0:02 hi everybody welcome back to my channel
0:04 if you're new here I'm Alana I play
0:07 French horn in La I've gotten a ton of
0:08 requests to do this but today we're
0:11 going to be having a French horn spa day
0:13 I'm going to be showing you how to clean
0:15 your French horn how to maintain it how
0:16 to oil it I'm going to walk you through
0:18 everything you need to know to keep it
0:20 running smoothly but first if you're new
0:22 here please subscribe to my channel if
0:25 you haven't already if you love French
0:27 horn I make a lot of French horn content
0:29 and with that let's get into it all
0:30 right first and foremost I'm just going
0:32 to put down a towel to keep things a
0:34 little more organized then we're going
0:36 to start pulling our slides so for the
0:38 first slide I'm going to make sure I
0:41 press down my first valve key as well
0:43 for the lower ones if you have a double
0:46 horn make sure you're also pressing the
0:48 trigger so the slides on top are called
0:51 your F valve slides and the slides on
0:53 the bottom are your B flat horn slides
0:55 then I'm going to flip the horn over I
0:57 have two slides I need to pull on this
0:59 horn you don't have to press any keys
1:01 for these
1:06 ones so these are just our main tuning
1:09 slides and then I have this brass switch
1:11 which is like a little pencil holder
1:14 that I need to make sure I take off and
1:15 now we're all set to take our horn to
1:17 give it a little bath I'm going to use
1:19 my kitchen sink for this but you can use
1:22 your bathtub if it's easier this little
1:23 guy is called a snake and you want to
1:25 make sure you get one that's
1:27 specifically French horn sized cuz
1:28 sometimes they can be a little too big
1:30 to fit down the pipes but you can see
1:33 there's two different sides to it and
1:34 then I'm going to turn on my water and
1:37 make sure it's lukewarm not too hot not
1:39 too cold and I'm going to run it through
1:41 the lead pipe the lead pipe is this part
1:44 right here where the mouthpiece comes
1:46 into your horn and you can't see it from
1:48 this shot but it comes out the other
1:51 side in one of the open tubes so you'll
1:53 want to just run some water through your
1:55 horn for a couple seconds here and then
1:57 we're going to take our snake and we're
1:59 going to use the end that looks more
2:01 like a triangle first so that part is
2:03 going to go through the horn first
2:05 you're going to insert it into the lead
2:07 pipe right where you put your mouthpiece
2:11 and push it all the way through the horn
2:12 you'll see some water coming out the
2:14 other end and I'll give you guys a
2:17 better angle of this in just a second
2:18 cuz I know you can't see the other side
2:22 but the other brush will pop out at the
2:24 end you can see it there and then we're
2:25 just going to pull the other side of the
2:27 brush all the way through the horn this
2:29 is going to get out all of the yucky
2:32 stuff that's stuck in your horn then
2:33 we're just going to run some more water
2:36 through and make sure you run it for at
2:39 least like 30 seconds to a
2:42 minute and we're going to wash off the
2:43 snake just to make sure we get all the
2:46 crusties off and then we're going to do
2:50 this all over again push it through same
2:58 twice good you can see it pop out keep
3:00 pushing it through and and then pull it
3:01 all the way
3:03 out and you're going to run some more
3:05 water through and then you can run it
3:07 through all of these tubes on the back
3:19 out perfect and then to empty all the
3:20 water out of your horn you're going to
3:22 want to turn it clockwise so turn it in
3:25 a couple of circles clockwise you'll see
3:27 it come out of the Bell tail part of
3:29 your horn just be careful not to like
3:31 dented on
3:33 anything okay now we're just going to
3:35 towel dry off The Horn you want to make
3:36 sure you try to get into as many of the
3:39 nooks and crannies as you possibly can
3:40 there's always a lot of like little
3:42 water droplets and it can kind of eat
3:43 away at your lacquer if you have a lacquered
3:45 lacquered
3:47 horn all right now that our horn is nice
3:49 and clean we're going to start putting
3:51 it back together but I want to make sure
3:53 that these slides are really really
3:55 clean before we start doing anything
3:57 else so I'm going to just towel it off
3:59 and try to get any residue off of these slides
4:00 slides
4:02 I try to do this every 2 weeks and then
4:05 I oil my horn at least once a week it's
4:07 super important just to keep all of the
4:09 nasties out of your horn and then it
4:11 also helps you play so much better
4:13 whenever I'm having a time where I feel
4:15 like I just can't play I always clean my
4:17 horn and then it feels so much better
4:19 and I feel like I can do anything I'm
4:21 going to link all of the products that I
4:24 use down below but I usually use the JM
4:26 brand now there are two different kinds
4:29 of oils there's synthetic and natural so
4:30 you really really want to make sure that
4:33 you're not mixing the two so if you have
4:35 a brand just stick to that one
4:38 brand I'm going to go ahead and take off
4:40 my valve caps and line them up just so I
4:42 remember which one went where this is
4:44 what your valves look like
4:46 underneath and I'm going to take my
4:50 lightest oil so I use number 11 and it's
4:51 going to just keep my valves moving
4:54 really quickly I'm going to put a drop
4:57 or two on each of the tops of my
5:00 valves then I'm going to flip FP my horn
5:02 over and we're going to put a drop or
5:05 two of the same oil in each of the right
5:08 portion of the valves so you should have
5:11 six that you're going to drop
5:13 into and then we're going to wiggle our
5:14 valves a little bit as you can see
5:16 there's still a little bit of water so I
5:17 want to get that out of my horn by
5:20 turning it clockwise it'll all come out
5:22 the Bell part then I'm going to take the
5:25 same oil number 11 and put it into my
5:28 tuning side there's really you can't
5:30 have too much of this stuff so just pop
5:33 it in wherever you can it'll help keep
5:35 things running smoothly then I kind of
5:37 wiggle my horn around just so that it
5:39 coats everything and spin my horn around
5:41 again just to get rid of the excess and
5:42 then I'm going to take my bearing and
5:46 linkage oil this is number 13.5 it's a
5:48 little bit of a heavier oil and it has a
5:49 little needle because we're going to put
5:52 it on the back of the horn it's kind of
5:54 hard to describe exactly where this goes
5:56 so I'm going to zoom in in just a second
5:58 so you can see a little bit better but
6:01 it basically goes kind of where the
6:03 valve section meets where the like the
6:07 arms go for your keys I should really
6:09 know like the actual terminology at this
6:12 point but um you can never have too much
6:13 of this stuff and as you can see it
6:15 really makes your valve super quiet it's
6:16 a must
6:19 have all right we're going to put it all
6:21 back together now so I'm going to screw
6:23 my valve caps back on make sure they're
6:31 off now I'm going to take my slide gel
6:33 this is like slide grease but it's a
6:35 little bit thicker um and I think it I
6:37 feel like it makes a better seal so I
6:40 like it a lot more than regular grease
6:42 I'm just going to put little tiny
6:45 droplets on each of the slides and then
6:48 I'm going to flip it over and just put
6:50 it on
6:53 in with the slide gel you can have too
6:55 much of it so you want to try to
6:57 minimize the amount that you put on your slides
6:59 slides
7:01 times I kind of work it into the slide like
7:02 like
7:06 that this is our bflat first valve slide
7:08 and it's going to be the smaller of the
7:11 two so anytime you see a smaller one it
7:12 means it's going to go on the lower part
7:14 of the horn I'm going to do the same
7:16 thing and make sure I press down the
7:19 right valves when I'm putting the slide
7:21 in if you don't put the correct valve
7:23 down you'll hear it right away it'll
7:26 make like a a high pressure sound so
7:29 just pop it down if you forget
7:31 it should go in pretty smoothly my
7:33 Horn's pretty new so it takes a little
7:35 bit of effort to put them in the valves
7:43 tight and we're on to our last one and
7:47 then we'll be all done after this except
7:49 of course my brass switch I've got to
7:51 put that back on thank you so much to
7:53 Barb for sending this to me Barb is in
7:57 the Met Opera and she makes these brass
7:59 switches they're kind of like a magnet
8:01 that attaches a pencil to your horn and
8:03 it's like the most amazing invention
8:05 ever made I wanted to show you guys this
8:08 little pouch that Alexander sent me it's
8:10 the best I keep it with me all the
8:13 time it looks good right I just love a
8:15 clean horn so much I have a concert
8:17 tonight so it'll be playing really well
8:19 I'm so excited if you like this video
8:21 please be sure to subscribe and leave me
8:23 a comment below let me know what other
8:25 French horn content you want to see and
8:27 with that I will see you guys next time bye
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