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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Fundamentals 12. Endurance: ease of production at all levels of fatigue...
Sometimes I think of batteries when I think about endurance on the horn. Batteries run down with use, and as they deplete the energy...
Revisiting a Geyer single horn
During my sabbatical in the spring of 2021 I rebuilt four horns of interesting designs, the third of those being a Geyer single F....
Fundamentals 11. Accuracy: initial attacks at all dynamics, consistency hearing entrance...
The proverbial elephant in the room in horn playing is accuracy. In the prompt from Douglas Hill (this series is based on a list...
Review: Two Gig Bags
Among my activities I like to work on horns, continuing the type of projects I was doing during my sabbatical (more here). I enjoy...
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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
Hornmasters on Endurance, Part II
Continuing from the ideas presented in part I of this series, this time we have a few more practical suggestions.
Finding the balance of building...
Fundamentals 3. Tuning: in general and extremes (use chromatic tuner)
Tuning is fundamental! In general, to my mind there are two main problems, related often. Your horn is likely not in tune with itself,...
Presentation on “Schubert’s ‘Auf Dem Strom’ and Horn Technique in the...
This week a focus for me has been preparing the first of the three sessions I will present at the upcoming International Horn Symposium,...
Hornmasters on Double and Triple Tonguing. Part II: Yancich, Fox, and...
In part I Schuller and Farkas ultimately come across as not being big advocates of multiple tonguing. Today we turn a corner however and...
Tone Down the Electronics to Focus
A blog I follow by a former student (from when I was on the summer faculty of the Brevard Music Center) is Zen and...
35 Melodic Etudes by Meifred and Schantl — back in print,...
In 2016, as part of my original line of epublications, I was able to bring to print a group of 35 forgotten melodic etudes...
