My Bass Journey
A little while back, I joined a Hawaiian band as their bassist—a role I accepted despite having no prior experience with the instrument. It all started when a friend of mine asked me to play bass guitar for his band. I’d never played bass before. After a couple more asks, I borrowed his bass to check it out and gave it a try. I fell in love with the bass and bought my own instrument a few days later. But with a major gig at the Grand Ritz in Escondido just two months away, the pressure was on. The learning curve was intense. I had to quickly master techniques like finger-style plucking and two-handed muting, while also grappling with bass lines and chord progressions. Learning Hawaiian songs as a complete beginner added another layer of complexity. Not only were the melodies and chord progressions unfamiliar, but the non-English lyrics made it incredibly challenging to recover if I stumbled. Despite these hurdles, the performance was a success, igniting a passion for the bass tha...