John Ericson

Background on editing The Brass Gym for Horn

Very early in my tenure at ASU I realized that Sam Pilafian was accomplishing some very interesting things with his breathing/warm-up class and warm-up...

Thoughts on Playing a Double Wagner Tuba

I am playing extra horn this week with The Phoenix Symphony, seventh horn and Wagner tuba on The Rite of Spring. It has made...

Remembering Milan Yancich (1921-2007)

Over the weekend I learned of the passing on Friday of Milan Yancich at the age of 86. A longtime faculty member at Eastman,...

How do you Clean the Leadpipe if there is a Valve in the Middle...

This question was posed to me today and I realized there is nothing in my writings that address this question, one that does come...

Developing a Summer Excerpt Project

A recent E-mail from David Wakefield reminded me a summer where I had a “special project,” an excerpt project, a great project for any...

F or Bb — What Horn Best Suits Beginners?

The standard line for many teachers is single F horn is the best for beginners, traditional tone, etc. Is this pedagogical approach stuck in...

Mailbag: Is a Heavy Mouthpiece Better?

A blog reader, a high school student, wrote in after reading the recent mellophone mouthpiece series asking about heavy mouthpieces. Are they better? The...

Horn study impressions after a visit to Shanghai

As I write I am back in Taiwan after a week in Shanghai. A most interesting week, which we started arranging late last summer...

Summer is Heating up and the Mellophones are Coming Out

This was the first post (2007) in what became a mellophone series of articles, which led me toward writing A Mello Catechism. Check out...

The Black Art of Mouthpiece Making

I am now the proud owner of three Laskey 80G mouthpieces. I am very impressed with the quality control exhibited by Laskey in their...