Pip Eastop – Hornplayer

  Epiloggy  (by Blewhis Barrel)   Jabberwocky   (by Lewis Carrol)   ‘Twas Britten, and the slidy specs  Did gyre and gimble down the nose;  All flimsy were the borrowed kecks,  And the tone rows outphrose. ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;  All mimsy were the borogroves,  And [...]

Here’s something I wrote about playing the horn for the September 2008 issue of Classical Music Magazine: (You can simply read the text here, below, or click here to download the .pdf file of the article as it appeared in the magazine.) “Playing the horn (of the type often called the French Horn, for no sensible [...]

The winner of the Corno Pazzo Award (now an award and not a contest) for the Most Creative Hornist of the Year goes to English hornist Pip Eastop…. Read the article (in .pdf format) from the “Horn Call”, October 2003.

Reproduced here by kind permission of the Open University (go there) is my chapter from the book “Knowledge, Power and Learning”. Edited by Paechter, C. Preedy, M. Scott, D + Soler, J. (2001) ISBN 0 7619 6936 3 The book is associated with an Open University second-level course: E211 – Learning matters: challenges of the information [...]

Written by Thomas Allard (horn student at Royal College of Music) (Year 3 Teaching Skills Assignment) “Horn Tennis” “It is impossible to teach the horn. It is only possible to teach the students how to teach themselves.” This is Pip Eastop’s main philosophy, and over the last three years I have gradually come to agree [...]

The following text is extracted from “The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments” Edited by Trevor Herbert The Open University, Milton Keynes, 1997 John Wallace (ISBN-13: 9780521565226 | ISBN-10: 0521565227) Reproduced here with the permission of Cambridge University Press.   Breathing (page 201) Although the acquisition of good breathing technique is essential to brass playing, and [...]

The following text is extracted from “The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments” Edited by Trevor Herbert The Open University, Milton Keynes, 1997 John Wallace (ISBN-13: 9780521565226 | ISBN-10: 0521565227) Reproduced here with the permission of Cambridge University Press.   Embouchure (pages 199-201) The word embouchure is important to brass players. It is used to describe [...]

The following text is extracted from “The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments” Edited by Trevor Herbert The Open University, Milton Keynes, 1997 John Wallace (ISBN-13: 9780521565226 | ISBN-10: 0521565227) Reproduced here with the permission of Cambridge University Press. Sound production (page 199) On all brass instrument, the lips, held under tension within the circle of [...]

The following text is extracted from “The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments” Edited by Trevor Herbert The Open University, Milton Keynes, 1997 John Wallace (ISBN-13: 9780521565226 | ISBN-10: 0521565227) Reproduced here with the permission of Cambridge University Press. The diaphragm (pages 201-203)   The diaphragm is the principal muscle of inspiration – of the drawing in [...]

The Tongue Cut Off! ( This article was published in “The Horn Magazine”, Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 1997) Those readers whose quality of repetitive tonguing stays consistently tidy and clear from the quiet and slow through to the loud and fast, will probably find little of use in this article. Please jump directly to [...]

  Life, the Horn and Everything. (First published in The Horn Magazine, Vol.3 No.1 Winter 1995.)   Who says rehearsals are boring? I discovered a wonderful thing the other day, during some bars rest. If I cover my right nostril with one finger, put the mouthpiece of my horn to my left nostril and inhale [...]

Opening up the can of worms. Many wind players do very well with no thoughts at all about breathing, and there are plenty of others who do rather well despite adhering to completely absurd theories. There is much argument and confusion about the best way of using our internal bellows equipment for the purposes of [...]

My Small Organ. (first published in The Horn Magazine – Vol 3, No. 2 Summer 1995)   The way I play the horn has been greatly influenced a by a small organ in my lower back – my right kidney. It first started causing me grief and pain when I was fourteen, on a residential [...]

Pip Eastop is interviewed by Jeff Bryant  for the Horn Magazine. (Vol. 5 No. 1, 1994)   What is your age? 36 What instrument did you first play and at what age? Recorder. Aged seven. When did you start playing the horn? On the second Friday in February, 1969. What make and model was your first [...]

HORNWAVES – Quartets for Solo Horn by Pip Eastop (1984)   Exerpt from sleeve notes: “The music on this recording was made up on the spur of the moment and it was my deliberate plan NOT to have any musical ideas in my head before we started rolling. In this way I feel I have [...]