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
Stewie from Family Guy Plays the French Horn
Or at least he gives it a noble effort.
A tip of the hat to Charles Noble at Daily Observations for finding this. A character...
Fried Horns, by William Melton
Today we welcome an article by hornist and scholar William Melton, with a link to a fascinating recording of Mahler 2 (the first complete...
Going Dutch, and Furry Footstools
Going Dutch
Over the past month, I have been involved in a production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. The staging was a bit unusual in that the...
Transposition Tricks: Sometimes Up is Down
The oddball "up" transpositions for the French horn.
In the world of Opera there is hardly a dull moment when it comes to the French...
Hornmasters on Stopped Horn, Part I: Introduction and Farkas
With stopped horn we get to another interesting and important topic, and also one that is not without some controversy.
Confusion is rampant
As an example,...
Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, Part III: Fox and Berv
Continuing our series, we turn to two more Classic horn methods for their notes on tonguing, both of which hit on some ideas outside...