Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

Studying in the summer at a music festival or camp is one of the most valuable things a bass student can do. The perspective gained from meeting bass players from all over the country and being exposed to new teachers, concepts, and ideas is invaluable. I recommend attending Jeff Bradetich’s summer Double [...]

Featured at this year’s Whitewater Winter Bassfest (Saturday, Feb. 11) will be instruments, bows, and other gear from Martin Sheridan of KC Strings and Aaron Reiley of Guarneri House. Each of these shops will have a wide selection of acoustic basses and bows for participants to try out at the Bassfest. KC [...]

Throughout my website I have links to many different outlets for music, equipment, recordings, and accessories. If you want to keep things simple, however, I would recommend going to Lemur Music first. They have probably the best overall selection of music, strings, recordings, rosin, wheels, and the like. They even sell high-quality [...]

Carl Johnson will be heading up many of the electric bass master classes and sessions at the Whitewater Winter Bassfest on Saturday, February 11. He will be assisted by Richard Hildner on guitar and Devin Drobka on drumset. Some of the classes he will teach include History of Hip-Hop Bass, Faking [...]

UW-Whitewater students should check out electronic music and composition specialist (and UW faculty) Jeff Herriott’s blog. It is an interesting read, and full of day-to-day music department info. Also, check out his regular website. Jeff regularly brings interesting guest artists to perform at the university, and many of my students have taken [...]

I will be playing in the orchestra for the Lyric Opera’s production of Der Rosenkavalier through March. Come see it if you can!

Scott Bakshis just made principal bass for Illinois All-State Orchestra. Scott is a junior at Libertyville High School and also plays in the Chicago Youth Symphony. He has been studying with me since 7th grade. Great job, Scott! 

A website everybody should check out is practicespot.com. This site is mainly useful for pre-college students, but it has a ton of useful stuff for students of all ages. One useful tool is a random rhythm generator program, which will create an etude made up of the kinds of notes you specify (quarters, [...]

Check out this website if you’re interested in orchestral performance. The principal bass of the Tenerife Orchestra does a really good podcast, and this is the place to get it. His most recent episode has in-depth descriptions of how to execute many of the standard orchestral excerpts.

Chris Threlkeld-Wiegand recently put a low-B extension on my bass, and it is by far the nicest extension work I’ve seen. He’s located in Iowa City, and makes basses as well as extenions. Check out the Heartland String Bass Shop for more details.