I'm currently enrolled in Bootsy Collins' Funk University, and I came across one of the lectures by John B. Williams on the biggest eye opener of his career, and it got me thinking. He said that his biggest eye opener was simply, humility. He proceeded tot ell a story where he was playing to a crowd including Charles Mingus, so he played as flashy as he could, overplayed, overplayed some more, and felt like the hottest thing alive. Well he went to meet Mingus, and Mingus turned his back on him! The lecture proceeded with a few other stories similar, but the ultimate lesson was that those hard lessons that told him what he NEEDED to hear, not what he WANTED to hear, ended up being the best lessons hes ever received! It made him into a better bassist, and a better and more humble man.
With that in mind, I thought of my own experiences in life as well as music and I realize that I too (as well as many others) had a period where I thought I was the hottest thing to ever pick up a bass, and later found I was dead wrong, had it all wrong and was blatantly just a cocky showoff. It took an experience on Talkbass (not with Mingus..god would that be amazing..) to have a few enlightened guys here tell me what I needed to hear, and not what I wanted to. I have all of you to thank for that!!!! As since then, my life has changed.
Being cut to the bone harshly at that time in my development was just what I needed, and I can never thank those who did enough! After that time, I refused to gie up on music because that would equate to me giving up on my life, so I brought back the books (ranging from very difficult ones like Improvisers Bass Method, back to basics all over again, back to theory, etc etc.), woodshedded nonstop on all that I was hearing here and then some, and now to look around..life has changed. and Ive learned that ego closes you off to knowledge, whereas to be humble opens you infinitely!
So thank you Talkbass for making me into a much better bassist, and a much better man!
Anyone else have any recollections like this? These kind of recollections are the borderline between music and philosophy
How you learn life lessons from Music herself!
__Mark McAnaney
