Looking back on 2024…

What a year! This has been our busiest yet, with a jam-packed schedule full of filming with old friends and new. We have been on three overseas trips to Greece, U.S.A. and Sweden as well as numerous sessions here in the U.K. There’s even been a special trip to Germany this month that I’ll share at the end of this post.

Over the last 12 months we welcomed two new artists, as well as released new courses by some of our incredible existing artists. From the virtuosic jazz of Brian Bromberg to a music theory course by Jason Heath, we’ve produced a wide range of content that we are very proud of.

Alongside our courses and Masterclasses, we have released some superb interviews, including Nenad Vasilic, Gerda Kocsis, Neal Heppleston, Adam Kubota and many more. It’s our goal to feature a diverse range of artists and their stories, so thank you to all who participated.

With so much new material, it’s been amazing to welcome so many people to the website, such as email subscribers, YouTube viewers, and course students. I very much appreciate your support and can’t wait to share what 2025 has in store for us. But before we look ahead, let’s take a moment to celebrate a very special year.

The Highlights from 2024!

January 🇬🇷

The start of 2024 saw our first overseas trip to Athens to film with the amazing Petros Klampanis. I’ve been a big fan of his music for years, so it was a real pleasure to welcome him to the DDB family as one of our tutors. His (epic!) course Bass Odyssey is a series of impactful lessons, inspiring performances, play-along tracks and detailed transcriptions, all designed to teach a fresh look at improvising as a jazz bassist, and we are very proud of it!

January saw the release of an interview with one of the jazz bass world’s most in-demand artists, Phil Donkin. We talked all things bass, including advice for playing at fast tempos, which Phil does so well. Make sure you watch to the end to see Phil’s tasteful rendition of Autumn Leaves.

As well as a trip to Greece and an interview with Phil, we also updated three of our older courses. Jason Heath and I added new lessons into Beginner's Classical Bass, Intermediate to Advanced Classical Bass and Beginner's Double Bass.

February 🇭🇺

In February we released a fabulous interview with one of the bass world’s brightest stars. This fascinating conversation with Gerda Kocsis covered everything from her musical journey to bowing technique. It’s worth a watch to hear her incredible solo performance of Sonatina Based on Hungarian Folk-songs: II. Andante espressivo by Ferenc Farkas.

While we were with Gerda, we couldn’t resist asking her to play something else for us, so she performed her rendition of Silent Night. We published in perfect time for the festive season in December, and you can watch that here.

March 🎤

In March we met the incredible Nenad Vasilic, known for his blend of traditional Balkan and jazz music. It's a unique sound which is both familiar and challenging, and we were able to film the interview in the incredible Castleton Mill where our office has been situated for 7 years!

Check out this amusing photo of me next to a giant of the bass world! I promise it was the camera angle and not an attempt to re-film the Lord of The Rings for bassists. 😂

April 👸

This was the month of Phoebe Russell! After last year’s release of her acclaimed first course Smash Your Audition!, we were excited to release Phoebe’s second course in April - Left Hand Technique for the Advancing Bassist. The course is for classical bassists wanting to go beyond the basics and master left hand technique. There is so much incredible content in there, and Phoebe’s playing blew us away during filming, as well as it being such a laugh, so this was a really fun one to share. Here are some photos from the shoot.

As part of the launch, we released a bite-sized lesson from Phoebe on the use of vibrato, and an interview on her approach to left hand technique. We love Phoebe at DDB and it is an honour to have two courses by her.

May 🎂

In May, we celebrated our 11th birthday! We’ve come a long way, so thank you for your support over the years.

We also released two exciting interviews. One with bass superstar Adam Kubota from Postmodern Jukebox, and one with the wonderful bass maker Neal Heppleston. Here’s a reminder of them both if you missed them.

JUNE 🇩🇪

In June, we were reunited with David Allen Moore for the first time since 2018! We had a blast on set with David filming a new course, as well as updates to his previously released courses.

After filming, there was a quick turnaround as we prepared to release updated lessons for David’s incredibly popular course, German Bow Technique. We added 20 new lessons to the course, covering the teachings that David has picked up in the 6 years between 2018, when we first filmed the course, and 2024.

JULY 🇺🇸

This month was an incredibly exciting one, as I headed across the pond to film a Masterclass with the legendary Brian Bromberg. I am a huge fan of Brian and have always wanted to find a place for him on the website, so when the plans fell into place I was over the moon! It was an incredibly ambitious project, with filming taking place in L.A., but the Masterclass we came away with is one I am immensely proud of.

While I was there, there was some time to hang out with the wonderful Jason Heath. It’s always great to see Jason, and we had a lovely time catching up over a beer and talking bass!

August 🇦🇺

After visiting Jason in July, we released his new course in August, 'Bassic' Music Theory and Sight Reading. This was a new style of course for us, covering the resources necessary to get started with music theory. We love Jason, and we had a great time while filming the course. Here are some photos from the shoot.

In August, we also released an interview with Andrew Robb – an award winning double bass player, arranger and teacher based in Scotland. We heard all about his double bass career, including competing in and winning Bass Europe's jazz competition; his background in both classical and jazz music; the use of the bow in jazz; transcription; releasing, recording and arranging an album for violin and double bass; and much more. Here it is if you missed it.

September 🇸🇪

September was a huge month for us as we headed to Gothenburg in Sweden for a mammoth project. We filmed with three gems of the bass world while we were there – a Swedish bass superstar who you may have seen if you follow our Instagram, a bass player who will bring a new genre to the website in the new year and the renowned bass maker and luthier Elinore Morris. Elinore welcomed us into her incredible workshop and we had the most wonderful time hanging out with her and the others who work there.

👩‍💻 DDB FORUM! - THE STUDY GROUP!
Our online community is available to all who are enrolled on a DDB course or Masterclass. It’s a dedicated forum which is integrated into the courses website. You can find a link to the Study Group in the header of the website, so it’s easy to switch between the group and our courses.

We are a friendly bunch of bassists and welcome new members, regardless of where they are on their musical journey. From beginners to pros, there’s a diverse range of bassists who foster a positive and supportive environment. So if you have a question about your bass playing, please don’t hold back as we would love to help you. I’m in there answering questions daily as well as the other members. If you’ve ever bought a course or masterclass, come and say hi!

October ✌️

This month saw the very first double bass duo to feature on DDB. We were joined by Nikita Naumov and Jamie Kenny of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. They blew us away with their performance of Dave Anderson's 7 Duets for Double Bass. To learn more about the piece and watch the breathtaking performance, check out the video below.

November 📣

In November, we released David Allen Moore’s groundbreaking course, Technique Transformer. This 5.5 hour course covers everything a classical bassist would need to revolutionise their technique. We were so excited to share it with everyone and the feedback from students on the course has been superb.

December ☃️

December has been about winding down for Christmas. After such a busy year, Romy and I are looking forward to some time off over the holidays.

Aside from the usual festivities, my December has been particularly special because I have just returned from a trip to Cologne, Germany. Our fabulous tutor and dear friend John Goldsby is retiring from the WDR Big Band after being a key member of the ensemble for 30 years. I was lucky enough to attend his sold-out retirement concert. I believe the program was also recorded in the studio and will be released in 2025 by John’s label, Bass Lion Publishing. Check out their website for updates on the release, plus news on John’s upcoming concerts and tours.

And, if you’re hoping for new John Goldsby educational content then don’t worry, John will be back on Discover Double Bass in 2025 with something new, so keep your eyes peeled for that later in the year!

What’s coming up in 2025…🧐

new genre in January!

We are planning on starting the year by not only bringing a new artist to the website, but a new genre too! The tutor did a marvellous job writing and presenting the lessons and we are looking forward to publishing it.

While we can’t share the news of who is presenting this innovative course, here’s a photo of the crew from the session and the tutor’s special bass…!

What else is coming?

We also have two teaser photos for courses coming later in the year that we can share to get you excited… can you guess who they might be?

Of course, our free interviews/lessons series will continue to be published regularly, and we are excited to welcome more incredible bassists to tell their stories. Romy and I are planning some interesting interview guests for the year, so stay tuned for those.

2025 is lining up to be another exciting year for our community, and I’m excited to share what we have in store!

Thank you!

So that’s a wrap for 2024! Thank you so much for reading this end-of-year review and for being part of our journey over the last 12 months. Let’s keep working on our playing, enjoying sharing our music, and see where the year takes us!

Best wishes,
Geoff (DDB Founder, Masterclass Host and double bass fanatic)

P.S. Here’s the link to join our newsletter for updates 👇