A Teacher’s Current Perspective
Tweet The current situation is a true challenge for everyone. Superlative adjectives are losing their meaning with overuse but here’s a time where they are […]
Continue reading »Teach Shifting with Baby Shark
Tweet The open strings provide a great aural reference for shifting to 3rd position which can be a challenging spot for students to find. Rhythm […]
Continue reading »Upton Bass Endpin Tip
Tweet Fits my Goetz endpin perfectly and works great!
Continue reading »Jazz Pizzicato for Bass Ensemble
Tweet Give a listen to it here.
Continue reading »Congratulations!
Tweet To J. in my private studio. The student is now co-principal of the Chicago Youth Symphony. Hard work pays off!
Continue reading »Musings on Pirastro Strings
Tweet My bass recently went under some reconstruction to reset the neck joint. Since it was getting a whole new setup I thought this would […]
Continue reading »Changing a string is not just changing a string.
Tweet This may or not become a series. But here’s part of being a public school orchestra teacher. ‘Mr.T., my string broke.” “No problem.” Sometimes […]
Continue reading »Be Careful About Being Helpful
Tweet A number of years back I was hired to do an Easter service concert in the west suburbs of Chicago. As is pretty typical […]
Continue reading »DiscoverDoubleBass.com
Tweet DiscoverDoubleBass.com is an outstanding resource that offers exceptional courses for any double bassist. I hesitate to call the following a ‘review’. Lauren Pierce of […]
Continue reading »Holiday Arrangements for String Orchestra
Tweet Need some holiday music for your young string orchestra? I arrange and play these with my own school orchestras. Both students and audiences have […]
Continue reading »String Orchestra Holiday Music Available
Tweet Holiday Medley updated 7/3/2018 This is a simple arrangement for string orchestra of Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Good King Wenceslas and Adeste Fideles (O Come […]
Continue reading »To play or not to play…the ink. That is the question.
Tweet To play or not to play…the ink. That is the question. Some people say to just play what’s on the page. Play what’s printed. […]
Continue reading »How Tight Should Your Bow Hair Be?
Tweet When the bow is tightened and ready to play, it should still be possible to for the hair to the touch the stick if […]
Continue reading »Wiedoeft Rosin – Thoughts After 2 Months
Tweet After using Weidoeft Rosin for two months here are my thoughts: It does not flake or chip off when applying it to the bow. […]
Continue reading »Mini Reviews – Wiedoeft Rosin & String Emporium Bass Wheel
Tweet I recently got two new bass accessories: Wiedoeft Bass Rosin and the String Emporium Bass Wheel. I have to say I’m really impressed with […]
Continue reading »Teaching Long, Long Ago Variations on Violin
Tweet As a public school orchestra director I have my students perform solos out the Suzuki books. Long, Long Ago is a favorite but students […]
Continue reading »The ErgoBass – A Review
Tweet The ErgoBass ABOUT THE ERGO BASS Designed by Petru Iuga, a bassist and university teacher in Germany. View his short YouTube video. He has […]
Continue reading »Celebration for Bass Quartet
Tweet Here’s a quick arrangement I did of Kool and The Gang’s “Celebration” for bass quartet.
Continue reading »March from The Nutcracker…for Bass Quartet!
Tweet That’s right! The arrangement bass players everywhere have been wishing for! Ok maybe not but I thought it would make a cool piece for […]
Continue reading »Bottesini Elegy
Tweet Here’s a free download of my edits of Bottesini’s Elegy (updated 06/05/17)
Continue reading »Jazz Pizzicato
Tweet Last year I did Samuel Applebaum’s arrangement of Leroy Anderson’s Jazz Pizzicato with my middle school orchestra. I wanted to demonstrate to my students […]
Continue reading »Bottesini Reverie Accompaniment in Orchestra Tuning…and more!
Tweet I originally did this to have the accompaniment in orchestral tuning as I couldn’t find it elsewhere. As I was revising it I […]
Continue reading »Egos, the Students, and The Greater Good
Tweet What do we want as teachers? All of us want our students to be successful in their endeavours. That success can take many forms […]
Continue reading »Ramblings on the Future of Music
Tweet Oh no! Run for the hills. No, wait. Run for the old days. The internet is ‘destroying’ traditional income streams and product sales! People […]
Continue reading »I don’t want to be a lapsed member any more!
Tweet I’ll admit it. I’m not member of the International Society of Bassists or American String Teacher Association. Yep, I know. I was a member […]
Continue reading »Valse Miniature Arrangment “Donationware”
Tweet As an orchestra teacher I rarely have access to an accompanist. But I see a string orchestra every day. And I’m sure there are […]
Continue reading »What’s inside “An Introduction to Double Bass Playing”?
Tweet Here is the table of contents for my textbook “An Introduction to Double Bass Playing”. Click here to download the table of contents PDF […]
Continue reading »3 Zombies & A Ballerina
Tweet Check out a short video I did on teaching beginning upper string players the bow hand.
Continue reading »Contrabass Conversations Podcasts
Tweet I am fortunate to have been on Jason Heath’s Contrabass Conversations podcast several times. Thank you! My 2016 episodes made Jason’s top 5 most downloaded for 2016!! […]
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