Of all the topics out there related to the horn, the topic of the mellophone is certainly one of the most polarizing. The instrument is very widely played by horn students in marching bands and drum corps, but it has also got to be the least understood and most poorly taught of all the brass instruments. Not a good situation for horn players in general — and it is also a topic that horn teachers in the United States ignore at their peril.
In the United States today nearly every student horn player will encounter marching horns and mellophones at some point. I was aware of them as a student myself, but, believe it or not, I marched with a French horn in high school and college. Early in my teaching also I did not need to interact with the mellophone much, as at my first full time college position at The Crane School of Music there is no marching band! Then when I got to Arizona State the marching band was still using B-flat marching horns, which are built to take horn mouthpieces and operate rather like a big, piston valve single B-flat horn (like the B-flat side of a double horn).
When that changed, and a switch was made to mellophones in F alto, it led to several years of my looking closer at the instrument. My first article on the topic (from 2007!) is still a good read:
Soon that led me to getting involved with a great podcast on the mellophone and middle brass playing (The Mellocast) and the development of a book of questions and answers about the mellophone, A Mello Catechism, now in a third edition (!) and available on Amazon (search for it!). It is as close “The Art of Mellophone Playing” that is likely to ever be published.
A popular instrument
For the marching band director the mellophone makes great sense; it uses trumpet fingerings and is a very easy instrument to switch to. A trumpet player can pick it up really fast, and even a woodwind player can get the hang of it pretty quickly. And, it points in the correct direction! With the adoption of the F mellophone as standard in drum corps, the instrument is certainly the standard alto brass voice in marching situations.
Of course some (even many) hornists will continue to ignore/despise the mellophone, but it will not be going away. I do hope that by getting information out there more widely it will help the bigger picture of it being better taught and more horn friendly, growing our middle brass playing community.
Overall, I think readers will agree that we do need more horn players. The mellophone has with time, in effect, become a gateway instrument to the horn. If it were taught better it could be a part of the solution to the issue of there just not being enough good horn players around at the high school level.
The Mello Zone — A mini FAQ
Related, for many years I had posted a very short FAQ on Horn Articles Online on the mellophone under the heading “The Mello Zone.” With the 2025 demise of that site, that content was moved here to update the text of an existing article and to provide a brief hub of information on this widely used brass instrument. The topics below cover a variety of frequently asked questions.
Is it easy to switch to? Yes, as proven by the number of woodwind players playing the mellophone in drum corps.
What mouthpiece should I use? If you are in a drum corps, you will pretty much have to use what they have you use. If you are doing marching band, you might consider a more horn friendly option, such as:
- Brief Review: The Jupiter Hybrid Horn/Mellophone Mouthpiece
- Review: The Versus M1T mellophone mouthpiece. The one everyone has been waiting for
Is there any cool music for mellophone? Probably peak mellophone cool was with the Mellophonium and Stan Kenton. For more on that see:
How do 35 of them sound on the field? It’s a big sound.
Any humorous mellophone articles? An attempt, at least:
Above all I hope overall that these writings help encourage horn students as they traverse the “mellophone jungle,” and maybe even inspire a few more mellophone players to switch over to the horn for concert season. We need more horn players!
Bonus: Classic (or Concert) Mellophone
I first encountered the mellophone in F alto in high school in the late 1970s, as I was given a “classic” mellophone (or concert mellophone) by a family friend, the one pictured at right (it’s a King). This type of mellophone was used fairly widely in the United States from before the turn of the century until before WWII. Featuring piston valves and fingered with the right hand, this instrument is an octave shorter than a standard single F horn and was generally used to play horn parts in youth and amateur groups. While it is easier to play, it lacks some of the poetry of tone we associate with the horn. It is built to use a mouthpiece sized between that of a trumpet and trombone with a cornet shank. Today, of course, these are “wall hangers” mostly; they are not used in ensembles.
In the photo the the concert mellophone is seen on the left, with an Eb tenor horn. For more on those, see this FAQ. And for even more on the concert mellophone, see these articles:
