Embracing Necessity

My musical project continues to sputter along, making some progress while still not getting anywhere near what I started out trying to achieve. It reminds me of some of the reasons I stopped playing in bands in the first place, and yet I'm not willing to give up. I have at least three guitar players who have expressed interest, and yet when push comes to shove, it's still just Jason and I who show up, except for the one time when Bob, a singer I know, joined us.

I've played bass for many years, but learned some chords on guitar, primarily to help me read the hand positions of the guitarists I played with so I could improvise along with songs I hadn't actually learned. It served me well for that purpose, but I don't think I bothered to learn more than three complete songs on guitar until recently. Since Jason and I didn't have a regular guitarist, I decided to play guitar as a placeholder in the short term because it sounded better than when we just had bass, drums, and voice. To be honest, I didn't worry a whole lot about doing a good job technically while playing guitar because I was sure someone else much better would be taking over those parts soon, allowing me to return to my more comfortable role as bassist. But that still hasn't happened.

So as of the beginning of this year, I decided to take the role more seriously and started playing at least a few songs on guitar each day, trying to make them sound as though I actually know what I'm doing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't take long to get some results, primarily because I started with songs I'd been playing with Jason anyway, and we'd chosen them for relative simplicity in the first place. I've got six or seven songs now that I could play solo without embarrassing myself if I had to, and I'll keep building on that, slowly taking on songs that are a bit more challenging as I continue.

My wife is delighted, since she felt I'd already proven myself on bass and thought it was a good idea for me to be taking on something new musically. It's nice to be able to choose songs without having to concern myself with whether or not other people in a band like them. I've had to worry about that in the past because it's just not that interesting to hear someone play bass by themselves unless they're a truly exceptional player. I've always envied guitarists and keyboard players their ability to function musically by themselves. I don't plan on trying to perform anywhere by myself, since I'm nowhere near good enough to pull it off, but it's cool to be able to play for friends or family if I feel like it. I'd still prefer to play bass for my main musical project, but if I'm going to function as the guitar player most of the time with Jason anyway, I may as well do a decent job of it.