What ARE the “rules” of double bass fingering?
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Jason
2y ago
https://youtu.be/Vk1fOs_OQd8 For years, I’d heard about “rules” that I was supposed to follow when figuring out bass fingerings. Honestly, it was a bit confusing to me. They all seemed to conflict with each other, and I was never sure where to begin. Over time, I figured out how these rules work, when to follow them, and also when to break them! Click here to download these rules as a PDF Rule #1 – play at least two notes per position Your life will be so much simpler as a bassist if you follow this rule. Look for patterns in your music, and try your utmost to play two (or more!) notes in a po ..read more
Visit website
Bass Mute Demo
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Trevor Jones
2y ago
Andrew Kohn takes a deep dive into bass mutes, demonstrating 13 of them! Find Andrew’s compositions and editions in our sheet music store ..read more
Visit website
Inside the 2021 Rabbath Institute LA
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Jason
2y ago
https://youtu.be/1ZW18HddRSE The pedagogical influence of Francois Rabbath on the double bass world has been tremendous. Once seen as a dramatic departure from traditional bass technique, the Rabbath approach has become mainstream and perhaps the most commonly used method for young bassists. The story behind the Rabbath Institute Francois Rabbath: legendary teacher and performer and the inspiration for this institute. Cielito De Jesus started the Rabbath Institute Los Angeles in 2017, with Francois himself as the featured guest. This institute is dedicated to the Rabbath approach to double ba ..read more
Visit website
Acerca de Concerto di Bravura por Stephen Street
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Jason
3y ago
traducido por Angel Chavez Una de las partes más gratificantes de la creación de esta edición de Urtext ha sido descubrir una nueva pieza. Al principio pensé que debía ser un nombre alternativo para Capriccio di Bravura, pero al inspeccionarlo, era una obra sustancial que no había visto antes. A primera vista, la pieza parece un poco diferente a lo que Bottesini escribiría. Aunque son claramente sus marcas de pluma, su estilo de composición y su catálogo de música, tiene una estructura muy diferente a sus otras obras. La pieza se divide en cuatro secciones: Andante Mosso, Allegro Moderato, And ..read more
Visit website
Why is Bottesini’s music written in the “wrong octave?”
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Jason
3y ago
We recently added Stephen Street‘s Urtext Edition of Bottesini’s Concerto di Bravura to our Sheet Music Store, prompting a common question: Why is Bottesini’s music written down an octave? The issue at hand is that Bottesini wrote all his solo bass music at sounding pitch rather than the standard practice of writing the bass part an octave higher. Why did he do this? I passed the question along to Stephen, who could help answer this much more clearly than me! Stephen writes: As you have rightly pointed out, the double bass part is written at pitch, but this has been done for a few reasons. The ..read more
Visit website
Rodrigo Mata
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Eli Somersett
3y ago
Rodrigo Mata is an extremely creative upcoming double bassist, composer, and band leader from Guanajuato, Mexico. He has an amazing passion for the double bass community that everyone should keep an eye out for. Life Overseas Recently, Jason Heath had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Rodrigo Mata and talk with him about his career so far, how he has achieved his goals, and discuss the myriad of projects he has going on right now. Currently Rodrigo is studying in Oslo, Norway at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In the interview Mr. Mata had this to say about what the current situation ..read more
Visit website
Whitney Houston’s Star-Spangled Banner. Notes from the Arranger – John Clayton.
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Trevor Jones
3y ago
John Clayton shared an inspiring post about his experience in arranging the Star-Spangled Banner for Whitney Houston’s performance.  So many lessons to be taken from this one! Here is John’s original post. Whitney Houston’s Star-Spangled Banner Notes from the Arranger by John Clayton Thank you, Friends. I mean that. I’ve been hearing about the groundswell of supportive comments, acknowledging my work and uplifting me. It’s time that I chime in and share with you some background re how the SSB arrangement came to be. THE FIRST PART A couple of months before the 1991 Super Bowl, Rickey Mino ..read more
Visit website
Hacking The Rite of Spring
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Trevor Jones
3y ago
In The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky demonstrated an astonishing capacity for innovation, as an orchestrator as well as a composer. Examples of his prowess are too numerous to mention, so, in the spirit of not mentioning any, allow me to mention just one. Top of page 2, the first time the bass section plays, holy shizz: six-part divisi? With harmonics?? IN TENOR CLEF??? Baller move, Igor. A well-blended bass section can make that chord sound as eerie as a sewer-dwelling clown. Unfortunately, there’s one passage where he followed in the footsteps of many other composers before him: he wrote some s ..read more
Visit website
The Clef that Ate Sheboygan
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Michael Kurth
3y ago
It can smell fear. Like a vicious feral animal, orphaned early, neglected, and abandoned. It has a primitive, atavistic awareness of your weaknesses, it knows what time you take out the trash and knows what it will find when it tips the bins over. It knows how to survive in the post-apocalyptic doomscape of solo trombone literature. It’s the TENOR CLEF! Run away, run away! It’s here to make you feel illiterate, it’s here to confuse you and frustrate you and it’s…it’s…it’s GREEN!  Um, excuse me? Yes, it’s GREEN. Tenor clef was designed for the conservation-minded: saving animals, trees, mo ..read more
Visit website
Incredibly Useful Exercises for Double Bass – an overview
Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
by Jason
4y ago
The way that Dennis Whittaker approaches  the bass resonates so strongly with me.  Maybe it’s our shared background and similar pedagogical influences.  Regardless, there’s something in the way he lays things out that makes me want to drop everything I’m doing and just practice. I had a few phone conversations with Dennis in early 2020 as this project was taking shape.  In fact, I remember chatting with him on the phone while sipping a drink in the Denver airport lounge.  That was only a few months ago, but it seems like several lifetimes ago! Fast-forward to the prese ..read more
Visit website

Follow Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR