Home | Back Issues | Other Mel Bay Sites | Purchase Bass Products
On Bass Playing and Being | Modes
Moving on Up (right) | Harmonically Speaking
In Search of the Perfect Custom Bass, Part 6
Czech-Ease^TM Acoustic Travel Bass

ON BASS PLAYING AND BEING: The Wisdom of Gerald Veasley

by S. K. Wallace

Preface: In the June 2005 edition of Bass Sessions, I directly expressed my appreciation to Gerald Veasley [GV] for his Bass BootCamp 2005. In this article, I will share some of his specific teachings as they apply to bass playing and life as well as my personal responses to his words. During the camp, one of the instructors compared the experience of learning from Gerald as "becoming a disciple [of bass playing]," and (without any implication of sacrilege or heresy) that is essentially what it is. In the weeks and months that followed, Gerald's wisdom kept coming to mind . . . It became such a part of my life and consciousness, I'd quote him to my bass teacher and bass friends, then to non-bassist musicians, then to my beginning violin and fiddle students, (and even to my mom in long-distance phone calls.) Hopefully, you will find your own unique meaning, inspiration, significance, and application of Gerald's ideas.

UNLEARNING: Awareness, Trust, and Will
GV: "Be aware…to be GOOD, you must be willing to sound BAD. You tend to play things that sound good and do what you can already do. To sound better, be willing to sound bad. Victor Wooten goes for things he doesn't even know he can do yet…" and then Gerald Veasley indicated that even a great bass player "sometimes misses," but the key point is that he or she takes risks and pushes the limits, musically, creatively, and artistically.

I find myself quoting this saying at least weekly to my students [I teach violin and fiddle-plenty of chances there to sound "bad"!] and practically daily to myself in my own bass studies. We are conditioned early on to avoid making mistakes of any kind at all costs for many reasons: punishment, bad grades, appearing foolish, criticism or ridicule from others, or even just the fear of any or all of these. If we simply shut down and stop trying at the instance of a "bad" sound, (or worse yet, never even try something in the first place for fear of sounding bad), there's no opportunity for growth and improvement. As I've long maintained [cf. August 2004 Bass Sessions] and others have echoed, playing what you already know and do well is rehearsal and NOT practice.

The risks, the potential opportunities to "sound bad" while trying to find something new (and eventually good), are matters of personal awareness: awareness of one's current abilities, limitations, and ambitions and awareness of the realities of (and occasionally the temporary pains of unlearning during) the transition processes.

• Maybe it's exploring new musical genres or styles-[This year, I went from primarily playing Motown and jazz standards to playing Cuban-influenced Latin music and Bach solos on the electric bass-(no, not at the same time!)]



• It might involve finally making a solid commitment to playing the bass well in any capacity in the first place, a commitment to practice and to mastery of fundamentals of theory and technique.



• Maybe it's deciding to "go public" and play with a group or, if you're already in a band, playing with a different one, a better one, or even forming your own.



• Perhaps it's getting out of your comfort zone with an old, familiar instrument and/or way of playing: experimenting with different effects, going fretless, maybe trying something with more strings-[While I'm not quite ready to try that with the bass, in my violin playing I recently transitioned from being something of a 4-string acoustic purist, to playing a 7-string, fretted, "flying V"-style, electric violin-and certain things sounded bad before they sounded good…but that's another story for another time and place.]

Regardless, be aware that there is always something new, different, and interesting to try, technically, artistically, musically . . . Go find it and don't be afraid to explore it, even if it means occasionally sounding bad on your way to becoming good.

GV: "Trust . . . if you don't get it the first time, you may get it the second time. Trust your own innate ability . . . don't believe you had it? You've got it already! You need to bring it out of you. That thing you believe you can be . . . want to be . . . you already are."

I remember when I finally decided to just go for it and start learning to play the electric bass after years of this vague, almost subconscious impression that it was something I ought to do. Rationalization, self-criticism, doubt, and yes, distrust had me saying to myself, "Whodaya think you're kidding?! You're too old! You're a girl! Bass students are kids and teenagers! Bassists are cool people and mainly guys! You don't even own a bass or know the first thing about buying one! Isn't it enough that you already play violin, guitar, and piano?" and on and on. In spite of this, I started researching instruments and amps, launched a major fact-finding effort in which I called and e-mailed every bassist I knew or knew of (all four of them), signed up for a beginning bass class, got what actually turned out to be a quite decent rig together, and found myself in the office of my bass teacher saying, "It's like I'm supposed to play the bass," to which he surprisingly replied, "Then you probably are."

The thing is, it was only after I initiated specific, tangible actions that the idea of becoming a bassist started to be realized. This leads to Gerald's third point of will: "Will separates people who do things and intend to do things. There is a difference between intention and actually doing things. The power of will: It's yours. You control it. You just have to decide what's important."

GV also warned against the dangers of "limiting thinking," [e.g. the thoughts that one is "not good enough, not smart enough," etc.] As further illustration, he cited the phrase, "How did you get that gig?!" several times, each time, emphasizing a different word: "How did YOU get that gig?!" "How did you get THAT gig?!" and so forth. He pointed out that there is an idea that gigs are finite, when in reality there is an abundance of opportunities, yet we limit ourselves and allow others to do so if we aren't mindful of limiting thoughts, and as a consequence, "We get stuck chasing things that are not ours to chase . . . things not even worthy of our chasing!" Silence fell. Wow. Pause and calmly think on that!

REFLECTION/APPLICATION

Gerald closed by presenting the students with the following assignment:

"In your artistic/creative life, write down 2 things you'd love to be able to unlearn." This was followed with instructions to do the same thing with application to one's personal life.

I actually wrote down three responses to the first part. I wanted to unlearn fear that I can't make it in a creative vocation full-time, the habit of thinking it's too late in the game, and dependency on immediate and temporal circumstances. Almost as if in response to my first couple of items, Gerald said, "Trust that you're not going to be that way your whole life. The only disadvantage to age is how many things there are to unlearn!"

My latter item of unlearning specifically referred to the fact that in a series of sudden, cataclysmic, and unjust events and circumstances at the first of this year, I lost all opportunity to pursue my college music studies (with planned emphasis on bass for the semester)-even though I was an honors student, even though I held merit-based scholarships-It was wrong, evil, bizarre, devastating, (and unbelievable if it hadn't been for the fact that I lived through it personally.) Being faced with the loss of this particular opportunity to learn, something so central to my life and well-being was agonizing-In my limiting thinking, I had felt so dependent on particular places, people, resources, circumstances, and opportunities-Then Gerald's words resonated and continue to do so this day:

"Trust your own innate ability…

You've got it already…

That thing you believe you can be, want to be, you already are…

The power of will: it's yours. You control it…

There's an abundance of opportunities…

Don't get stuck chasing things that are not ours to chase, things that are not even worthy of our chasing."


[Thanks, Peace, and Light Travel, GV!]

---

About the author: S.K. Wallace is a freelance musician, writer, and artist whose previous articles have appeared in the August 2004, June 2005, and August 2005 editions of Bass Sessions®. She may be contacted at SKWBassist@aol.com.