John Ericson

Then: Double Horn and Descant at the Audition. Now?

Before (and after) winning Third Horn in Nashville in 1991 I took a lot of auditions. Early on, I owned just one horn, and...

Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, part I: Horner and Farkas

Every method book on the horn has something to say on the topic of tonguing, with some of it being contradictory. And it is...

9 Ways We can Tell that a Composer or Arranger Does Not Know how...

Periodically we at Horn Matters have touched on the topic of bad horn writing. Horn players reading this already have a good idea, intuitively,...

What is a “Dual Bore” Horn?

While I am not using it as my main horn at present, for some years I mainly played a Paxman 25A horn (for example...

Hornmasters: Attacks, a Prelude to Tonguing

Tonguing would seem on the surface to be a fairly uncontroversial topic. We have touched on this topic in this series of quotations from...

Silverado, and Why We Play the Horn

One project I gave to the studio last week was for everyone to learn the opening six bars of Silverado. Why I did this...

A Newly Updated Dennis Brain Discography

I recently received a note from Stephen Gamble that Robert Marshall's substantially revised listing of Dennis Brain's recordings, originally published in 1996 by Margun...

Who Wrote the Haydn Double Concerto?

This week I had the opportunity to perform the double concerto commonly attributed to Haydn. My performance was with Rose French (with piano), as...

How to Test a Different Leadpipe on your Horn

Among horns I have owned over the years I have tried and changed several leadpipes. A change of leadpipe continues to be a popular...

High Notes, or Why you might need a New Horn or Upgrade Leadpipe

Nothing can inspire you to practice more than a horn that clearly plays better than what you have been playing. In my case, I...