Practice tonight went better than I expected. Last Friday, I took my bass to the New Horizons jazz band rehearsal. They've already been meeting for a couple weeks; my schedule didn't allow me to practice with them from the start. But they still didn't have a bass player, my bassoon is not really serviceable, and I have an electric bass, so they gave this novice the nod. The band sounded pretty good, sightreading a couple new pieces; me, not so much. I'm sitting there, staring at the music, wondering what the notes are and where they are on the fretboard.
Even playing bassoon, I never got fully comfortable with the bass clef. I can almost read treble with my eyes closed, but I have to think before I can tell you the name of the note on any particular line or space. With the bassoon, I just learned the fingerings associated with lines and spaces, and didn't worry about what the notes actually were. Each note has a specific fingering, so that worked pretty well for me, but with the bass, I actually have to know what the note is, and the different places it can be found on the fretboard. Playing with the church praise band, all we have in front of us is a lyric sheet with chord notations written above the words. I've learned some of the songs well enough to improvise, but it's usually pretty basic stuff, not requiring music theory or any fancy stuff.
So last Friday, I'm sitting at the back of the band, staring at the music, not having the faintest idea where we are or how to play what's on the sheet. Needless to say, I didn't contribute much; my presence was probably more of an absence, which is just as well. Immediately after rehearsal, I had my first lesson. Vincent, my student teacher, showed me a couple tricks that serve as landmarks for my fretboard work. Tonight was the first time I've had to practice, and his guidance is already paying off. Combining what I already know about the notes on the fretboard with what he taught me about reading the music, I can actually play a few scales, and am not doing too badly (for a beginner) with actually reading the music. I'm actually looking forward to practicing again. I want to actually read the music without mistakes, as opposed to memorizing it.
None of this is earth-shaking by any means. I'll never be a rocker and don't expect to make any money at it, but I am glad to be able to take the lessons, learn a new skill, and improve my musical ability, even if it's only for my own amusement. Even small accomplishments are just that, and I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have. Maybe I'll even get to learn standup bass! Now THAT would be an accomplishment!
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