John Ericson

Review: Meir Rimon, Horn of Plenty

Early in the summer we took a road trip and among the CDs I took one of the family favorites was Meir Rimon, Horn...

Technical Materials IV: Materials I am Still Looking For

First a question, did you notice any general category of technical material missing from the materials in the previous posts in this series? In the...

Technical Materials III: Uncommon Materials I Teach From

First, to add one big point in the previous post in this series, I don’t teach with a one-size-fits-all routine that is the same...

Technical Materials II: Standard Materials I Teach From

As mentioned in my previous post, in terms of materials I started out as I was taught but over the years began to experiment...

Technical Materials I: What I Studied From

Horn teachers tend to teach out of materials that they used as students with their own students up to the point that they find...

A Blast from the Past: The Altonium

Depending on your age and background the Altonium could be seen as odd, rare, cool, cute, or as an old friend from back in...

Hornmasters: Farkas, Schuller, Berv, and Tuckwell on Fingerings

Chapter four of The Art of French Horn Playing is on the topic of fingerings and tuning as Farkas felt that “these two subjects...

Looks like a mini-Wagner Tuba: Introducing the Althorn

Recently I have had the opportunity to try this great example of an althorn. This particular one is in F and was made by...

The Birth of the Cool and the horn in the Miles Davis Nonet

Miles Davis Birth of the Cool-- this 1957 album is considered one of the most influential jazz albums ever. It is a compilation of singles...

Tonguing is a big key to everything, especially accuracy

The Public Service Announcement of the weekend is on the topic of tonguing. There is a lot of dogma on tonguing out there to...