Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

I often wondered as I entered the classical music freelance world how one could possibly put together an income in this business. Some politically smart auditions I took my last year of graduate school helped me join the Chicago freelance scene fairly smoothly, allowing me to play with the best groups in the [...]

This is a post from double bassist from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music student Nicholas Hart. Nick will be contributing weekly posts to the bass blog about life as a music student in one of the nation’s most exclusive programs. I think readers will find this different perspective on the double bass world and the [...]

Double bassist Kathryn Nettleman recently left a great comment on my Advice for Aspiring Music Performance Majors post. Kate has been a member of a full-time orchestra (The Naples Philharmonic), a member of the New World Symphony, and has performed with countless major symphony orchestras. Recent engagements include the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, [...]

What, exactly, is a “regional” orchestra? For the purposes of this article, regional orchestras will be defined as organizations that employ professional musicians but do not offer a salary and other benefits of full-time employment. The organizational structure is virtually identical to the full-time symphony orchestra and is quite different from the community [...]

This is the fourth installment of my Road Warrior without an Expense Account series. The intent of this installment is to highlight the increased competition for the progressively decreasing full-time orchestral positions. The statistics I present here are only theoretical and may certainly differ from the exact number or audition openings and candidates, but [...]

This series is based on my own experiences as a professional freelance classical orchestral musician. While everyone has a slightly (or vastly) different individual path in the freelance world, I believe that these experiences reflect what a growing majority of orchestral freelancers are dealing with in their professional lives.
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The traditional pot of gold [...]

In this second installment of my series on professional freelance life as a musician, I would like to offer some commentary on trends that I see in the world of professional classical music performance. This installment of the series is geared toward orchestral performance. Other musicians, educators, and industry professionals may find value [...]

This article was published in the March/April 2007 edition of the Adjunct Advocate. Visit the article on their website here.
This series is currently being turned into a book–coming soon!
This is the first in the series of detailed articles covering the hidden costs associated with freelance work. In this installment I discuss the realities [...]

Having recently resigned from two adjunct university positions, I feel the urge to share some of my concerns about how such positions are administrated at many universities in the United States. These concerns are based on my own experiences as an adjunct double bass instructor and upon many conversations with colleagues at other universities. [...]

This is a post continuing the discussion of various double bass fingering methods. You can read the complete conversation here. Feel free to add your comments to any of these posts. If you have more extended thoughts or additional methods that you would like me to include as a separate post feel [...]