Weekly Wrap-Up


I spent the past two weeks performing with the Grant Park Symphony. This has been a real treat for me, both musically and personally. The GPSO is a great ensemble, and we played a lot of excellent repertoire, including Beethoven 2, Mahler 5, and the Firebird Suite. Bass blog readers will actually be familiar with many of the bass players in this section. Most of them have contributed ideas, photos, videos, or interviews to the blog at some point. Check out a funny photo of this bass section trapped in an elevator here. (elevator photo and Millennium Park photo courtesy of John Floeter)

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This week we released the second part of our interview with Guy Tuneh plus music from Brian Bromberg and Nam Chi Vu. Guy’s interview has been received with overwhelming enthusiasm from many listeners. We have received hundreds of comments from people expressing their positive reaction to Guy Tuneh, and this feedback is greatly appreciated! Check out the episode here (CBC #33).

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We also featured our second Contrabass Conversations video episode,this time with the excellent bassist Ranaan Meyer. Ranaan performed the Czardas by Vittorio Monti on his episode, and it was a real thrill to get to feature him on video! We have another video episode from Ranaan coming up here shortly as well as the rest of our audio interview with him. For now, check out the video episode here and the audio episode here.

Click here to check out our first CBC video episode featuring none other than Guy Tuneh!

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We also released the third part of This Crazy Business this week, this time focusing on how addictive music performance can be. Check out the complete series here–we’d love to know your reactions.

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It is now possible to do a very fast and accurate keyword search of the podcast, then start playing from any occurrence of that keyword. Simply enter your search term into the EveryZing widget on the left, and you’ll get what your looking for as quickly as if you did a Google search.

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Current number of bass blog posts: 1466

Here is a summary of this week’s posting:

VMC Master Class Tracks

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Most popular Bass Blog features

Most popular Bass Blog posts

Thoughts on blogging and podcasting

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August 13, 2007 · Filed Under bass, blogging

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Weekly Wrap-Up

This week marked the launch of Bass Musician Magazine, a new publication available at www.bass-musician-magazine.com, and one in which Contrabass Conversations will be a regular feature. Check it out!
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We released the next part of the Basses, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles featuring tales of woe regarding plane travel. This is the first in an extended series on double bass plane travel on the blog, so stay tuned for more of this content.

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This week we featured music educator Peter Tambroni on Contrabass Conversations. This episode was a lot of fun to put together, and is should prove to be a valuable resource for bassists everywhere. Check out the episode here.

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Keeping with the travel theme for the week, we also put out a double bass flight experiences survey this week. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please check it out and add your data to this project.

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If you are looking for double bass sheet music, please check out the Bass Blog Sheet Music Store. We will be expanding this section of the blog to include double bass wheels, stands, cases, and other accessories, all with brief reviews of the gear offered.

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Here is a summary of this week’s posting:

VMC Master Class Tracks

__________

Most popular Bass Blog features

Most popular Bass Blog posts

Thoughts on blogging and podcasting

Regular Bass Blog Contributors

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August 6, 2007 · Filed Under blogging

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Weekly Wrap-Up

This week featured the second part of This Crazy Business, my new series about life as a working musician. Unlike Road Warrior Without an Expense Account (which is about being a freelance musician), this series is about life as a musician in general.

If you’d like to read the 50 or so more substantial articles and stories that are featured on this blog, just click the Articles link just below the Contrabass Conversations banner.

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I also wrote a post for the great photo blog Dark Roasted Blend (one of the 100 most popular blogs on the Internet). This post has drawn a lot of attention to the bass blog here, and it was also mentioned on Neatorama, another extremely popular blog.

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Here is a summary of this week’s posting:

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VMC Master Class Tracks

__________

Most popular Bass Blog features

Most popular Bass Blog posts

Thoughts on blogging and podcasting

Regular Bass Blog Contributors

subscribe to the weekly wrap-up (RSS)
subscribe to the podcast (RSS or e-mail)
subscribe to the complete blog feed (RSS or e-mail)
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July 30, 2007 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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Weekly Wrap-Up

I spent the majority of this week playing up around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. While the concerts were fun and in a beautiful setting, these long drives are slowly killing me, and I see less and less of them in my future.

I played the same festival last year right around the time that I started blogging in earnest. You can check out some photos and video of this picturesque area of Wisconsin on this July 2006 post.
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This week saw both the first overseas interview for the Contrabass Conversations podcast with Guy Tuneh, and our first video episode (also featuring Guy) as well. There has been a great response from the bass community about this interview (we’ve received well over 50 comments from listeners already), and I am sure that listeners will look forward to more great content from Guy on the podcast in the near future.
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Part 2 of Basses, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles launched this week as well. I always enjoy doing these story/photo montages, and I am currently working on the third part of the series (about planes) right now.
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The new posting schedule for the blog is as follows:

Monday through Friday - news stories, videos, photos, resources, and other info
Saturday - no posts
Sunday - Contrabass Conversations episode

I usually work on the podcast on Saturday, and blogging and podcasting require two very different mindsets for me, so it’s best if I just lay low for that day. Plus, taking a day off from the blog to clear my head is probably a good thing in general.

Additionally, I try to put out one ‘long form’ piece of original writing per week, like a gig story or article about the music business. This longer form writing, plus the podcasts and the weekly video/photo/news/community posts are definitely keeping me busy!
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This week we also featured an interview with author Susanne Dunlap for her book Liszt’s Kiss. I had a good time doing this, and I am happy to do print interviews (as well as reviews) for books, CDs, and other music-related endeavors.
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Current number of posts on doublebassblog.org: 1382
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Here is a summary of this week’s blog activity:

____________

VMC Master Class Tracks

__________

Most popular Bass Blog features

Most popular Bass Blog posts

Thoughts on blogging and podcasting

Regular Bass Blog Contributors

subscribe to the weekly wrap-up (RSS)
subscribe to the podcast (RSS or e-mail)
subscribe to the complete blog feed (RSS or e-mail)
subscribe to the blog comments (RSS)
subscribe to only bass content (RSS)

visit my link blog
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July 23, 2007 · Filed Under bass, blogging

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Weekly Wrap-Up

I spent this entire week in Wisconsin, first driving to Madison to play in the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, then heading up to Milwaukee to play a yearly concert called Gathering On the Green about 20 miles north of Milwaukee. This kind of driving reminds me of what it was like playing in the Milwaukee Ballet all the time and driving out to my old university job at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

I’ll be spending this week in Wisconsin as well, driving up every day to Lake Geneva for Music by the Lake. I played this festival last year just as my blog was getting going, and you can see some shots of last year’s events here.

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This blog gets a lot of really great comments. If you would like to subscribe to the comments you can do so by pasting the following link into Bloglines, Google Reader, PageFlakes, or Newshutch, or you can click on it to subscribe using live bookmarks in Firefox or Internet Explorer (or probably Opera or Safari, but I don’t really use those browsers):

http://www.doublebassblog.org/feeds/comments/default

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Thanks again to Michael Hovnanian for the great Contrabass Conversations interview this week, and thanks to Dinah D, Shagg, and other musical contributors to this episode. Stay tuned next week for a video (!) and audio episode with Guy Tuneh.

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We started to add polls to the blog after an eight month hiatus from them, so expect a new poll in the sidebar each week. You’ll also be able to view the results of all our old polls.

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Current number of posts on doublebassblog.org: 1356

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Here is a summary of this week’s blog activity:

____________

VMC Master Class Tracks

__________

Most popular Bass Blog features

Most popular Bass Blog posts

Thoughts on blogging and podcasting

Regular Bass Blog Contributors

subscribe to the weekly wrap-up (RSS)
subscribe to the podcast (RSS or e-mail)
subscribe to the complete blog feed (RSS or e-mail)
subscribe to the blog comments (RSS)
subscribe to only bass content (RSS)

visit my link blog
subscribe to my link blog

July 16, 2007 · Filed Under blogging

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