You know I usually can't say I have many regrets, because I have to keep in mind the person I was at that time, and the decisions I made based on my thinking at that time.
But way back when I was in grade 6 some kid from grade 8 sought me out at the school we were attending. He was a big ugly fat kid with zits, kind of scary looking. I did whatever I could to avoid this kid. Eventually a kid in my class set me aside and told me the grade 8 kid was his friend and was looking to form a band, and he knew I could play the accordion and wanted me to join him.
I could play, but I couldn't read music, even though I took lessons for a few years. I hated the instrument (it was my dad's dream to have me play at weddings), I hated the music I had to play on it and drove my teacher crazy because I could play the most complex stuff all by ear, but if he put the music in front of me I couldn't play it.
Anyway, I joined this grade 8 kid's band and was in it for a while. The kid played keyboards, and his crazy little brother played drums (or smashed them as they had to buy him several sets in one year). Eventually this kid brought in a guitarist and drummer from a disbanded, bigger local rock band. It was plainly obvious I was redundant.
So one night, instead of practice at his place, he says 'we need to get you a bass, because we need a bass player.' We went to the local mall and I remember holding some basses, but the idea of having to learn it, to learn to read music and play stuff I wasn't familiar with, completely turned me off.
Not long after I was kicked out of the band, and when I entered grade 10 I took up drums for a year and was awarded the highest mark for percussion in that class. My dad wouldn't buy me drums, which I really wanted at that point, so I turned my back on music for good.
Last night I was playing some RUSH and Sabbath tunes on my bass, doing them standing, Im totally in the groove zone, and it struck me what a huge opportunity I missed out on. At age 12 I was right in the middle of those amazing early 70's with RUSH, Zeppelin, Sabbath and many other cool bands putting out legendary records.
And I missed all of that. Who knows where things could have lead to if I'd been open to learning the bass then?
I can't totally regret it though; my son, thanks to Guitar Hero, keeps asking me about cool rock stuff from the 70's that he really likes. I sheepishly loaded his iPod with Zeppelin, Sabbath and other cool bands from that era on it (he has not one band or song from the 80s to present
). He even learned a Zeppelin song for his drum recital.
But still, it would have been interesting to see what would have come out of that time had I picked up a bass and gone for it....
I gotta give you guys cred - it's definitely a far cry from guitar and amazingly more complex (I don't think a lot of guitar players realize it)!
