We hit 1000 posts and sailed past earlier this month—an artificial landmark, perhaps, but it still makes me think about what has been developed so far and what is coming up in the future on the blog. Readership has mushroomed, the comments are pouring in, folks are checking out the podcast, submitting content, trading gear, watching videos, downloading music and recordings, and learning from and sharing with the bass (and music) community at large.

All of that is great, but my brain is always churning with new ideas.

1)Bass news

This is one of the core components of the blog. Concert, school and audition information, recordings, repertoire, advice, and other such content pertaining to the double bass community will continue to come out every day.

2)Continued sharing of user-submitted content

Keep sending me your links, concert announcements, bass videos, MP3s, sheet music, and the like, and I’ll keep posting it. Send me articles, gig stories, and bass advice, and I will put it up and credit you with authorship. Making this into a community site was one of my goals when I started getting serious about the blog (during the summer of 2006), and this kind of sharing gives the site a vibrancy it would likely lack otherwise.

3)Growing the Contrabass Conversations podcast

Contrabass Conversations is already quite popular in the bass community (download numbers are very good and growing each week), and I will only become more so. To me, it is a natural extension of what I am trying to accomplish on the blog, and it is a way of bringing the bass community together in a way that was not practical or possible a decade ago. Each week, a new episode comes out, and these episodes remain online and accessible for future generations of musicians.

4) Developing and publishing more free, downloadable content

I really like free stuff that is useful. Scale sheets, accompaniments, technique routines, practice tracks and the like are being added all the time to my downloads page. The offerings will continue to increase as time passes. You can help. Just e-mail me (jsh177@yahoo.com) any appropriate files that you’d like to get out to the bass community.

5) Weekly original written content (my long form writing)

My own writing (gig stories, Road Warrior series, educational articles) is just a component of this blog, but it is an important component to me. In addition to daily bas news and a weekly podcast, I try to put out one long-form piece of prose each week. I try to alternate between something more serious (Road Warrior) and something more lighthearted (gig stories).

Unlike the podcast (which comes out each weekend), I am a little more flexible with the release schedule for my writing. If something’s not ready or I’ve been very busy, I don’t put something out. No big deal.

This writing serves several purposes. I use the blog as a digital sandbox for my writing, putting out material that I think will be of interest to folks. Some of this material serves as the building-blocks of magazine and journal submissions, while other material is purely for the blog.

I’m a big believer in just putting your stuff out there. I like the instant feedback from readers, and if it came down to print publication or blog publication, I’d choose the blog without blinking an eye. This is the future, and older publication models will only further diminish in relevance as time passes.
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What will not be in store:

1) Gushy, diary-like posts about yours truly

That’s not my style. I’ll write reams about the business, and I’ve got no problem with any wacky or embarrassing involving your truly, but you’re not going to hear about how great I thought Lost was last night or how weird these new pants I bought look.

2) Posting any material under copyright

I am happy to post any topical user-submitted content sent to me—-provided that it is not under copyright. Mucking about in that morass is only going to get me in trouble, and I therefore try to make sure that I am 100% (or reasonably close to 100%) legit with what I put up here.

3) Crass commercialization of the blog

I have monetized the site to an extent, but I am trying to do so in as unobtrusive a way as possible. I will try to keep the monetization features to a minimum—no pop-ups, no animated ads scrolling across the page. I hate that kind of stuff and I’m sure you do as well.

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