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 11. Accuracy: initial attacks at all dynamics, consistency hearing entrance...
The proverbial elephant in the room in horn playing is accuracy. In the prompt from Douglas Hill (this series is based on a list...
Review: Two Gig Bags
Among my activities I like to work on horns, continuing the type of projects I was doing during my sabbatical (more here). I enjoy...
Fundamentals 10. Dynamics: response, control, intonation at all extremes in all...
Elsewhere in this site I have shared (probably several times) a story involving my Master’s degree studies with Verne Reynolds. He had a thing...
Fundamentals 9. Ranges: extremes, clear controlled sounds (high, middle, mid-low, low)
Ranges are fundamental. This prompt from the Douglas Hill book is pretty broad, but focuses on two elements; extreme ranges and good control 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
Mental Health and Horn Playing: The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique
I think that it is rather common for people to turn inwards when having anxious thoughts. For horn players, this might translate to internal...
Humor: 14 Famous Musicians and their Odd Doppelgängers
In the previous article from Wednesday, "Symmetry and Balance: 3 Reasons to Not Worry about an Off-Center Embouchure" some liberty was taken with the...
Looking back: How did I learn to play short notes and...
The related topics of playing short notes and tonguing quickly come up in lessons all the time.
At some point every horn player must learn...
Dennis Brain Illustrated
In the process of learning a new illustration technique, I have been using images of great horn players from the past as practice.
This image...
Review: Hands on with the Berlin Digital Concert Hall, II
Continued from Part I.
The concert opened with the folksy Hungarian Sketches by Béla Bartók. Expert wind playing - both solo and paired - was...
Horn Repertoire Week 4: Review of Literature for Horn in the...
The repertoire portion of the course is organized as an overview of the historical development of the horn, from the earliest days of the...
