Review: Houser Stainless Steel Horn Mouthpiece Rims from Houghton Horns

This is a topic that is really central to tonguing but not necessarily well taught or understood. To begin, for all articulations more gentle than the sforzando Farkas notes in The Art of French Horn Playing that the “air seal is broken more or less gently” depending on the exact musical context. But what of [...]

Ginger asks: Dave, I’ve been having a hard time with my left hand grip.  My horn came prepared for a huge hand and mine is smaller with a shorter thumb.  How flexible can you make the thumb valve? I’ve already had the little finger brace moved up and the valves are as low as they [...]

One option out there from a few horn makers is a garland, an extra band of metal added to the edge of the bell near the rim. The idea is an old one; in this first photo is the garland on my Seraphinoff natural horn. Typical of older style garlands, it is over an inch [...]

A common factor among many working orchestral professionals is cyclical repertoire – music that comes up on a performance calendar more than once, sometimes on a yearly basis. This time of year especially, musicians are looking ahead at a December calendar full of Nutcracker or Messiah or other holiday-related gigs. Another regular staple that gets repeated [...]

One turning point we horn players have in common is we all decided at some point to play and keep playing the French horn. One horn player who put some deep thought into this topic was Philip Farkas, found in the closing pages of The Art of Musicianship. As I noted in an earlier article related [...]

Charles Kavaloski interview In a 1997 interview, former Boston Symphony Orchestra principal horn Charles Kavalovski discusses the path that took him from nuclear physics to playing principal horn. More Óscar Sala? I found a picture gallery of Mr. Sala giving a lecture-performance. A tip from Seth Another excellent pearl of wisdom from Seth Godin: Plans are [...]