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.)

Most Recent Articles

Ultrasonic Cleaning and your Horn

You know that you need to keep your horn clean. If you are proactive about maintenance you will hardly ever need to have your...

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...
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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

123’s, just like ABC’s

On just about every valved brass instrument, the combination fingerings of first and third valves or all three valves together are horrifically out-of-tune. Trumpet players...

Thoughts on Using a Mirror in Practice Sessions

Ever since my college days I have always used a mirror in my practice. When warming-up especially I like to stare into it and...

Tips for Educators, and an Evolving Pedagogy

Recently, as part of a session with brass colleagues at our AMEA all-state, I presented a session for music educators, "Tips to Improve your...

Resetting a Triple to Stand in F

I did not report it here in Horn Matters but last year we were pleased to welcome a triple horn into the horn inventory...

A visit to a horn maker

One thing many wonder is, what does it look like at the shop of a working horn maker? Early this year I was able...

The Upper Lip and your Low Range

Hidden way back in the site in articles from 2009 and 2010 are two articles that show something important about how the low range...
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