Around the New Year most of us have planned some type of changes in our lives. Some say that they are going to lose some weight by working out in the many gyms in the country. Why some say that they are going to cut back on drinking or give up smoking or they are just going to get out of the house more. For the most part these promises we make to ourselves don’t last long.
Several years ago, I decided for the New Year, I was going to learn to play a musical instrument. By not having much musical background this was going to be major accomplishment for me, if I could pull it off. I knew I couldn’t sing because I didn’t even make the first cut of my grammar grade chorus but playing an instrument would be so much fun.
Unlike some folks who thought they would become another Chet Akins I was going at this just for fun and entertainment.
My first instrument was a new but cheap guitar I ordered out of a catalog. You know you don’t have to start out with the best for your first lesson. After buying a few” Learn how to Play Guitar” books I preceded to take private lessons. Before this was over with, I’m glad they were private. I was told, “The more you practice, the better you will get.” But the more I practiced the sorer my fingers became. Well, I learned a few songs that didn’t have more than three cords in them but something in me said “you need to try another instrument.”
Won’t long a friend and I were up at Boone, N.C .and we went into a local music shop. I got to looking around and by the time we left I done bought myself a brand new Johnson mandolin. I’ve always liked Bluegrass music, and the sound of this instrument would fit right in a bluegrass band. That is if I could learn to play it.
Time went on and I could pick a tune or two on the mandolin, but my fingers just couldn’t stretch far enough to make a full G chord.
Next instrument I picked up was my great uncle’s fiddle. I could chord it but me and that bow just couldn’t get along.
Well, what was next on the list but a bass fiddle. I rode over to Richfield, N.C and purchased myself a 3/4 base fiddle. The bass was in good shape but had steel strings on it. I bet while learning to play that thing I went through several rolls of freezer tape wrapped around my fingers to keep them from bleeding. I finally broke down and put some gut strings on the thing.
Meanwhile some of the boys and I put together a small bluegrass band and guess who had the only bass fiddle.
I’ve always liked to trade around and buy different things, so I ran across a nice old Kay bass. Most folks in bluegrass music can tell you that an older Kay bass has that deep smooth sound that you are looking for and after I got mine setup like I wanted it did just that.
Well, having two large basses in one house is like having two wives in one house, there ain’t room for both of them so I sold the American Standard.
Hauling these large basses around ain’t the easiest thing to do either. I’d put the back seats down in my wife’s SUV, stuff the bass in the back but the long neck board would still just about stick out the front windshield. Why, I had a friend that had a standup bass, but he also had a VW car. Somehow, he would manage to get his wife in the front seat, his two kids in the back seat and get that bass in there amongst them. Said; “he would just stick the neck out the window and if it looked like rain would wrap a plastic bag over the neck.” I’ll bet that was a sight to see coming down the road.
Now playing most musical instruments by themselves sounds pretty good but a bass fiddle not so much. It’s more to keep the tempo or to keep the beat of the music with. Why, with just the bass by itself you might as well be playing to a dog. So, at times when I didn’t have anyone to play with, I would play to my little dog Trixie. Seems every time I’d hit a different chord her ears would perk right up.
Well, I plucked on that bass fiddle for several years, but I decided that I wasn’t never gone to be good enough to make it to Nashville, so I sold most of my musical instruments and went back to storytelling, something I was a little better at.