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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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
Introducing the Mellophonium
One thing that was interesting after my surprise performance of Misty on the Mellophonium at the banquet at the 2009 IHS symposium at Western...
Humor: 8 Chuck Norris Memes with ‘Walker Texas Ranger’ as a...
Put briefly, memes are a virally-transmitted form of communication and interaction. Cultural symbols and pop icons are often incorporated, and a very popular one for several years...
Excerpt: The Ravel Pavane
Performance suggestions.
I had the pleasure of performing this piece - Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte - over the weekend and while it is...
Review: Horn Crush
They call them "dent bags" for a reason.
Having crushed my own horn once long ago, Lisa Emrich's story "My Horn, The Metal Taco" struck...
Block those betas
Of interest in the news:
Block those betas
An article at The Minnesota Daily with the provocative title "Better music by prescription" dives into the...
Recordings as a Guide in the Journey for Inspiration
I once knew a teacher who discouraged students from listening to recordings when preparing solo repertoire.
This teacher felt that it was important for the...
