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.)
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Most Recent Articles
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...
Brief Review: The Horn. The Book You Need
To open this brief review, I’ll start with a money quote:
The Horn by Renato Meucci and Gabriele Rocchetti is the most significant book on...
Accuracy Encyclopedia: Well Duh!?! and More
Continuing our look at accuracy and the letters D and E, our first topic is the descant horn, which can certainly help accuracy in...
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Featured Articles
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
But I Was Following the Conductor!
If I were to add one more point to "Who's the New Guy?" - an article with advice for young music professionals - it...
Don’t Miss! Two Practical Tips to Improve Accuracy of Entrances
This is another post from the archive, dated 7/12/2004, when I was performing Principal Horn and teaching at the Brevard Music Center in North...
Too Lovely For Words
Excerpt from Strauss: Four Last Songs and a unique embouchure.
If I were to pick one and only one spot in all symphonic repertoire which...
Don’t Put off Learning to Double Tongue
This weekend I got busy working on the five newly composed etudes by Douglas Akey that comprise the AMEA Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors...
Lessons in Vienna, part II: Till Eulenspiegel
This series of articles expands on notes taken by Nicholas Smith in lessons with Roland Berger in 1977.
He told me to pull out Till...
Nationalism and the traditional French style, II
Continued from Part I
In most textbooks I encounter, Nationalism - as a movement in Western music history - has a beginning and an end....