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
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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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
Ask Dave: When Should My Daughter Move Up to a Double...
Susie asks:
My 5th grade daughter will be playing the French Horn in the orchestra this year. We were wondering what the normal time frame...
Scale Goals: High School Horn
Depending on the state you are in, regional honor band auditions at the high school level may have either recently happened or are coming...
Follow the Leader
In pop psychology an interesting term comes up - "enabling," as in do not enable an addict by supporting their habit in any way,...
Brahms and Modern Performance on the Natural Horn
Brahms wrote for the natural horn in all of his works but wrote for it in a period when the valved horn was coming...
Bobby Corno plays Beethoven 5
Hearing Beethoven 5 yesterday I was reminded of the classic bit by Peter Schickele, “New Horizons in Music Appreciation.” It presents the first movement...
Hornmasters on Mouthpiece Pressure, Part I: Farkas, Fox, and Berv
While the topic was addressed in other chapters of the book, Farkas felt it to be important enough to emphasize that he expanded his...