French horn to Flugelhorn, mouthpiece recommendation?

stevenhigbee · New Member Joined: 11 May 2019 Posts: 7

I am going to try flugelhorn after a lifetime of French horn playing. What flugelhorn mouthpiece would you recommend to start with? I was trained in the style of the German school in America, which is a lighter, crisper, more focused tone than the more common big American horn sound.

JayKosta · Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 12:52 pm Post subject:

I played French horn for about 20 years before recently switching back to trumpet.
For horn (668N), I used a Holton DC mouthpiece, and on trumpet I use a Bach 7 - same as I used many many years prior.

Jay
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zaferis · Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 1:09 pm Post subject:

depends on you and the flugelhorn... the mouthpiece is the bridge between.

Must "fit" you chops and match the Flugel. (additionally, note that there are 3 standard sized shanks/receivers with Flugels - large, small, and straight tapers)

With that said, I'd start simple and less expensive. Curry makes pieces in any of the tapers.. I'd go 7FL, 5FL, or 3FL depending on your size choice

If you get the appropriate taper in Yamaha mouthpiece - 11F4 or 14F4 would also be a solid choice

https://www.mouthpieceexpress.com/specshub/flugeltapers.html

Oh yeah, and by the way, flugels are notorious for intonation issues. Good ones are ok to excellent, bad ones are downright horrid.

good luck
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Flugelnut · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 5:05 am Post subject:

Actually, you can use your horn mouthpiece on your flugel. I did that for years with good results.
You'll need a French horn to tenor (alto) horn adapter with the outside turned down to the appropriate flugel shank size.
This combe gave me a nice, light flugel sound on small bore flugels like Bach Strad and Kanstul Besson Brevete.
It did however not work very well on a Benge 5, but that horn is large bore and has a exceptionally wide bell throat.
That way you don't have to change your embouchure and you can easily switch back to horn if you get the urge.
Enjoy!

mrhappy · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 5:33 am Post subject:

Don't know jack about french horn but the stock mouthpiece that came with my (40's ?) Courtois Flugel looks a LOT like a french horn piece! You might find an older vintage style piece would make you feel comfy.

Try anything you can get your hands on!

I like 'Flugelnut's' idea... you'd have a few hoops to jump through but might be worth it for a smooth transition.

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cheiden · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:04 am Post subject:

I've played trumpet and flugal all my life and occasionally have played French horn. The blow on the two instruments is so vastly different that I don't think there's a need to reconcile the mouthpiece. I'd steer you toward the Yamaha horns and mouthpieces. Odds are good that somewhere between the Yamaha 11F4 and the 14F4 you'll find a usable piece. While not often heralded as the greatest flugal pieces, this is a very serviceable place to start.
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stevenhigbee · New Member Joined: 11 May 2019 Posts: 7

cheiden · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:28 am Post subject:

FWIW, the last time I had to work up my French horn chops was to play a short run of Les Mis with a local theater group. It took me about a month to get solid on the horn. It took less than a week to get all my trumpet chops back. I've no doubt the transition time would diminish if I persisted at it.

In case you're interested, the French horn mouthpiece that worked for the was the Faxx Farkas MC, which is measurably bigger in ID than any of my trumpet/flugal/picc pieces. Curiously on the bigger French horn mouthpiece I had almost limitless endurance, and range to match the more experienced Horn players.

By the way, the newer orchestration for Les Mis is AWESOME to play on Horn. Easily way more fun than the trumpet part. On the original orchestration the trumpet part was probably the more fun to play.
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"I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
Charles J Heiden/So Cal
Bach Strad 180ML43*/43 Bb/Yamaha 731 Flugel/Benge 1X C/Kanstul 920 Picc/Conn 80A Cornet
Bach 3C rim on 1.5C underpart

zaferis · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:32 am Post subject:

kehaulani · Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 9:38 am Post subject:

I was a multi-instrumentalist and, except when I was first exploring the alto and tenor saxes, never tried to get analogous mouthpieces among the different horns. I took each horn as a separate entity with its own distinct characteristic uses and picked equipment accordingly. But . . .

At one period I played alto horn in a German village band and used my French horn mouthpiece on it. Did that for a full year and nobody knew the difference, or cared.

I always pay attention to Zaferis' posts but in this case, I would say choice of mouthpiece depends on how you are going to use the horn.

As a semi-professional or better, I would pick a characteristic flugelhorn mouthpiece. But, depending on context, if it's casual, I would consider the least change required.
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