John Ericson

On Switching Students from Trumpet to Horn

In 1973 I started sixth grade. That year I also started playing trumpet and this very book was the very first book I used:...

3 Key Ideas from a Master Class with Gail Williams

I was recently reminded of another classic post from my original HTML blog not yet reposted to Horn Matters. Dated 3/6/05 and originally titled...

Hornmasters on Mouthpiece Placement

I changed my embouchure twice in college, the first time right after my sophomore year and the second during my Doctoral studies. It is...

Resource: The Brass Players Cookbook

In the previous post I noted Lesley Howie was a featured endorsing artist in the Woodwind & Brasswind catalog. It caught my eye as...

Bad Audition=Quit Horn? (Updated with a short story)

A post from the archive of the original HTML Horn Notes Blog dated 9/4/06. With a 2021 UPDATE and story at the end Every fine...

What Motivates Horn Players?

The question of motivations has long been of interest to me and closely relates to topics on which Bruce has written as well. Bruce...

Hornmasters on Opening the Corners to Breathe

Another brief topic in the embouchure chapter for Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing was that of breathing in relation to the...

Hornmasters on Puffing the Cheeks

Next Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing briefly presents notes on puffing out the cheeks. Conventional wisdom Farkas felt it was to be avoided...

From the Mailbag: What Horns do Professionals Play?

A question that comes in often in various ways is something along the lines of “What horns do professionals play?” Bruce Hembd and I...

Hornmasters on the Geometry of the Lips and Corners

In this series of posts I have quoted from classic horn texts following along the topics as presented in The Art of French Horn...