May 29: For reasons I never understood, I was streamed into the music program in Grade 9. Apparently I qualified because I was able to sing notes back to the teacher who played them on a piano. To say the year was an unmitigated disaster would be understatement. Although I bear a lot of the blame, the teacher seemed to take great pleasure in pointing out errors and highlighting my failures to come to terms with the instrument. In the end, I was asked not to play during the year-end musical performance for friends and parents. Fortunately for me, the teacher was a man of few principles and he gave me a passing grade of 50% to finish the year.
I enjoy listening to music, especially when played live, and in spite of my bad experience, I have always wondered what it would be like to actually perform with an instrument. So last October I signed up with the New Horizons Band. They promise to teach you to play any instrument, provided that you make an honest effort.
The cynic in me saw this as nothing more than a way for Long and McQuaid to make rental income. But I signed up and chose the electric bass; with only four strings, how difficult could it be to learn? Initially, things went well. Whole notes on open strings are simple enough. Later, there was a period when I fell a bit behind, and it wasn’t until I listened to some of the others that I found we were all a bit frustrated by our personal progress. In time I figured out that the perfectionist in me was not going to learn to play bass in 3 months – especially not without practicing for more than 20 minutes every couple of days. A musical genius I am not.
Last night we played the year-end concert for about 250 people and it went well. In the few months I have been in the program I have figured out the basics of playing bass. I’ve also realized that learning to play it really well will take a commitment and focus that feels like more than I want to do right now. There are other creative things that appeal to me more that also demand time and energy. So the jury is out on whether I will re-sign with the program in the autumn. For now, the guitar and amp are going back to Long and McQuaid.
http://www.newhorizonsbloor.ca/