Advice on auditioning for Juilliard from Orin O’Brien

I have several students preparing for an audition at Juilliard at the moment. Over the years I have had many students audition at this institution, and I thought that it would be valuable to relate some advice given by New York Philharmonic double bassist and...

New Recital Showcase Entry for Andy Anderson

I just added all of the tracks from the most recent Contrabass Conversations episode to Andy Anderson’s Recital Showcase. From this page you can listen to each individual track or download it. Andy’s tracks include:Koussevitzky Concerto mvt 1Koussevitzky...

String Tone Matrix

Double bassist Eric Hochberg sent me a link to a fascinating and useful string tone comparison site by bassist Herve Jeanne. This site compares the tonal characteristics of the pizzicato sounds of:Velvet GarboVelvet AnimaPirastro ChordaPirastro PizzicatoPirastro...

New Bass Blog for Educators section plus expanded downloads

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...

Mock Auditions – Bass Blog Post from Nicolas Hart

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...