Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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Here is a great shot courtesy of Greg Sarchet featuring the great double bass pedagogue Franz Simandl in full ceremonial dress. I especially like the sword he has on his belt. That Simandl was one fearsome bass teacher–one false move in your bass lesson with him could have proved to be your last.

Michael Hovnanian recently wrote a post on his CSO Bass Blog about Max Dimoff’s warm-up packet. He writes about one of the string crossing exercises (a Simandl Gradus ad Parnessum-style exercise) in particular from these warm-ups and shows it’s application in passages from the orchestral literature. Check out his post here.
These exercises [...]

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 [...]

My double bass colleague John Tuck recently sent some comments regarding my Rabbath versus Simandl post. He agreed to let me share them here. John is Assistant Principal Bass for the Northwest Indiana Symphony. He also plays for the Lake Forest Symphony and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, and he has [...]

There are two predominant double bass pedagogical methods in the United States today. The older, established double bass method here is without a doubt the New Method for String Bass by Franz Simandl. This tried and true double bass pedagogical tome methodically takes the beginning double bass student up the fingerboard, half-step by [...]

Scott Bakshis of the Chicago Youth Symphony recently compiled a list of what the requirements for all the top bass schools are. This is a meta list derived from the requirements of Indiana University, Boston University, Rice University, Curtis, Juilliard, Eastman, and many others. If bass students can have this repertoire under their [...]

Libertyville Studio
Scott Ba.:
Scott’s action list: Vanhal 1&2, Eccles 1&4, B5 mvt 3, Br 1 E, Br 2 mvt 4 recap, Mozart 40 mvt 4 exc. 1, Mozart 39 mvt 1 pg. 1 (Allegro), all 3 octave scales - slur 4 notes, and 3 octave arpeggios - slur 3 notes, 1 Sturm etude, 1 Storch-Hrabe etude, [...]

Articles by Jason Heath:
Road Warrior Without an Expense Account - This series chronicles my experiences as a freelance musician and offers thoughts and observations on the classical music orchestral business in general. Although focused on classical musicians and freelance musicians in general, much of the discussion has relevance to musicians from all disciplines. [...]

Buy Music and see Recommended Repertoire at the Bass Blog Sheet Music Store!
Jason’s Scale Sheets (free PDF download)
one octave major and minor scales with fingerings
two octave major and minor scales with fingerings
Articles
All-State Audition Preparation by John Thompson
Article on Stretching by Nathan Cole
Video Resources

Downloads
Classical
Methods:

Tambroni, Peter: An Introduction to Double Bass Playing (highly recommended)
Max Dimoff Warm-Up Packet [...]

Applied Double Bass for Majors and Non-Majors, Spring - 2006
Professor Heath, CA 2003
Phone: 773-612-3597 / E-mail: jsh177@yahoo.com

SCHEDULING: All lesson times can be arranged with me during the first week of
each semester. If you have a conflict with your lesson time, you can switch with
someone else in the studio for that week. [...]