Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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Many of our Contrabass Conversations guests hold faculty positions at prominent universities. Actually, most (if not all) of the guests we’ve had on the program have done at least some university teaching, so this is not going to be a comprehensive list but rather a means to get you started learning more about some [...]

 

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This week, we’re featuring an interview with double bassist Barry Lieberman. The former Assistant Principal Bass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Principal Bass of the Winnipeg Symphony, Barry now serves as co-director of The American String Project, an innovative string ensemble which features arrangements of string quartets for small string ensemble with double [...]

In addition to featuring nearly 100 interviews with seasoned professional bassists on Contrabass Conversations, we have also released several innovative pedagogical resources which have proven to be quite popular. These types of projects are what makes this kind of content distribution (over the Internet, free of charge, accessible to anyone worldwide) extremely exciting and useful:

Orchestral [...]

We’ve had a wide array of guests on the Contrabass Conversations during the nearly two years the program has been live, from international soloists and jazz artists to students and composers. For those bassists either active in the orchestral world or seriously considering a career as an orchestral bassist, the advice from a principal bass [...]

Summer has always been a slow time for me bass-wise. Though I’ve always done at least one summer festival since college, I usually find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands during the warmer months.
The lack of summer work used to cause me considerable stress, especially in my early years of freelancing, [...]

I’ve got another little tale about what happens when cats and basses collide. Most bass players seem to love cats, and many have similar tales of feline mischief.
One of my colleagues was over at my place playing some bass quartets a few years ago. His extremely large bass had a beautiful lion’s head scroll, and [...]

 

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We’re featuring Gary Karr, one of the all-time most influential double bassists, on Contrabass Conversations today. Hearing Gary Karr on record was a defining experience for me in my youth (as was the case for bassists worldwide), and hearing him live remains one of my most memorable double bass performances of all time.
The complete audio [...]

While blogging via a cell phone may seem like a painful experience, the iPhone is no ordinary cell phone, and with the release of the brand spanking new WordPress app especially for the iPhone, it’s easier than ever.
While I doubt that iPhone blogging (which I’m doing right now) will replace desktop blogging for longer posts, [...]

Last week I had the opportunity to do an interview with University of Washington bass professor Barry Lieberman. The former Assistant Principal Bass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Principal Bass of the Winnipeg Symphony, Barry now serves as co-director of The American String Project, an innovative string ensemble which we will be featuring in [...]

One of my colleagues was over at my place a few years ago, and we were geeking out in true double bass fashion, playing duets, working on excerpts together, and getting into deep discussions about gear.
He and I left for lunch, leaving our basses out of their cases. We had a good time, got back, [...]