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.)

Most Recent Articles

Many broken links? UPDATE: Horn Articles Online is not online any...

It has come to my attention that within Horn Matters all links to materials in my original Horn Articles Online site (online since 1998...

Sabbatical horn update: improved details

Back in the spring of 2021 I was on sabbatical from Arizona State, and, as reported here in Horn Matters, my project involved horn...

Fundamentals 16. Muted horn: tonal control, responses, projection, noiseless manipulation of...

Mutes?!? It is very interesting to me that Douglas Hill included in his list of fundamentals (found in his Collected Thoughts book) a special...

Fundamentals 15. Stopped horn: tonal control, responses, projection, F and B-flat...

Continuing our series on fundamentals (using, as prompts, the list of fundamentals found on pages 92-93 of the Douglas Hill book of Collected Thoughts),...
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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

FERPA and the Modern Horn Studio

One thing that you might have observed if you follow several horn studios or horn teachers on Facebook or Instagram is the wildly different...

Memes: Special Verne Reynolds Edition

Regular readers of Horn Matters know that Bruce Hembd and I both count Verne Reynolds among our former teachers. In an prior article I...

Pre-Holiday Flood: It’s Raining Memes!

Click on any image to enlarge.                                                                                             More Memes, Say You? If you enjoyed these, you might browse the entire Photoshop & Memes category and look around. Below are...

Homemade Mouthpiece Buzzing Tool

The French Horn Articulation Resistance Tool. Buzzing on the mouthpiece is something that I would call a "concentrated" method. Even a small amount done daily...

Resource: The Brass Players Cookbook

In the previous post I noted Lesley Howie was a featured endorsing artist in the Woodwind & Brasswind catalog. It caught my eye as...

A Mouthpiece like Dennis Brain Used

Many years ago, at the home of Philip Farkas, I held in my hands a copy of the mouthpiece of Dennis Brain. Farkas was...
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