John Ericson

Sabbatical part 4. Hidden Problems to Fix

Another type of hidden problem to fix is tubing ends under the ferrules that join the various pieces of tubing. The tubing ends on...

Toward Healthy Chops, and a Tip you can use Now

A major concern of mine for horn (and brass) players going forward into 2021 is chops. It has been a strange 9 months of...

Sabbatical, part 3. Shock Horror Inside View of a Horn [Updated]

One thing I wanted to obtain for this project overall was one of those flexible cameras. I bought one inexpensively on Amazon (Nidage brand)...

Sabbatical, part 2. My Original Horn Building Projects

When I was a Doctoral student, I was able to create a special minor for my degree at IU, the minor being in brass...

Sabbatical, part 1. Sabbatical?

With the end of this fall semester of classes, I am going on sabbatical from Arizona State for the spring of 2021. Which leads...

A closer look at a vintage “Kruspe Kruspe”

A Kruspe Kruspe? Any serious student of the horn today has heard of Kruspe style (or Kruspe wrap) horns, but many do not realize...

A “Popup Concert” and other COVID horn notes

COVID has changed the performing landscape of fall 2020 drastically. But before looking at that, there is good news out there, the proverbial “light at...

Auditioning for college in the age of COVID

Any reader looking at auditioning for college music programs right now knows that they are looking at a changed scenario due to COVID. Before this...

Tip: Building endurance in the age of no ensembles

With COVID, most horn players are finding themselves in an unusual situation, they have no ensembles to play in, and have not played in...

COVID and innovation in brass chamber music at Arizona State

We are doing something different than normal this semester for brass chamber music at Arizona State. During the summer our large ensemble directors began exploring...