Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2008 April.

Bassist Jon Stefaniak recently forwarded a link to me featuring this excerpt of a video lesson with Metropolitan Orchestra Principal Bass Tim Cobb.  Tim teaches a bass student (likely a Juilliard student, though this is not specified in the video notes) the primary first movement audition lick from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

The entire [...]

Musicians reading this blog are likely to be familiar with the revolutionary Venezuelan music program El Sistema.  Started in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu, El Sistema has survived eight separate Venezuelan governments (not simply new presidents, but actual governments).  Adaptistration blogger (and fellow Inside The Arts network member) Drew McManus wrote a four-part series [...]

After putting out what may possibly be the worst (or best, depending on your perspective) classical music album cover of all time on a recent post, blog reader Chris pointed me to this fabulous list of top ten worst albums.  I’ll be blogging these from time to time, but be sure to check out the [...]

Classicalmusicnews.tv blogger and Contrabass Conversations co-host John Grillo  just launched an interesting new series over on his blog that profiles the inner workings of the symphony orchestra.  John has played in symphony orchestras across the globe for his entire professional career, including performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony, as well as being [...]

 Check out the gig commuting cost calculator by Drew McManus here and determine if you should really be taking that gig.

A recent feature in the Chicago Tribune (Sunday, April 13, 2008 by Jim Mateja) about the actual operating costs per mile for a variety of different vehicles caught my eye–not surprising considering how much [...]

This is a post from National Symphony Orchestra bassist Jeff Weisner. Jeff also teaches bass at The Peabody Institute in Baltimore and co-authors the blog PeabodyDoubleBass. Click here for all of Jeff’s doublebassblog.org posts.
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(Note to readers: I can’t count and apparently skipped directly from Part II to Part IV. [...]

After putting out what may possibly be the worst (or best, depending on your perspective) classical music album cover of all time on a recent post, blog reader Chris pointed me to this fabulous list of top ten worst albums. I’ll be blogging these from time to time, but be sure to check out [...]

 

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I’m pleased to be able to share this interview with Robert Meyer, one of our most experienced and interesting members of the double bass community. Robert has had a long and illustrious career on the double bass, working for over 50 years in most of the major orchestras in London (including the London [...]

I’m putting the final touches on this week’s Contrabass Conversations interview episode with Robert Meyer.  I’ve been an avid follower of Robert’s blog Musical Reminiscences since he launched it in late 2006, and I was thrilled that he was interested in doing an interview for the podcast!
At age 87, Robert looks back on a [...]

This video of Ha Yung Wung (his nickname is Hero), a four-year-old Korean boy singing “Hey Jude” while playing the guitar, has been circulating the Internet for about a year now, but if you missed it you’ve simply got to take a moment and watch this!