French Horn or Flute? Any and all opinions welcome whether you played or not!

[elbenn]

Yesterday, I asked a specific question about French horns but I am starting a new thread since that question was aimed at people who knew the French horn. I don't feel like I'm much help because we didn't have any French horns in my small school band.

DD is having a hard time choosing between flute and French horn for middle school band. Here are some comments about each (some are obvious pros/cons but some are just observations)-

French Horn:
Nicer teacher who was a French horn player herself
Horn is big and a pain to take anywhere
Won't get melody as much
Fewer friends in the section
Harder to play (maybe)

Flute:
Small and light to hold and easy to transport
Gets the melody a lot
Lots of friends in the section but also section is more than twice as big as the French horn section

Any and all comments to these instruments are welcome! You don't have to recommend one or other (but you can) but just any observations would be helpful.

[anonomom]

My daughter’s middle school band director highly discouraged kids from pursuing the flute, because so many were interested. He said that the glut of flute players makes competition fierce for things like all-county and all-State band. He was also pretty ruthless about moving flute players to different instruments if it seemed that weren’t playing as well as the other kids (my DD, who barely practiced, was moved swiftly to oboe).

If your child chooses flute, she should be prepared to practice diligently and to fight to keep her place in the flute section.

[AnnieW625]

I played flute in junior high (grades 7-9) and it was okay, but I was honestly better at the clarinet, which I had played in 4-6th grade (I added flute as a second instrument in 6th grade and then decided to play the flute because it was more popular). There has always been an influx of flute players so that is nothing new. If being in an honor band or a competition band is her #1 goal then yes there will be a lot of competition, but if it isn’t and she wants to play the flute then she should be fine.

Does she have experience with the trumpet? The only French horn players I knew all started out on the trumpet, and were usually first chair trumpet players....no one started beginning band in middle school with a French horn. From my understanding it isn’t easy to play. There are also two two types of French horns, the marching version aka a mellophone, which is larger than a trumpet, but is held the same way and then the traditional French horn.

If she is a beginner then I think the flute will be easier. I also think if she is starting from the beginning she should have an evaluation with a music teacher (public or private) to assess her music skill and which instrument would better fit her abilities.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

I played the flute. I never desired to be competitive! I stayed good enough to keep my place in orchestra vs concert band but that was it. I liked the flute because it was light/portable, no extra pieces (reeds...) required, got to play the melody, was fun to learn the high notes, subtle so if you screwed up it was less noticeable.
Every school is different. No one was being kicked off any instruments at our school!


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