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
Mailbag: The Top 3 Horn Concertos
A question came in earlier this year asking generally what are the top 3 horn concertos. With the end of the semester for my...
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...
- - Please visit: Horn Notes Edition - -
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
Hornmasters: Berv on Holding the Horn and Left Hand Position
Harry Berv has a number of thoughts on proper playing position in his classic book A Creative Approach to the French Horn.
Some words...
Horn Repertoire Week 5: The Descant Horn and Approaches to Baroque...
One goal this semester is to use repertoire as not only a broad overview of history but also to look at performance of literature...
Titanic horn
From the Calgary Beacon:
In Clive Cussler’s classic Raise the Titanic! his protagonist discovers a French horn on the ocean floor which is later confirmed...
Hornmasters: The Exhale and Points of Resistance, Part II
As I have noted elsewhere, horn teachers of days gone by seem to rarely have attacked each other directly. But if you read their...
Our Third Year Anniversary and a Humorous Look at Gabrielle and...
September 1st, 2012 (tomorrow, in our neck of the woods) will mark a significant milestone for Horn Matters. Three years ago, John and I decided to...
Classic study materials: The Pottag Preparatory Melodies
One classic publication I have come back to recently is Preparatory Melodies to Solo Work for French Horn edited by Max P. Pottag. This...