Unexpected Results of Recent Mouthpiece Rim and Bell Flare Testing
In recent practice I’ve been testing mouthpiece rims in relation to some playing concerns and I cut two bells from vintage Mirafone horns. Getting not quite the results I would have expected. Rim...
View ArticleTension and Your Embouchure
A question came in about a young horn player with an extremely tight sound. They had started on trumpet, played it for a year, and recently switched to the horn. You would think that by now I’ve...
View ArticleA packing material new to me, and a silver horn
Recently I made a somewhat spur-of-the-moment eBay purchase of a sliver plated Schmidt model Conn. A little more on that in a minute. The item I think of more general interest is the packing material,...
View ArticleKruspe Memes
Late in the summer, on multiple days, I amused myself making Kruspe memes. But not just any Kruspe meme; they are memes about medium bell Kruspe horns. As they have become a research interest for me,...
View ArticleThe Very Important Topic of Who to Tune to in Orchestra
The following is a slightly expanded version of a story told many times to my students as they were starting the year in their ensembles. This was my solution to a common problem we face. Certainly,...
View ArticleLet’s Talk About Slurs on the Natural Horn
I wrote in a recent Instagram post that One of the most basic techniques of natural horn is to match the sound of natural slurs and slurs that you have to legato tongue. This exercise is by Duverony...
View ArticleMusings on 1,000 Articles and Google AI
I’ve been working on a horn related writing project off and on these several weeks. Occasionally I’ll do searches. Most of the time, out of habit, I’ll use Google Chrome. The current version of this...
View ArticleMore on Mouthpieces and High Range Intonation
Last year I figured out that many of my mouthpieces were flat in the high range on my main horns. I could make them all work, sure, but it was like lifting weights to get the intonation up. Only a...
View ArticleEasy slurs must feel easy to play
Do you fight your horn to play slurs? One topic I have mentioned a few times here in Horn Matters is that of easy music in relation to testing horns and mouthpieces. But it is a topic mostly buried in...
View ArticlePSA: No Loose Pencils in your Case
Back some years ago there was a long running series on Horn Matters by Dave Weiner, the “Ask Dave” series that you can look at in full here. Many highly interesting articles! One of my favorite titles...
View ArticleAccuracy Extra: Breath Attacks (Sub Tones) and Your Horn
A professional level horn will allow great breath attacks. What? I’ve written about breath attacks multiple times, most recently in the Accuracy Encyclopedia series (here). However, there is an angle...
View ArticleSabbatical Extra — Reworking the “Conversion Horn”
During my 2021 sabbatical from Arizona State I worked on horn building projects, documented in a category here in Horn Matters. The final horn I worked on that spring, it was a bonus horn, done using...
View ArticleMore on Heavy Metal Devices
Back in 2009 Bruce Hembd posted an article with the evocative title “Heavy Metal Devices,” which goes into topics including stem weights and heavy mouthpieces. It’s a good article well worth checking...
View ArticleAnother Kruspe Single F
Back in 2024 I posted about a nice vintage Kruspe single F. Around that time I purchased one of these too, of a bit different design. It was not playable, but looked like it had potential as a project....
View ArticleLet’s Talk About Dynamics and Your Horn
Is it your horn? A recent article focused on the topic of dynamics in large ensembles. But there is a proverbial “elephant in the room” related to this topic — it just may not be possible to play loud...
View ArticlePractice Topic — E Major and your Horn Playing
Something I say to students surprisingly often is how once you work out E major real well everything is easier. As I say that, I’m thinking not only of the patterns in my technique book, but more...
View ArticleMusings on Horns and Memories of a Dvorak Serenade
The Dvorak Serenade for Winds, Op. 44 is a wonderful work I’ve played a few times. The most memorable performance certainly was for a recording session at IU, with a group that was mostly IU faculty....
View ArticleLet’s Talk About Ensemble Dynamics
One topic that comes up often in lessons is that of dynamics in ensembles, especially large ensembles. While in typical etudes the dynamics are pretty clear cut, dynamics in reality are a moving target...
View ArticleSchmidt Dreaming, Pan American Edition
One of the original, iconic double horn designs was developed by German horn maker C. F. Schmidt in the early 20th century. The use of a piston valve for the thumb valve allows for a unique — and in...
View ArticleThe Heldenhorn
As Horn Matters author Bruce Hembd and I were both students at Eastman at the same time, we both had contact with a specific model of horn, made by Alexander in (mostly) the 1970s for Milan Yancich,...
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