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 14. Lip trills: fluency, control at all dynamics, knowledge of...
Lip trills are a must for any hornist playing on the level to perform a Mozart concerto movement.
Spoiler alert: Lip trills are easier on...
Vienna Horns, part III: Their musical world and more
A year ago, I started a short series of posts related to the Vienna horn, which was left incomplete. This final article of the...
Fundamentals 13. Concentration: ability to mentally focus for long periods
Concentration is not a topic touched on directly by many horn teachers. However, the ability to focus is a key fundamental for effective practice...
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...
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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
Review: The Surprising Kelly MC Lexan Mouthpiece
To tease the conclusion first, I was very pleasantly surprised by the plastic (Lexan) Kelly MC horn mouthpiece.
Why a plastic mouthpiece?
This past fall I...
Innate talent? ‘No such thing’ says genetics author
For many years I held firmly to the belief that some people among us are extraordinarily gifted. They possess an extra serving or two...
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...
A Word on “Brushed Finish” Horns
A type of finish that has been showing up on some of the used horn postings you see is what they call a "brushed...
Memories of Horn Calls Past: My First Issue of The Horn...
Part one of this series touched on the 1979 Annual Horn Workshop but there were several reports in the October, 1979 issue of The...
Hornmasters: Farkas on Right Hand Position
Most active horn teachers have read the Farkas book at some point but mostly not recently. One thing that you may have missed was...
