Saturballetday

This is Saturday...ballet day....lately I've been taking all three kids to Sophie's ballet...sometimes she fights me getting there...Jacob always asked 7-15 times "Can I play a game on your iPod when we get there?"  ....Oliver is obliviously happy...

This day was observation day...when the parents come in to watch their kids the shy kids tend to act up and pretend to need thier parents..which is what Sophie did...so she sat on my knee and watched the rest of her class....I had to snap a pic...

I used to sleep in a decade ago..I think..I don't remember ...what was I doing 10 years ago?  April 2001..hmmm..right..the Jive Kings...we had just finished winning our 2nd ECMA a couple months previous and things were really cookin..we were giggin a lot..travelling all over the maritimes...making a living playing the bass...what a strange concept now...now I play the bass for fun...and that's not a bad thing when you think about it...full circle...

Grade 9...all I wanted to do was be the first NHL goalie that didn't skate ( I can't skate ).  I played lots of ball hockey and dreamed of the Montreal Canadiens...mostly Patrick Roy....I mentioned in one of my previous blogs that I actually scratched R O Y into my arm with a needle...after being teased of having a boyfriend named Roy I quickly added a 33 underneath.  But one day....my ball hockey cohort Chris Walsh said "You should join the general music class with me and learn the upright bass ...if I do  my mom will buy me an electric bass so I can start a band".

a) I didn't know what an upright bass was...nor did I know what an electric bass was. 
b) I had never considered playing music other than in Grade 6 when I tried to get into Grade 7 band but failed the audition ( It's ok Perry..I forgive you! hehe ) and then never gave it a 2nd though.

but I was a follower...so I did...

Day 1...Jen Clements places the upright bass in my hands...it's bigger than me...strings that look thick as rope...I sit across from my friend....the mirrored image confuses me and it's just all wrong. 

but it was ...interesting...

Day 2 and on...start learning names of strings..how to read music ...where to put my fingers...

and then.....Jen Clements played a very cliche piece of music that would prove to be one of the biggest influences in my pushing forward with music...she played Pachebel's Canon..

"so what"..you say...yes it's a nice piece of music.   but ...rather than telling me the notes...rather than giving us the sheet music she said....see if you can figure it out..

It was the first time I used my ear...not just for listening...but for hearing ..hearing music... that I was making...in relation to other sounds...the recording...find the notes...match them up...see this one is higher...this one is lower than the previous...match them up....

and by the end of it....I did. You know when you're telling an impressionable kid about something really cool like what the Sun is made of....or ...how a combustion engine works...or ...where rain comes from or...how snakes shed their skin...and they get that giddy/goofy grin and they sorta chuckle because they GET it...they've Learned something...something that they didn't know before...knowledge..it's so powerful when it's appreciated...well...I had that goofy grin for the rest of the day..I was hooked....a month later I was travelling to St John, NB for Orchestra fest where I would perform for the first time...I was doubly hooked..and...a girl in the orchestra was interested in me because I played the bass....holy crap ...hook line and SINKER, I'm SOLD!  :)

But then like a drug a little wasn't enough...I wanted to progress into the world of amplification...I finally learned what an electric bass was and I ...wanted...one...SOOOO bad....

Flipping through the sears catalogue ( remember in 1991 there was no google.com or fender.com ) I found a Kingston electric bass....white...Silver hardware...black pickguard.... I didn't know what any of it was..or what the knobs did...or why it had frets....or how I'd play it ( remember there was no youtube.com ) ...so I just cut the picture out...and stared at it....and literally fantasized about it like it was some beautiful centerfold from playboy ....okay well maybe not quite the same but close....

I originally asked for Super Mario Bros III for Christmas....I begged my mom to take it back and please please get me a bass.... my brother-in-law knew a guy who knew a guy and soon I was in possession of a Red Harmony bass....I still joke about how I took apart once and swore it was made of compost-board ( press board ) ...but...it sure as hell did the trick..

I had no amp so my dad took care of that by hooking up one of those old grey ghetto blaster/boom boxes 


This was my amp for almost a year..but again...it did the trick...My entire musical goal was to learn every Guns and Roses song....and so I learned every damn Guns and Roses song using my Harmony Bass/boom box and that ear that Jen Clements started to develop...and then I moved on...to the Black Crowes, to Led Zeppelin, to Nirvana, to Pearl Jam, to Tragically Hip, to Doughboys, to Sloan, to everythign east coast, to Jazz and funk etc etc etc.....

what a ride...