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

Mailbag: The Top 3 Horn Concertos

A question came in earlier this year asking generally what are the top 3 horn concertos. With the end of the semester for my...

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...
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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

A Shortage of Young Horn Players

Some things never change. John Ericson has made it a mission to promote and encourage more young horn students in Arizona. As a private (and...

Topic: “Clicks” and valve changes

I have been working on final editing of a series of new Bordogni publications (more soon!) and have been playing as a result a...

Geyer Dreaming V: The Mouthpiece Man

Continuing to the topic of Geyer and mouthpieces, there is an article by Milan Yancich, "Carl Geyer -- The Mouthpiece Man," that was published...

That Lennon horn picture

Thanks to C. Scott Smith I have some background on a picture that I own, of John Lennon tooting on a horn. That horn was...

Background on the new publication, Playing High Horn

Over the summer of 2007 I worked very hard toward the completion of four book projects and launching a new publishing venture, Horn Notes...

A Masterclass with Philip Farkas on Musicianship

This summer I am presenting three sessions at the IHS symposium in Memphis, and this week the major project was organizing my materials for...
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