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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Most Recent Articles
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...
Brief Review: The Horn. The Book You Need
To open this brief review, I’ll start with a money quote:
The Horn by Renato Meucci and Gabriele Rocchetti is the most significant book on...
Accuracy Encyclopedia: Well Duh!?! and More
Continuing our look at accuracy and the letters D and E, our first topic is the descant horn, which can certainly help accuracy in...
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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
PSA: On the Ewald Quintets and that Ewald/King “Symphony for Brass”
The Ewald Quintet No. 1 for brass has to be among the most widely performed of all brass quintets in our repertoire and certainly...
The Golden Clam Award of Merit
The HORNDOG GOLDEN CLAM AWARD of MERIT*
is reserved for recognizing and honoring noteworthy accomplishments in the world of classical music.
This honor, governed by the...
Hornmasters: The Exhale and Points of Resistance, Part II
As I have noted elsewhere, horn teachers of days gone by seem to rarely have attacked each other directly. But if you read their...
The “Right” Fingering (II)
Continuing from Part I.
To recap the general rule-of-thumb for tuning pitches within a chord:
The tonic or root note should be relatively "on pitch."
The third...
7 Keys to Winning a Concerto Competition for Mixed Instruments
Concerto competitions for a variety of instruments are common and have special problems to overcome. I just judged one here at Arizona State. To...
The Provocative Teacher
I don't particularly like to do this, but occasionally I encounter a student that absolutely needs to be poked with a stick. Repeatedly. The...