Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

I recently created a section on the blog specifically for educators. There is a lot of material buried beneath he surface of this blog, and it is my hope to make this material more accessible to both teachers and students. This page will act as a portal to the more educational resources, [...]

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 [...]

Contrabass Conversations Episode 11 just got wrapped up, and I think that you all will really enjoy this one. It is a series of tracks performed by double bassist Andy Anderson with commentary between each track. Andy uses a wide array of set-ups on these tracks, and he gives listeners some info and [...]

Finally, there are some orchestral jobs holding double bass auditions! Some of them are the same ones we’ve been seeing for the last few years over and over (Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony) but some are new. Here are details:Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Principal Bass
Tentative Audition Schedule as follows:
Sunday, May 20, 2007 - Preliminary AuditionsMonday, May [...]

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 music [...]

This episode of Contrabass Conversations features an interview with composer Bjorn Berkhout. Bjorn has written extensively for the double bass, and he has some great insight into the particular challenges of writing for this instrument. Several excerpts of Bjorn’s music appear throughout the episode. Bjorn’s double bass music can be ordered from [...]

Here is the second part of our interview with John Grillo on Contrabass Conversations. John and I had an excellent interview, and there will be one more episode containing our episode coming out in March.
Click to listen (right-click to download)or click player below:or subscribe in iTunes to get all the other episodes of Contrabass [...]

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 [...]

Here is a link to a video featuring University of North Texas double bass professor Jeff Bradetich demonstrating left hand techniques for the instrument. The video comes from the UNT website and is very informative. Check it out here.
For those of you unfamiliar with Jeff’s background, here is his bio. Click his [...]