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Horn made with the slides in the wrong places
One question that comes in periodically is about a type of double horn that seems to have been constructed to have the valve slides in the wrong places. I first ran into one of these back when I was in...
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From the Mailbag: The “A” Valve
One common question relates to the “A” valve seen on most single Bb horns and descant horns. The central question would be “what is the purpose of placing the horn in the key of A?” Normally valve is...
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PDF Duets and Etudes from the Otto Langey Tutor for French Horn
One of my strong interests is the history of horn pedagogy, and over the years I have accumulated quite a number of interesting horn methods from the 19th century. The Otto Langey Tutor is little known...
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Birth of a Brass Trio CD: Table for Three
Over the past several months I have posted a series of articles about the production of a new brass trio CD, as I think the process is a bit mysterious to many readers and it is an interesting one. The...
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Brief Reviews: Boldin plays Koetsier, and the Matosinhos “Little Suites” for...
A number of items have come in for review, and to start catching up on that today we have two 2013 products of interest. First up is the CD Jan Koetsier: Music for Horn performed by James Boldin. This...
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Giving Thanks for Things that Matter
It it that time of year here in America, when families typically get together during a holiday from work to share food and stories at the dining room table. It is an annual tradition where the...
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Pre-Holiday Flood: It’s Raining Memes!
Click on any image to enlarge. More Memes, Say You? If you enjoyed these, you might browse the entire...
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Memes: Special Edition
Regular readers of Horn Matters know that Bruce Hembd and I both count Verne Reynolds among our former teachers. In an prior article I highlighted ten things I learned from Reynolds, and from that...
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Commentary: A Popular Meme on Mouthpieces that is Wrong
I have seen the following meme go around Facebook several times: As a horn teacher I have to say this meme, while it sounds like good advice, is very wrong. Sure, long tones are important, but only to...
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More Random Hornist Hamster Memes
Below are yet more, somewhat random Hornist Hamster memes. Can you find the Robert Schumann quote? Enjoy! Mistakes are made by fools like me, but … And again, the Hornist Hamster meme theme is one of...
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Why is my Horn Sharp?
One common question is that some models of horn seem to be built rather sharp, as in the main slide needs to be pulled quite a ways, perhaps so far that it is pulled as far as possible and you are...
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Brief Reviews: Recent CD’s by Gross, Havlík, and Van Dreel
Continuing our series of brief reviews we have two 2014 CD releases to close out the year. First up alphabetically is a recording of double concertos, “Czech-American Horn Duo,” on the Summit label....
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Review: Good Vibrations – Masterclasses for Brass Players
For a final book review of 2014 we have a new publication from Randy C. Gardner, Good Vibrations – Masterclasses for Brass Players. This publication is a substantial 156 pages, spiral bound. All the...
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Top Ten Articles — End of 2014 Edition
Since the recent site redesign at Horn Matters the number one most popular part of the site by far is our PDF Library — if you have not checked it out you should! After that page, the following are the...
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PDF Horn Duets from the Henri Kling Horn-Schule
Henri Kling (1842-1918) spent most of his career in Geneva, where he was professor of horn and solfège at the Geneva Conservatory from 1865 until his death. Kling’s Horn-Schule was, according to his...
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PDF Etudes from the Oscar Franz Method
Oscar Franz (1843-1886) was one of the most prominent teachers and performers of the horn in the late nineteenth century. Franz spent most of his career in Dresden, where he taught at the Dresden...
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PDF Duets and Etudes by Gallay from the Grand Method for the French Horn by...
Concluding for now this series of PDF downloads from 19th century method books are a pair of great downloads from a publication with a great title, the Grand Method for the French Horn by Meifred,...
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On Dealing with New Compositions with Bad Horn Writing
A recent discussion on the Facebook Horn People discussion group brings up the topic of living composers and how they write for the French horn. This has been a topic here at Horn Matters, one that...
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The Modern, Paperless Hornist
One trend I have noticed is that more and more horn players (and musicians in general) are to varying degrees going paperless. Using your iPad or similar device to read PDF music really is convenient...
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Session: Building Great French Horn Sections
This week I will be presenting a session at the Arizona Music Educators Association annual conference on the topic of “Building Great French Horn Sections.” There are a few articles in Horn Matters...
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