Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2007 September.

In keeping with today’s theme, I’ve got some more posts from fellow bass bloggers to share with readers. Hellafrish author and Calgary Philharmonic bassist Matt Heller recently put up an interesting post titled Is it lies, or is it Memorex? (Matt refers to a recent article at SFGate.com: “MP3 music - it’s better [...]

Blog reader Bill left a comment on our post about PeaBodyDoubleBass that reflects what I have often wondered:
I wonder why the heck it is that there are so many good blogs from bass players? You, Matt Heller(”Hella Frisch”), Hovnanian, Jeff White, and Oppelt and now these Peabody folks! Is there a concentration of this [...]

I’ve just uploaded my first instructional video to you tube. In it I explain how to connect one chord change to the next when you are playing a walking bass line. I use the lessons I’ve learned from the greats: Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, Ron Carter et al. The techniques I discuss are [...]

This is very cool.
Peabody Institute bass faculty members Jeffrey Weisner (National Symphony Orchestra), John Hood (Philadelphia Orchestra), and Paul Johnson (Baltimore Opera Company) have started a collaborative blog. This new site, which can be found at peabodydoublebass.blogspot.com, is really a great idea. What an excellent way to let students (current, former, and [...]

I just set up a very cool new service from Podlinez.com that allows you to listen to the latest Contrabass Conversations episode simply by dialing a phone number. All you’ve got to do is dial (360) 227-5632 (add +1 if you’re outside of the United States) and the latest podcast episode will start [...]

National Symphony Principal Bassist Robert Oppelt’s website is a really excellent and worthwhile read–if you haven’t checked it out, I heartily recommend it. Robert regularly updates it with advice, stories, interviews, and photos.
Robert recently posted a letter sent to him from Samir Basim, Principal Bassist of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra. Here’s a [...]

Courtney and I liked the idea of a beach wedding, and we eventually settled on Hanalei on the beautiful island of Kauai as the ideal location. As you can see, the wedding party was really dancing with joy at the setting:

My brother was so excited about this beautiful place that he couldn’t keep still, [...]

I recently conducted an interview with Anna Farmery for The Engaging Brand. This episode, titled A Symphony of Leadership, was just released. You can click here to listen to the episode or visit Show #107 of The Engaging Brand to check it out.
We talked about what leaders in other fields can learn from [...]

This interview-only episode wraps up our chat with double bass composer Bjorn Berkhout. Bjorn’s music has been performed by the Chicago Symphony Bass Quartet (among other groups). We chatted about composing and life as a university professor, and Bjorn offered practical advice for music majors. Check out the first part on CBC 10.
Click to listen [...]

This interview-only episode of Contrabass Conversations wraps up our interview with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Northeastern Illinois University bass instructor Greg Sarchet, and we were joined by two of his students (Ausberto and Hans) at a Bulgarian restaurant for this interview. Both Hans and Oz contribute some questions, which both Greg and I answer. [...]