Jason Heath’s Double Bass Blog

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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 [...]

Every summer I think Chicago’s great. It’s sunny, warm, the beaches are filled with people, the city is bustling with activity, and the lake is beautiful and inviting. I am convinced that it’s the greatest city in the world. Then winter hits (in November, or perhaps October or maybe even in [...]

If you are interested in learning more about this subject, check out the follow-up post to this article here.
I have a B.M. and M.M. in Double Bass Performance from Northwestern University. Although I had a good financial package for my undergraduate degree and had a full-tuition fellowship or my graduate degree, I still owe [...]

I have had the unfortunate experience of doing many all night drives over the years to get from one gig to another. This is never fun. The main problem is that I work in Memphis, Tennessee and in Chicago and Wisconsin. IRIS Chamber Orchestra concerts will start in Memphis at 8 [...]

The term “social bookmarking” may not be familiar to everybody, but it has emerged as one of the most useful tools of the Web 2.0 movement. The service del.icio.us (now owned by Yahoo!) is the oldest and best example of the power of social bookmarking. Del.icio.us allows users to save their bookmarks online, [...]

The Google Maps Mania blog recently did a post on the educational uses of Google Maps and Google Earth. For those who have not experimented with these services, Google Maps is Google’s web-based mapping program (similar to MapQuest or Yahoo! Maps), and Google Earth is a desktop-based program (that still uses the internet) that [...]

I have mentioned this before on my blog, but double bassist Peter Tambroni’s excellent new work An Introduction to Double Bass playing is now available. I highly recommend this book. It is a well-crafted and intelligently conceived resource for beginners, experienced players, teachers, and parents.
Peter has been a clinician for many years [...]

I just discovered a great educational resource for jazz musicians–I am surprised that I haven’t seen this site before. PlayJazzNow.com distributes play-along MP3 files for jazz practicing. They have tracks for drummers, bassists, vocalists, horn players, pianists, and vibraphonists. Here is the page for bass materials, and here [...]

I was recently made aware of this excellent website maintained by Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Nathan Cole. His site contains stories about his life in the world of music, a journal containing his daily violin practice thoughts and reflections, and articles about playing, teaching, and learning, as well as personal photos from the [...]

A really cool resource out there for all string educators is the String Pedagogy Notebook, put together by Michael Hopkins of the University of Vermont. Basically, it is everything a music educator needs to know about string instrument technique, with great articles and video examples. The double bass videos are very useful even [...]