John Ericson

Extreme Tonguing Techniques

One overall thought from recent auditions and horn performances I have heard is that tonguing is one of the most important technical areas to...

Those Pesky Long Tones, a Key to Better Playing?

It is interesting to me how actually a very simple topic like long tones can also be a hot button topic. Back in 2008...

The Most Popular Horn Quartet Composer

This was originally posted as part of a report on the 2011 Mid-South Horn Workshop, hosted by Dr. Paul Stevens at the University of...

A Study on Hand Position: A More Stable High Range and Hand Stopping

I found the link in Random Monday this week to a recent (2009) study very interesting, on the topic of hand position. The title of...

From the Mailbag: The Horn Emergency Repair Kit

One recent question that came in is a practical one, of what to keep in your case. A reader wrote, “I'm wondering what I...

Mailbag: Why does Another Player in my Section Sound Loud, Bright, and Out of...

Another question that came in recently was that of why a person in a horn section sounded bad. In the E-mail it mentioned the...

About those “Tutti” parts in some Mozart Horn Concerto editions

A question that comes up quite often is that of the "tutti" parts in some editions of Mozart horn concertos. As in, what is...

The Art of Mellophone Playing

UPDATE: The third edition of A Mello Catechism is a virtual "Art of Mellophone Playing," available now (2018) in print and Kindle versions. This coming...

What [Type of] School is Best for Horn Study?

This article was first posted on the original HTML Horn Notes Blog way back on 11/1/04. It is timely again--today was the last day...

Just Say “No” to Transposed Parts

Transposed parts; younger students love them, but on the whole they are a crutch. One of the reasons they are used so often is...