Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, B is for Bass. String bass, that is.

Many years ago, although at the time I felt quite old (meaning mature…hah!), I began to play the bass. I was 19 and in Pre-Veterinary medicine, although I had been a musician all my life. I started piano at 5, flute when I was in grade school, and then began singing at 16, But I had wanted to be a vet since I was in Grade 5. It wasn’t going well, and I wanted to learn another instrument. I don’t remember why, but I wanted to play the viola. But the Principal bass player in the Regina Symphony convinced me to take up the bass. It would give me more opportunities to play somewhere, and hey, I thought, why not??

Thus began my bass journey. Nine months after I started playing bass, I was in the Regina Symphony, and had switched my major from Pre-Vet Med to Music. A year and a half after I started playing, I headed off to Kingston, Ontario to join the National Youth Orchestra for the summer (I did that for three summers in a row, the last summer was when I decide to move to Ottawa to get a Masters in Music).

I have played in a few orchestras in Regina and Ottawa, and when I moved back to Regina having not completed my Masters (this is part of my Life as a Quitter series), I began playing jazz bass with my brother and ultimately with a lot of other great musicians in Regina. Eventually I found my way back into the Regina Symphony, and I played gigs and symphony until I left Regina in 2007 to move to Victoria when Kevin finished Optometry school and got a gig out here.

I never did try to find a place to play out here. Thought about it, but I started to enjoy a life where I only had one job and didn’t have to haul a bass all over town to gigs during the evenings and weekends. Eventually I sold my bass and while sometimes I miss it a little, I just let myself enjoy listening to the music I used to play.

People think I miss it, or maybe think I should miss it. I really don’t. It’s another closed chapter of my life and I’m totally ok with that. Add it to the pile of things I did and eventually moved on from.

This was my bass, before I sold it. It was my third bass and while it was cracked and old, it served me well for a long time. I hope the person who bought it (a car salesman who wanted to learn to play upright bass) enjoyed it too.

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter B.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…