Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2006 December.

Merry Christmas from the Bass Blog! Thanks to Greg Sarchet for sending along this Santa pic to me.

When you play a piece like Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet time after time, year after year, sometimes you long for something (anything!) different to happen. Variety is good, even if it is a bad kind of variety. Well, last year at the Milwaukee Ballet we had some REAL variety down in the pit [...]

After reading a recent post on Matt Heller’s hella frisch blog, I found this delightfully maddening story about a recent audition experience from a Washington, D.C. violinist. Check out her tale on her blog Dragons and Princesses. She is just trying to warm up and some obnoxious Russian violinist comes into her warm-up [...]

Here is another great video of Stefano Sciascia playing the double bass. This is a very different style than the Cancion de Amor video from Stefano that I posted earlier. I recommend checking out Stefano’s website for more information, and I will keep posting his videos every few days (there are a lot [...]

After following a link on a recent oboeinsight post, I discovered this very funny trombone teacher doll fake ad from HotBrass.info:

Classical Trombone Teacher Doll:
* Polyester pants, golf shirt, and golf hat. * Tuxedo - Only available with Gigging Trombone Teacher Doll (supplies limited)
Jazz Trombone Teacher Doll:
[...]

Here is a great shot courtesy of Greg Sarchet featuring the great double bass pedagogue Franz Simandl in full ceremonial dress. I especially like the sword he has on his belt. That Simandl was one fearsome bass teacher–one false move in your bass lesson with him could have proved to be your last.

Torrentfreak’s recent post about how 75% of artists actually profit from music piracy is very interesting:
Piracy is not all that bad for musicians. In fact, research has shown that less popular artists actually profit from piracy. This can be concluded from, and is supported by several studies. Frustrated as they are, the music industry claims [...]

This is not a music blog, but it is a great example of the power of blogging. Boston 1775 is a blog about the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts. Here is a little information about the author:

J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other [...]

I just got an e-mail from my friend John Grillo, and I realized that I have never mentioned him on the bass blog. This is surprising, because John is one of the most interesting and original musicians I have ever met. John performs frequently with the Pittsburgh Opera and has been studying with [...]

Double bassists looking for a great comprehensive reference for the life and times of Serge Koussevitzky should visit his excellent Wikipedia page. The former music director of the Boston Symphony and double bass soloist left quite a footprint on both the double bass world and the classical music world in general. Check out [...]