Any French Horns Out There?, beginner or otherwise... Options

[bflat]

I started learning French Horn as an adult beginner about 5 or 6 months ago. I'm loving it - partly because it's so hard and I'm a sucker for punishment ;-)

Just wondering if there are other horn players out there? About time there was a french horn thread on here....

Any tips? What are you using for your instrument - how long have you been playing, etc.?

I'm using a Yamaha 567, after an initial daliance with a chinese import instrument - which was a waste of time, but got me to the stage where I was willing to spend on a better instrument. I tried a few mouthpieces, but have settled on a PHC 'N' mouthpiece rim which works for my rather large lips. So far on a good day I can reach the 'C' above middle C, but it's flakey at best. I'm slowly gaining a little accuracy, but finding slurring very hard to do cleanly.

All good fun....

[briantrumpet]

Incidentally, I wonder which side of the double horn most people use more. I think that I'm atypical in that I always start pupils off on the F side, only getting on to the B-flat side when they start using high Ds (second line down). It worries me that the very nature of horn playing is changing by the increasingly ubiquitous use of the B-flat side - I've come across several young players that use B-flat fingerings all the time, even in the lower range, and don't even know the F fingerings, even when they've got fancy double horns!

To me, it would be rather like trumpet players playing ALL the repertoire on an Eb trumpet rather than a Bb - not only is the actual sound much brighter, but the added security of pitching means that players approach the music differently.