 No Mute (F-) by AdamYawe – CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Pararira v1 - Horn 2 No Mute (G) by AdamYawe – CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Pararira v1 - Horn 1 No Mute (D) by AdamYawe – CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- JP-Train horn by JIRCTRAINZ – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Trent Horn - Catholicism and science by ReasonTV – CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q163759 – CC0
- Wikipedia: French horn – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by BenP – CC BY 2.5