Good morning, all. So, these next 2 Mondays are very special to me. By a strange coincidence, they represent a bridging of my musical past and future (this is gonna be a long post, so feel free to skip over it if you dont wanna read it :P). 10 years ago today (10/28/03) was my first ever real rock gig at an unsigned band showcase at The Elbo Room in Chicago. I played it with an original band called Unintentional Status, comprised of college friend Brian Tomory on lead guitar/vocals, high school friend John Paul Salazar on rhythm guitar, myself on bass/backing vocals, and a last-minute fill-in drummer named Sunny Iratoo (who barely knew our songs or the stops & starts but still managed to keep up pretty well). Our entire 40+ minute set was filmed, warts & all (and there were a LOT of warts!!), and lots of pictures were taken. I plan on posting some of them up later today. I was such a little hotshot bass boy at the time. I had rented an Eden bass rig (WT-800 and D410XLT, if Im not mistaken), cranked that sucker up, and pick-clanged the ever-lovin bejeezus outta my Squier P-Bass (yes, the same one I still use today) with basslines that were inspired by my biggest influences of that time (Mike Mills of R.E.M., John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots). My knowledge of being a live rock musician was just about ZILCH at the time, as was the rest of the band, so while our performances of the songs may have been pretty good, everything in-between was awkward and clunky, but hey, at least we had our college buddies cheering us on! So here I am, 10 years later, in Florida, with a helluva lot more knowledge and experience regarding music & live performance, STILL attempting to make it as a musician. In many, many ways, Ive grown exponentially from that Elbo Room gig. In some ways, though, I feel as though Im stuck. Why, you ask? Because despite my now-much-expanded musical tastes, experiences, connections, and knowledge, I dont feel quite like my actual ability or chops have quite kept up. Now, 10 years ago, I couldnt play fingerstyle very well at all, relying mostly on pick playing (thats what I get for starting out on guitar and being influenced first by a bassist whos largely a pick player!). I also knew very little about playing bluesy walking basslines, or for that matter, much of any real working theory behind a lot of music. All those things have changed, and Im now pretty damn nimble with two fingers (sometimes three if I feel like getting fancy) and can walk a blues bass like nobodys business. But... well... thats kinda it. I feel like the ultimate goal of any musician is to NEVER stop learning new things about their trade; to never settle on being good enough. I want to learn. I want to get better. I want to grow. Theres so much more Im capable of... jazz, bebop, fusion, progressive rock & metal, the list goes on! And ever since I picked up a guitar nearly 15 years ago and my mother showed me my first few guitar chords, the only real teacher Ive ever had was myself. I think its finally time for that to change, though, because theres only so much I can teach myself before I just dont know what to do or where to go for inspiration and motivation. Thats where the second Monday (November 4th) comes into play. Ask anyone whos talked to me the past couple days, and theyll tell you that I cant stop talking about just how thrilled I am to be taking lessons from one of Tampa Bays absolute finest bassists, Phil Magallanes at Musicology Tampa Bay empower the musician within starting next week! Its exciting beyond words, because the potential for growth is always within us, and with a well-seasoned, ultra-knowledgeable instructor such as Phil, that potential becomes something tangible... maybe even within my grasp. I suppose I should wait until AFTER my first lesson to heap any kind of praise on Phil, but just based on the few conversations weve had, I cant imagine NOT learning something from this dude. So, why Phil? Well, a little backstory... our very first chats were--naturally--here on FB, and when he found out I was co-hosting an open jam up here in New Port Richey that featured an old friend of his on drums (Warren Smith), he wanted to come up and check it out. Mind you, I had never heard Phil play a single note before this. Well, he came to the jam, took his turn, and... instantly made me want to just hang it up! Once I heard the jazzy madnessness (to usurp a term from Geoffrey Jacob) he was capable of, my already-lingering desire to become a more versatile bassist grew tenfold. That was well over a year ago now, and since then Ive started playing with super-duper-well-studied & well-seasoned players with jazz/fusion backgrounds like Geoff Jacob, Matt Poynter, Jonathan Thomas, Jason Caren, and many others, and I wanna be able to keep up with those guys, cuz DAMN theyre good! And so today--10 years after my first proper gig--as I look ahead on what I want out of the next 10 years, I seek instruction to help myself become the best damn bassist I can possibly be. And it all starts next week. What do I do until then? What else is there? Keep on rockin!
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:55:52 +0000
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