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.)
- - Please visit: International Horn Competition of America - -Most Recent Articles
What Was the Omnitonic Horn?
When you get to looking at horn history there are many rabbit holes to explore, many little dead end trails of horn design. Some...
Making a Crook for a Natural Horn
This article was posted in a corner of Horn Articles Online back in 2008. In editing Horn Matters articles with links to the now...
How Bells are Cut
The original version of this article, posted in Horn Articles Online probably around the year 2000 (!), had the subtitle "Don't try this at...
Big News from 1897: The Invention of the Double Horn, the...
For generations of horn players now the double horn has always been there, has always been the standard instrument we play. It's interesting, however,...
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Horn Etudes by Women Composers
Many Horn Matters readers will be familiar with the Works with Horn by Women 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
Fundamentals 18A. Bass clef: old (and new) notation bass clef
Number 18 on the list of fundamentals in the Douglas Hill book, which I have used to guide this series, to my mind involves...
On Choosing the Right Natural Horn and Mouthpiece
This year on my annual recital one work will again be on natural horn. Between my personal instruments and Arizona State I have access...
Double Horn Fingerings Above High C
The topic of fingerings above high C for standard double horn came up for me last week in one of the master classes in...
Gender Balance in the Horn World: We Can Do Better
Before a recent faculty meeting, our first of the semester, we were challenged to be ready to share about “One thing in your discipline/area...
Got Dimes?
Many players struggle along to varying degrees with an instrument that does not fit their hands well. The instrument may actually feel “normal” but...
My Crooked Rotary Valve Horn
As I think back on it many summers I have had a “project” of some sort. This summer I plan to play quite a...
