Blowing off the rust...

[Lady Kayri]

More than 25 years ago I was trading lessons with one of the guys who worked for me in the USAF - he played bass guitar; I played mountain dulcimer. Spent about 6 months - about once a week - learning. Borrowed his bass, he borrowed one of my dulcimers. THen he got transfered to Japan and I got sent to Germany. Never had time to take up bass until this past year, so I'm now treating it like I'm starting from scratch, with more lessons and all. For one thing, there have been a fair number of changes in the 25+ years since I last did any real playing...Recently picked up an Ibanez SR400 to start out with (nice sound, and on sale - less than $300 at the local mom & pop music shop) Found the forum through Google, and lurked for a while before officially joining. I may not have a lot to contribute at first, but...

Also played (transverse) flute and piccolo in high school, as well as acoustic guitar; tried fiddle and banjo but didn't like them much, still have an autoharp somewhere - and still have my two dulcimers, although they don't get played much any more. Mostly play rock and jazz with a little country here and there.

I and my husband retired to the very southern tip of New Jersey in 'historic Cape May County' as the publicity has it. Also home of the twice a year Cape May Jazz Festival. I expect once I get good enough to play in public, I'll be doing more jazz than rock, even though I'd probably enjoy it the other way better. Still, a gig is a gig is a gig - and at least I'm a fair to middlin' jazz fan.

I'm lucky here in that the store I bought my bass from is run by a gentleman who is also a bass player; and one of his assistants also plays bass professionally; so they've been a big help getting me started; and that's who I'll at least initially be taking my lessons from. I've already been practicing my scales and what not, hopefully won't take too long to get back up to speed despite 25 years. Getting the fingers of both hands coordinated is going to be the hardest...

Pat (Lady Kayri) Munson-Siter

[Chrysalis]

Hello Lady, and welcome from another noob.

The Ibanez SRs are nice basses. I started out with an SR300, but sold it after I switched to a short scale bass. The fret spacing on the short scale is just so much closer to that of a guitar, which I also play a little.

Haven't been here myself long enough to know who all is who, but I can guess we women are in the minority, not that it matters.

I'm pretty much a beginner bassist and it appears this forum has a vast array of resources that I've only begun to touch.

I look forward to seeing you on the forums!

[Lady Kayri]

Thanks...I'm doing lots of fingering (picking and fretting) exercises to toughen up the fingers before I start taking classes.

The guy who will be my teacher says there aren't many bass players period down in this end of New Jersey; and NO women at all... at least between the two factors, once I get good enough to play with a group, I shouldn't have too much trouble finding groups who are interested in having me play bass with them!

I'm just not looking forward to the "gee, ain't it cute to see a girl play bass" types...Although if you look around, there aren't a lot of women playing instruments of any type in either jazz or rock bands; a few more in c&w but even there not a lot compared to the # of guys. Lots of women singers and dancers, but...

Thanks again for the welcome!

Kayri

[peterbright]

Welcome to TB!

[phat daddy]

Definately welcome. It sounds like you're getting your ducks in a row. I'm an old pro, if you've got any online questions feel free to PM, the worst I'll say is humbly "I don't know". Other than that I'm full of useless information.

[Lady Kayri]

Thanks all...finally got a decent pic of myself and SR400...here it is...