Obscure Magazine
Promoting Maine's Original Musicians & Songwriters
Vol. 1 ISSUE 04
NOV. 1993 FREE!
Page 5
INCREDIBLE BASSIST OR LOCKSMITH ?
WHAT SHOULD I BE
by DOUGLAS PAPA
This month my 5th year
class reunion in Natick, Mass. is taking place. I called up my friend
Rick a few weeks ago to see how he was doing. You see back in 1982
shortly after I bought my first drum set in junior high school, Rick
asked me a question. He said, "Doug I want to start playing a music
instrument, which one should I pick?" I replied, "Well, with this new
MTV thing people are going to start forming a lot of bands, so now's the
time to start playing. Guitarists are a dime a dozen around here.
There are a lot of drummers too but not as many as there are
guitarists. Bass players, now they are very hard to find. If you take
up the bass you will always be in a band and always in demand." So,
Rick took up the bass and just took off becoming an incredible bassist.
Ten years later we
had this conversation: "Hey, how's the music going?" I asked. "It's
not going good," Rick replied, "I'm taking a course in how to become a
locksmith." "How long has the course taken and how much did it cost?" I
asked. Rick said, "Over 6 months and almost cost me a thousand
dollars."
I asked him, "How
much can you make an hour starting as a locksmith?" He told me about
$15. That's double of what he makes at the current job he has had since
high school. I said, "You can make $15 an hour starting pay as a bass
instructor." Rick said, "I can't teach bass, I don't have the
patience." I felt like saying to him, "Give me a break." Instead I
said, "Rick, everyday after junior high, you went straight home and
practiced your bass. You did this until you got a job, which is the
same one you still have. Next year you are going to marry your first
love, your high school sweetheart. You have been more patient than
anyone I know! You're trying to tell me you don't have enough
paience?" He laughed and then said, "Your right, I just don't have
degree to teach music." I said, "My best drum instructors taught out of
music stores and out of homes, and none of hem had a music degree.
They are better than the one's with the degree. Do you know why?
Because at lessons I ended up teaching those with a degree material hat
those without a degree have showed me." Rick said, "Yea, but I'm not
that good with all that music theory stuff." I said, "I'm taking a
fundamentals of music course at the University of Maine at Augusta.
It's a little community college. My instructor graduated from
the University of North Texas, the number one music university in the
U.S.. you know what? The course is really easy and simple. This is
coming from a drummer who didn't know anything about scales. Now I know
major, minor, augmented, and diminished scales. All it takes is to
start studying one course and take it from there."
Rick was persistent,
looking at it from all angles. He said, "Hey, I learned everything by
ear myself." "That's it," I said, "You have the edge over he other
instructors down there. A bassist teaching bass, not a guitarist
teaching bass. I always heard complaints at music stores about
students' instructors not showing them how to play cover songs. These
kids wanted to impress their high school friends. The teacher would
only show them a piece of the beginning of a song, and say it goes like
that. They would then fast forward the tape, show them a section in the
middle, then say the end is like the beginning. These teachers
couldn't handle it because colleges don't teach it, the streets do."
Rick was silent and
listening closely, so I continued. "You will never hear your worst
nightmare, no matter what. You will never hear the words, 'Wow, you're
a great player! I want to learn to play just like you, style and
everything. But forget it, if you can't produce a piece of paper with
the words 'Degree in Music', no deal. I want to learn how to play as
good as you but not if you didn't spend thousands of dollars at a
school.'" I went on to say, "You only need to practice every exercise
you know a thousand times each. You don't need to spend thousands of
hours studying your college homework." Rick thought he had me right
here. I could tell by the tone of his voice that his trump card was
going to be played now. But Rick didn't know how my personality had
changed over these years, because it isn't over until I win! Rick said,
" I don't have enough time to practice as it is, my bass just sits in
the corner because I study so much." He thought he caught me there. I
said, "Hey Rick, do you watch T.V.?" Rick said, "Yes, yeah I do." I
said, "Do you watch it everyday?" He knew something was up but he was
still being honest with me and said yes. I replied, "Let me guess, you
watch it one or two hours a night, right?" He was surprised, but still
wondering stated yes. I told him, "that's how long it takes to practice
an exercise, a thousand times each, two hours. Stop watching T.V. and
start funneling that time making an investment towards becoming a
teacher."
Victory was mine.
Rick had a change of heart and an attitude that he had just found the
business opportunity of the century. "You really want me to get back
into music by teaching don't you?" he said. I said, "There are
musicians in heir 30's and 40's in Maine having a mid-life crisis like
you are having now. We started out in the early 80's, they in the
70's. They are teaching music, making money while you're thinking about
giving up your dream. There are musicians older than us, who have been
playing longer than us, and they can teach you how to become a better
music instructor after you start teaching. We have an edge, we have
been musicians for the last decade, performing a style that sounds
better than the stuff MTV is commercializing.
Then we reclaimed our
lost essence from long ago. I heard the Rick I thought was gone, the
confident, simple, and "piece of cake," natural tone in his voice. You
know he kind I'm talking about, it's the one winners and experts have,
that says "no problem folks." And you sit back amazed how fast and
simple that person gives themselves the successful gift of talent.
Dedication and determination for improvement and evolution, that's how .