Natural horn

The natural horn is a member of the brass (Hornbostel–Sachs 423.121.2). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the natural horn makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the natural 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.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

The natural horn is a musical instrument descending from the hunting horn, and is the predecessor to the modern-day French horn. Differentiated by its lack of valves, natural horn relies on a variety of crooks and hand stopping techniques to play the instrument's full range. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the natural horn evolved separate from the trumpet by widening of the bell and lengthening of the tubes. Natural horn consists of a mouthpiece, a pitched crook, foundational tubing, and flared bell. This instrument was used extensively until the emergence of the valved horn in the early 19th century.