John Ericson

The Mid-low Register and Technique Development

An observation: there are horn teachers who don’t work with their students much on technical development. This is a shame. There really is a...

The Tenor Horn/Alto Horn FAQ

Over the years many times I have been asked to explain a few details about E-flat tenor and alto horns to others. In response to...

6 Quick Tips for College Applications and Auditions

It is that time of year, students are finalizing their college audition plans. A few tips come to mind. 1. At most schools there are...

Vintage Brass Instrument: The Solo Alto

I have long been interested in horn history. My original website is well known for its horn history resources and I am sure has...

An Important Tip from Quantz on Cadenzas

Students often struggle a bit with their cadenzas. With juries (performance exams) coming for many horn students the next two weeks, the following quote...

A blast from the past, a brief look at the G Mellophone Bugle

An element of the mellophone puzzle, and understanding where we are today with the modern marching mello, is the G mellophone bugle. For those that...

Background on the new publication, Playing the Wagner Tuba

When I started thinking out of the box after turning in my tenure file and considered launching a publishing venture I really got going...

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...

Two Ways to Warm-up, and a Great Quote from John Barrows

Today in our horn pedagogy class the topic was the warm-up. One aspect of this that is little commented upon is there are essentially...

8 Quick Tips to Improve Your Accuracy on French Horn

There are many ways to work on accuracy, but these eight are all important elements to focus upon. 1. Buzz more often on the mouthpiece...