Why teens don’t listen to classical music

Update: I’ve taught music to teens for years in many contexts, and I firmly believe that a huge percentage of them do really enjoy and seek out classical music… just not in the way you might expect. Learn more about this and many other such topics on my...

Speaker Nightmares from Justin Locke

Former Contrabass Conversations guest Justin Locke is the author of a very funny book titled Real Men Don’t Rehearse. Justin has created several tongue-in-cheek YouTube video commercials for this book, and I get a kick out of this one:

Best materials for beginner bass teaching

I bassist just beginning her journey as a double bass teacher wrote to me recently inquiring about what I consider to be a good approach toward starting beginners. Here’s my response: t’s great that you’re starting to do some teaching! The best...

Bel Cantos versus Permanents – my opinion

A reader recently wrote in inquiring about my feelings on Thomastik Bel Canto strings and how they compare to Pirastro Permanents (my string of choice for many years). Here’s my response: Hi __________, Thanks for the message, and thanks for checking out the...