Horn Matters is the leading online resource on the French horn, co-founded by John Ericson and Bruce Hembd. The mission of Horn Matters is: to encourage, inspire, inform, and challenge horn players, and; to promote the best musical instrument ever, the French horn. (More.)
- - Please visit: International Horn Competition of America - -Most Recent Articles
Mailbag: The Top 3 Horn Concertos
A question came in earlier this year asking generally what are the top 3 horn concertos. With the end of the semester for my...
Ultrasonic Cleaning and your Horn
You know that you need to keep your horn clean. If you are proactive about maintenance you will hardly ever need to have your...
Geyer Update: Engravings, Serial Numbers, and More
I could also have titled this article “Things I got wrong” in the Geyer Dreaming series (which starts here), or the related article published...
Revisiting the Art of French Horn on LP Records
The past year the vast majority of my actual classical music listening has been to LP records. With the recent passing of Hermann Baumann...
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Horn Etudes by Female Composers
Many Horn Matters readers will be familiar with the Works with Horn by Female Composers website by Dr. Lin Foulk. If not, this is...
Julius Watkins, jazz French horn pioneer
Talking with colleagues recently, a topic that came up was how some great players of the recent past are unjustly neglected today. In terms...
Overview of Trusted Brands in French Horns
A survey titled "What Brand Names Do You Trust?" collected the opinions of 392 participants. The results are in and while it may take...
Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (I): The Basic Parts
Part I: The Rim and Preliminary Thoughts
Part II: Cup, Throat and Bore
Part III: Weight, Plating and Shopping Tips
For the past decade...
French Horn Transposition Chart
A complete reference.
Transposition Chart (PDF) (updated 2012)
Over the past few months, I have been posting various transposition tricks, including how to transpose:
A and...
Farkas on Stagefright (and more)
In the world of horn there have been few that made as much impact as Philip Farkas (1914-1992). The Art of French Horn Playing...
Random Articles
Accuracy Encyclopedia: Adjust your Thinking
In notes dating back to 2008 I’ve been working off and on toward a possible book on accuracy. Some of the notes have found...
Mindfulness
Play with reckless abandon. Like you haven't a care in the world.
This is a mindset learned from more than one teacher and is one...
Hornmasters on Endurance, Part I
The topics addressed in this Hornmasters series generally follow in the order of the chapters in The Art of French Horn Playing.
Two types of endurance
By...
Big News: The New 8D for the 21st Century
Conn just dropped some big news on the horn world, that they have upgraded the venerable 8D model horn, following extensive focus group testing...
A New Version of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante
James Bash of Oregon Music News reports that
There’s a big mystery behind Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major. Since the original manuscript has never...
Peter and the Wolf: Catching a Horn Section by its Tail
A common factor among many working orchestral professionals is cyclical repertoire - music that comes up on a performance calendar more than once, sometimes...
