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.)
- - Please visit: International Horn Competition of America - -Most Recent Articles
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...
- - Please visit: Horn Notes Edition - -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
A correct approach to Till, from Farkas
Till is one of those essential excerpts we all learn, and it has a correct interpretation. One person who got the correct interpretation directly...
News Flash from 1990: The Mozart Concert Rondo now has Sixty...
Several times recently I have noted that it is not widely enough known that the Concert Rondo of Mozart, K. 371, is actually sixty...
The 'real world' may not be so bad
A typical story for post-graduate musicians these days:
Trevino is a percussionist who just graduated with his master's degree from the prestigious Eastman School...
University of Horn Matters: The Horn Before 1750
With this article we begin a new feature on Horn Matters, a series under the heading The University of Horn Matters. This series will...
Please Don’t Poo Poo the Pops
Playing pops for fun and profit.
Some orchestral musicians dislike playing Pops concerts...
...really dislike Pops.
These types of orchestra musicians are prone to complain about anything...
Anatomy of a Practice Space
The room where I practice at home is also where do design and development work. This is the music wing of my desk....
