CBC 41: Orchestral Excerpts Breakdown with John Grillo
This week’s Contrabass Conversations episode features an in-depth analysis of the double bass orchestral excerpts most commonly requested at auditions. Double bassist (and regular Contrabass Conversations guest and co-host) John Grillo discusses each of these excerpts–stylistic considerations, differences in articulation and bow strokes, and suggestions for effectively learning them–and then performs them. I believe that this project will be a highly valuable resource for bassists worldwide, and I’d love your feedback on this project!
Learn more about John at his new blog ClassicalMusicNews.tv, and check out all of his older Contrabass Conversations appearances here.
Excerpts covered (click below to hear individual tracks):
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Brahms Symphony No. 1 and 2
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
Mozart Symphony No. 35 and 39
Mahler Symphony No. 2
Schubert Symphony No. 9
Strauss Ein Heldenleben
Britten Young Person’s Guide
Verdi Otello







































December 11th, 2007 at 1:47 am
[...] and I’m excited to see this project develop over time. Check out John’s educational series on orchestral excerpts here–highly [...]
January 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
[...] Conversations show. This is an extension of the orchestra excerpt breakdown that we began on episode 41 of the program. On this episode, we featured the following excerpts, with some commentary [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] and I also created a follow up to the extremely popular orchestral excerpts breakdown that we put together in the fall of 2007. On this previous episode, John discusses and plays [...]
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:46 am
[...] and I created an excerpt breakdown for the most commonly requested orchestra excerpts back on CBC 41, and this has proven to be a highly popular and extremely useful resource to double bassists [...]
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
[...] and I created an excerpt breakdown for the most commonly requested orchestra excerpts back on CBC 41, and this has proven to be a highly popular and extremely useful resource to double bassists [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 5:05 am
[...] 2007, double bassist and blogger John Grillo and created the extremely popular orchestral excerpt breakdown series for the Contrabass Conversations podcast network. This series includes performances of John [...]
March 26th, 2008 at 5:36 am
[...] player and former New World Symphony member, I’d recommend checking out John Grillo’s Orchestra Excerpts Breakdown episode, where you can listen to the entire feature or download specific excerpts (complete with [...]
August 1st, 2008 at 5:01 am
[...] Take me to the study guide >> [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 8:52 am
[...] Orchestra excerpts [...]
June 6th, 2009 at 7:46 am
[...] Orchestral Excerpt Breakdown [...]
June 6th, 2009 at 7:47 am
[...] Comments CBC 120: Ed Barker interview on CBC 41: Orchestral Excerpts Breakdown with John GrilloContrabass Conversations » Blog Archive » CBC 120: Ed Barker interview on John Grillo [...]
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:39 am
[...] Orchestral Excerpt Breakdown [...];…
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:34 am
[...] Orchestral Excerpt Breakdown [...]