Horn Matters is the leading online resource on the French horn, co-founded by John Ericson and Bruce Hembd. The mission of Horn Matters is: to encourage, inspire, inform, and challenge horn players, and; to promote the best musical instrument ever, the French horn. (More.)
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Fundamentals 12. Endurance: ease of production at all levels of fatigue...
Sometimes I think of batteries when I think about endurance on the horn. Batteries run down with use, and as they deplete the energy...
Revisiting a Geyer single horn
During my sabbatical in the spring of 2021 I rebuilt four horns of interesting designs, the third of those being a Geyer single F....
Fundamentals 11. Accuracy: initial attacks at all dynamics, consistency hearing entrance...
The proverbial elephant in the room in horn playing is accuracy. In the prompt from Douglas Hill (this series is based on a list...
Review: Two Gig Bags
Among my activities I like to work on horns, continuing the type of projects I was doing during my sabbatical (more here). I enjoy...
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Horn Etudes by Female Composers
Many Horn Matters readers will be familiar with the Works with Horn by Female Composers website by Dr. Lin Foulk. If not, this is...
Julius Watkins, jazz French horn pioneer
Talking with colleagues recently, a topic that came up was how some great players of the recent past are unjustly neglected today. In terms...
Overview of Trusted Brands in French Horns
A survey titled "What Brand Names Do You Trust?" collected the opinions of 392 participants. The results are in and while it may take...
Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (I): The Basic Parts
Part I: The Rim and Preliminary Thoughts
Part II: Cup, Throat and Bore
Part III: Weight, Plating and Shopping Tips
For the past decade...
French Horn Transposition Chart
A complete reference.
Transposition Chart (PDF) (updated 2012)
Over the past few months, I have been posting various transposition tricks, including how to transpose:
A and...
Farkas on Stagefright (and more)
In the world of horn there have been few that made as much impact as Philip Farkas (1914-1992). The Art of French Horn Playing...
Random Articles
Mailbag: Why does Another Player in my Section Sound Loud, Bright,...
Another question that came in recently was that of why a person in a horn section sounded bad. In the E-mail it mentioned the...
Toccata and Fugue for Solo Horn
Who needs an organ?
Yes, that's right... the famous Bach organ piece performed on horn with no backup or safety net. Frank Lloyd gives an...
A Study on Hand Position: A More Stable High Range and...
I found the link in Random Monday this week to a recent (2009) study very interesting, on the topic of hand position.
The title of...
The Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin and Crazy Horn Notations...
One excerpt horn players learn is the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin. I was recently working on this with a young student as...
A key to horn success: “Hook up” your Low Range
Every year after ensemble placement auditions at ASU thoughts will come to mind. I was really happy overall with the quality and results of...
The Stopping Valve: The Best Invention Ever
In the United States horns with a stopping valve are not common. The most recent recital I gave is probably the first that I...
