John Ericson

Mailbag: “Wolf” Notes on the Horn

A question recently came in relating to “wolf” notes on the natural horn, but it also relates to valved horn as well. The question...

Hornmasters on Rapid Tonguing, Part II: Brophy

Rapid single tonguing is one of the topics covered in depth by William R. Brophy in his Technical Studies for Solving Special Problems on...

7 Tactics to Develop Sight-Reading

One skill we all know we need is the ability to sight-read music well. Some people are better than others at this. Traditionally part...

Hornmasters on Rapid Tonguing, Part I

We all need speed! Conventional wisdom says ... To begin this survey on the topic of rapid single tonguing, Farkas in The Art of French Horn...

Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, Part V: Reynolds and Hill

To conclude our series on tonguing in general we turn to two more recent American horn teachers. Tonguing is part of an uninterrupted and automatic...

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...

4 Key Things the Great Horn Players Have

You love the horn. You want to ramp it up to a new level. Besides accuracy and general technique there are four key things...

Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, Part III: Fox and Berv

Continuing our series, we turn to two more Classic horn methods for their notes on tonguing, both of which hit on some ideas outside...

Named Your Horn Yet?

This past week I helped my niece purchase a new flute. At the store the manager asked her if she had named her old...

Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, part II: Schuller and Yancich

Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique has a rather different take on the tongue and tonguing than Farkas. Introducing the concept of varying the contact point He...