How does the French horn create different tones?

Like all brass instruments, the sound of the French horn is produced by the player making a buzzing sound by blowing air through closed lips. This sound is amplified by the mouthpiece and vibrates through the tubing of the instrument and out the bell. read more

Tone is what makes a great French horn. That great horn may feel a bit different than your present instrument (more “open” for example), but reality is you can adjust to the horn pretty quickly if it really is producing the tone. read more

Just as a Bass trumpet won't “feel” like a French horn, a Contrabass Horn won't sound like a tuba (even though the only one ever made was made by a tuba legend), even though it had the same amount of tuning and uses the same mouthpiece size, simply because the shape of it is so different. read more

German makers first devised crooks to make such horns playable in different keys—so musicians came to use "French" and "German" to distinguish the simple hunting horn from the newer horn with crooks, which in England was also called by the Italian name corno cromatico (chromatic horn). read more