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 7. Slurring: various intervals, various dynamics, register changes
Slurring can be a problem, even a major problem. The question you should be asking is this -- is the problem you, or is...
Fundamentals 6. Tonguing: clarity, fluency, variety, double, triple, flutter
And now we have another very big fundamental topic: everything about tonguing. Hill, in his list that we are following for this series, combines...
Brief reviews: New publications on the blues and creativity by Agrell
I’ve been doing few reviews here lately, but Jeff Agrell was kind enough to send two of his recent publications, which I would like...
Fundamentals 5. Embouchure: mouthpiece placement, muscular focus, relationship to air, various...
Before turning to all these topics, I would like to remind readers that this series is based on a list of fundamentals found in...
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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
Lips, the Mouthpiece, and Aging
In the most recent issue of The Horn Call (May, 2008) there is an interesting article by Frøydis Ree Wekre on horn playing and...
Humor: Never Sit in Front of Trumpets
A new inductee into the "Hubie" Hall of Fame.
UPDATE: Sept. 9, 2009. Link updated.
This site has been around for a while, but I discovered...
What Makes a Horn a Bad Horn?
Often, I see listings of horns for sale that emphasize that the horn would be a good horn for a student. And some of...
Developments in Horn Mute Design in the 20th Century
In working on the Hornmasters series article on Mutes (which may be read here) I was reminded of just how far we have come...
The Most Difficult Piece Ever Written for the Horn
This coming Sunday at 2:30 I will be playing on my faculty recital at ASU the most difficult piece ever written for the...
Siegfried Horn Calls from Götterdämmerung
To wrap up my series on the Siegfried horn calls within Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, today's article features the calls in Wagner's...
