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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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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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
You Say Marcato, I Say Staccato
The final bars of Stravinsky's Firebird.
When it came to international copyrights composer Igor Stravinsky had to be a shrewd businessman. At the time he...
A Flaw in Yamaha 667 Creation?
A common problem with the Yamaha 667.
A brass repair colleague remarked to me recently that he makes a lot of repairs on a particular...
Review: Saxophone palm key risers as finger pads for horn
Back almost five years ago I posted a brief review of a product called "finger pads." These are sold as an alternate to soldering...
Auf dem Strom and the Natural Horn
People by nature try to categorize things and find notable “firsts.” One “first” often given to Schubert, incorrectly, is that Auf dem Strom (1828)...
On the Dreaded C on the Third Space, the Best Note...
They have all been off the site for a while, but in the early years of Horn Matters there were a series of articles...
Rethinking Your Warm-Up for Better Results
At an extreme, warm-up routines come in two flavors: etched in granite, or free-form.
This past weekend at Arizona State we hosted Prof. Jeffrey Agrell...
