John Ericson

The Mellophone Retirement Ceremony

One section that was cut from a draft of my mellophone book was a section on the mellophone toss. While I don’t recommend it...

Geyer Horn, First Valve Slide, B-flat Horn

Different brands of different horns have their quirks. One quirk on some Geyer style horns is that they may have a squirrelly high B-flat....

Best Invention Ever: Pencil Clips

One of my younger students was fascinated by my pencil clip. This is really a must have item for the horn player. It is...

From the Mailbag: Trumpet to Mellophone–an Easy Switch

I was recently contacted by a parent who had a child that had been asked to switch from trumpet to mellophone for marching band....

From the Mailbag: Bore Sizes and French Horns

Another recent question that came in had to do with bore of horns, as in what is actually meant when people say a horn...

From the Mailbag: Hollow Valves

I was recently asked a question about what exactly is meant when a horn has “hollow valves.” To understand the term in a general way...

Hornmasters: Merewether on Right Hand Position

Richard Merewether, as a horn designer, has an interesting perspective on hand position in The horn, the horn…. In the day-to-day activity of assisting players...

Long Before Farkas: Horn Mutes and Other Advice for Brass Players from 1813

Way back in 1813 a comprehensive method book with sections on all the instruments was published, the Vollständige Theoretisch-pracktische Musikschule of Joseph Fröhlich....

Auf dem Strom and the Natural Horn

People by nature try to categorize things and find notable “firsts.” One “first” often given to Schubert, incorrectly, is that Auf dem Strom (1828)...

Hornmasters: Berv on Right Hand Position

As was seen in his discussion of left hand position, for Harry Berv in A Creative Approach to the French Horn one central point...