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
Monster Mash Thursday
A Halloween creature feature.
"I am a big fan of Handel's Water Music," says Thursday's featured monster horn player. "It is my favorite of course."
Gills...
Muting in Beethoven
A gem for woodwind octet with odd mute changes.
John Ericson recently wrote a post at the Horn Notes Blog about playing a stopped...
Hornmasters on Lip Moisture
Another topic that was actually groundbreaking to discuss in The Art of French Horn Playing was that of lip moisture, that is, playing with...
What [Type of] School is Best for Horn Study?
This article was first posted on the original HTML Horn Notes Blog way back on 11/1/04. It is timely again--today was the last day...
Download the Original Kopprasch Etudes
Perhaps the oldest of the "old standard" horn etudes are the Kopprasch etudes. Back in 1997 my article on the history of the Kopprasch...
Video: Lips Vibrating a Low C on the French Horn
A video that Bruce Hembd recently pointed me toward I was very interested to see, a video of how the lips actually move playing a...
