John Ericson

Looking back: How did I learn to play short notes and single tongue quickly?

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...

Accuracy Encyclopedia: Breath Attacks and Buzzing

There are two entries under “B,” the topics of breath attacks and buzzing. Both have positive and negative points to consider. Breath attacks, a risky...

Accuracy Encyclopedia: Audiation and Autopilot

Finishing up the “A” topics, we have audiation and autopilot Audiation, or, hearing what you plan to play before you play it It is harder to...

Navigating Performance Anxiety

For our second Brass Area of the semester the ASU brass faculty had a panel discussion, part of our Career Forward series, on the...

Accuracy Encyclopedia: Air and Alternate Fingerings

Today as we continue our tour the subject of accuracy we have two unrelated topics, air (the use of) and also alternate fingerings (pro...

Mental Centering and your Warmup

On social media very recently, I saw a brief comment pass by related to how warmups helped with mental centering.** That thought resonated with...

Accuracy Encyclopedia: Adjust your Thinking

In notes dating back to 2008 I’ve been working off and on toward a possible book on accuracy. Some of the notes have found...

Rethinking the “Inner Game”

For many years many have recommended The Inner Game of Tennis as a resource for improving your performance. I found it helpful -- an...

3 Main Aspects of Playing Improvement

I have heard it said that we are standing on the shoulders of those that have gone before us. In terms of horn playing,...

“Each instrument has a different personality,” or, different horns are in fact better on...

There is a big amorphous topic that is rarely discussed related to horns and repertoire. Over the years it has become more and more...