A daily hat

When I reviewed Mindless Self Indulgence back in May, I did mention how warm and wonderful Kitty and Lindsey were, but I did not go into details. Meeting Lindsey was especially transformative, though I did not realize it at the time.

(And I should just get it out of the way that I don't know if Lindsey, Lynz, or Lyn-Z is preferred.)

Let me say that in person she just radiates sweetness, but on stage she attacks that bass, and is amazing. So basically what I said when I talked to her was that I knew I would never be as fierce as her, but I was starting bass and I was going to try. She told me I should put it on my head.

My first thought was that was crazy. For one thing, my bass seems big for that. Honestly I would probably be better off with a smaller model, but this is the one from the dream, and I respect that. Regardless of guitar size, my initial response tends to be that I can't do cool things. It turns out that I did not understand what she was saying.

I had seen via Twitter that sometimes she posted pictures labeled "My daily hat", and I had looked at some, but not that carefully I guess. Some of them were from a distance, and it wasn't until she posted the next one after the concert that I realized, oh, she has her bass on her head. She apparently does this daily. She is not posting every time, and probably not taking a picture every time, but it is a daily hat.

That had me thinking about it more. I mean, this was not her just being silly at me. She was telling me to try something she does regularly. Obviously the next thing to do was to put my bass on my head.

The first realization was that if you have a daily commitment to getting the bass on top of your head, that will almost certainly translate into daily practice. Yes, you can just do the hat and be done, but once you have it out, might as well play a little. That made it valuable right there.

The first time I did it, I tweeted something, and it was subtle, but one of my other bass playing friends picked up on it. She said she was afraid of balancing it, which is why she didn't do it. Okay, I had held mine up with my hands, but that started me thinking that I had cheated; I should try actually balancing it. Well, that has its own added value, because then you are paying more attention to posture, and you are developing an extra level of familiarity with the instrument and its shape and center of gravity and heft.

Also, it makes me more adventurous. I'm already doing something a little different, and so maybe I am more likely to swing it around, or toss or flip it, or get down on my knees and play that way, hypothetically.

This valuable advice sort of opens up the world. When I was thinking about other bass players, and what I could learn from them, my initial thoughts were still always self-deprecating. John Taylor is the only person I would call a sexy beast unironically; I can't do anything he does. And yet, reading his biography, what drew him to bass, and what he writes about it, does make sense to me, and I got to his mentioning fretless bass just at the point that I was wondering about it.

Pete Wentz? I don't know; I think a lot of his moves must come from skateboarding, and I can't start that now, except that now saying "can't" seemss to make things inevitable. I am going to have broken bones because of Pete Wentz.

I don't know what I'm going to learn from Alex Levine and Scott Shriner and Bill Leen and Dan Andriano, but I know am listening differently now, and watching differently, and so there will be things. Matt Rubano gives Skype lessons, so maybe one day he will be my teacher, and not just the guy I couldn't save from vampires, committing me to learning some kind of hand to hand combat in the future.

It also opens up possibilities in the other direction, that I might be able to help someone. One of my friends has a son, Sam, who really reminded me of Ray Toro when I first saw him. It was just this flash, but I thought he is going to be a great guitarist some day. I wished I could have some part in that, but I didn't think I had anything to offer. Maybe I will. Or maybe I will just buy him a box of picks; I don't know how this is going to turn out.

The most valuable lesson in this is probably to quit automatically saying "no" about myself. It's nice that I come around eventually, but I might get even more out of these things if I heard them right the first time.

But also, this is really important. Everything you hear, when people talk about how beautiful and perfect Lindsey Way is, is true, but more than that, she is right. She is insightful.

Listen to Lindsey Way. She knows stuff.

I reference many things here that may sound odd, but they have been covered in other posts, so here is an easy reference.

MSI Review:http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/05/concert-review-mindless-self-indulgence.html

The dream guitar is a 3-part story, but the second part is not as much about the guitar:
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-dream-guitar-story-in-three-parts
html http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/04/but-it-was-guitar-too.html

Losing Matt Rubano to vampires is mostly in the first link, but started in the second one:
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/03/all-about-family-blood.html
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/03/kids-in-street-week.html