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A natural horn is only able to produce what we know as a harmonic series.

This is a series of non-tempered pitches. That is, they are simply the product of a natural physical process. They must be artificially adjusted by the performer in order to tune them and adapt them to the temperament that allows them to be played in orchestral or chamber music. What’s more, since the series is not a complete scale, we have to produce the sounds that are missing artificially in order to complete the scales characteristic of our traditional musical system.

There are basically 3 ways to temper tuning and complete a scale:

First, by changing the position of the tongue inside the mouth cavity: either raising it or lowering it to produce a larger or smaller cavity.

Second, by tensing or relaxing the embouchure to raise or lower pitch;

And finally, the most visually striking of all the methods, although not the most important, is to change the position of the right hand inside the bell: moving the hand farther into the bell will lower the pitch, whereas moving it out and opening up the bell will have the opposite effect.