Reality check

My first bass lesson with Jason on 1/6/11 didn't quite live up to my own self-imposed hype. To be more clear, I was disappointed that I didn't leave the lesson as the fantasy Lee/White/King bass baby I dreamed I'd be. Clearly, I set my expectations a tad too high. I believed I'd go from zero to awesome in one thirty-minute lesson. Well, not literally, but you know what I mean. Or do you?

Let me step back a bit.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that I've been playing percussion since 1976. I studied privately all the way through high school, and I have performed with many groups over the years from marching bands to symphony orchestras and everything in between. Music is in my blood and I'm lucky that it has always come easy for me. I consider myself a reasonably coordinated person. I can't play basketball worth squat, but I can walk and chew gun without falling down, and playing percussion has been second nature to me for years. When it comes to playing OTHER instruments however, I feel like I have no coordination.

When I was 16, I decided I'd like to try to play the oboe as a secondary instrument. I took lessons for about six months, but I had trouble coordinating all ten fingers to work independently of one another. Eventually, I got so frustrated with my inability to do it, I quit.

I relayed the stories of my percussion background and my brief foray into the wacky world of double reed instruments because they directly relate to my bass lessons. I've been thinking about this for the past week or so, and it really comes down to me not feeling confident that I can actually play a second instrument. I tried it before when I was 16, and look how that ended? It's ironic that I am coordinated enough to use two hands and two feet for percussion and feel completely comfortable in doing so, but playing any other instrument feels difficult and awkward. Here we go again! It's like oboe, v2.0.

Sigh. Reality check.