What Bass Lessons Have Taught Me About Life

 In December 2021 I decided to revisit playing the bass.  Many years earlier I had taken lessons for a brief moment in time, encouraged by someone I was dating at the time.  (Read:  he said it would be cool so I jumped at the idea to gain approval).  It was interesting and my teacher was nice, but my heart wasn't really in it.  I played one gig at the children's library I worked at, rocked out Eency Weency Spider like nobody's business, and then hung up my instrument.

Returning to lessons felt much different at this time of my life.  I was already taking piano and finding the creative stretch to be fun and challenging.  Piano had no hope once bass stepped into the picture, however.  The feel and vibe of the bass guitar spoke to me in a way that piano couldn't and eventually I shifted my energy and attention to the guitar. 

As I dive deeper into learning, I can't help but notice how many of the principles I'm learning on bass also apply to living a fulfilled life.  Much like the bass, they may seem simple at first glance but are critical in providing a strong foundation to build upon.

1) Perfect does not exist - sure, you can download a music chart and play along with a recording and copy what the original artist played, but you can also change it up, and even make mistakes and the music will still flow and no one will probably even notice.   The sooner that we can move away from our own self-doubt, self-judgement and criticism, the sooner we will find joy in what we are doing.  

2) Improvising is fun - this is one that I am still wrapping my head around.  As someone to aims for perfection (see above), the idea of improvising without a plan is mind blowing and frightening.  What if I improvise wrong?  This is where listening to music and watching videos and noticing the look of pure joy on a musician's face as they go off on a solo comes into play.  Finding your own groove and going with it is the spice of life, so go ahead and try something new.  There doesn't need to be rules for everything that we do in life.  

3) It is okay to play goose eggs when you need to - I love the terminology "goose eggs" which basically means playing simple, whole notes instead of fancier rhythm patterns.  Sometimes we need to keep things simple, take it back to basics and recalibrate for awhile.  There is nothing wrong with taking a break and keeping things nice and easy until you are ready to pick up the pace.

4) Only add frills when you are ready to - this ties into the lesson above.  I feel like all too often we push ourselves to try and do things that we are not ready for and then beat ourselves up when we don't live up to our unrealistic expectations.  What would happen if instead of doing that, we practiced and only added one or two new notes or moves once we felt ready to?  If we gave ourselves some time to really be ready and set ourselves up for success instead of failure?  I can say from experience of doing it both ways, setting myself up for success feels WAY better and leads to much better outcomes than my old way of trial by fire.

5) Smile! - learning and being a creator is fun.  If you are finding it hard to smile even when you are struggling to understand just what the heck you are supposed to be doing, then maybe a change is in order.  As someone who tends to be open to new experiences and hobbies, I have definitely found myself in situations where I have realized that whatever it is I am pursuing is really not in my wheelhouse.  And that is okay.  Recognizing when it is time to exit stage left is not a bad thing and does not mean that you are a failure or are a quitter.  It simply means that you recognize that life is too short to be spent in misery while you go after something that you really don't enjoy.