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.)

Most Recent Articles

Ultrasonic Cleaning and your Horn

You know that you need to keep your horn clean. If you are proactive about maintenance you will hardly ever need to have your...

Geyer Update: Engravings, Serial Numbers, and More

I could also have titled this article “Things I got wrong” in the Geyer Dreaming series (which starts here), or the related article published...

Revisiting the Art of French Horn on LP Records

The past year the vast majority of my actual classical music listening has been to LP records. With the recent passing of Hermann Baumann...

Brief Review: The Horn. The Book You Need

To open this brief review, I’ll start with a money quote: The Horn by Renato Meucci and Gabriele Rocchetti is the most significant book on...
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Featured Articles

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

Dream Big, Think Small

In regard to a previous post - "Dreams and Goals; Music Performance and Music Education" - I have gotten some feedback though private emails,...

Ask Dave: What Can I Do About a Leak?

Ryan asks: I've been using a older, heavily used Conn 6D until I can afford a better horn. It has a few quirks, but it's...

What Makes a Horn a Bad Horn?

Often, I see listings of horns for sale that emphasize that the horn would be a good horn for a student. And some of...

Review: Hands on with the Berlin Digital Concert Hall, I

The opportunity to watch horn soloist Radek Baborak perform the Gliere Concerto from Berlin was too good to resist. This concerto is epic. It is...

Ask Dave: The Three (or Four) Types of Lubricants You Need

I am always surprised when I ask a customer, "What kind of rotor oil do you use?" and the response I get is a...

Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, Part IV: Tuckwell and Cousins

Barry Tuckwell in Playing the Horn is open to the idea that there is no one placement for the tongue in the mouth in...
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