Bones, Bass, and Bending Your Ear

[escritoireazul]

I. Bones

Why do I love Bones so much? I'm not a big David B. fan (I can't even spell his last name without looking, and tonight I am too lazy to look) and I know Bones is pretty poorly written and presented most of the time, but--I love it.

And now it's up against Lost, which I also love, so I will never be able to watch it (except tonight, when Lost was a repeat of an episode I own so I didn't have to watch it [though I was tempted--I love Hurley]). What's worse is I really want to watch next week's, based on the promo, but I think Lost is new, too, and it will trump.

Times like these I wish I could either tivo it (really, this is the first time I've ever honestly wanted a tivo), or download it. I am already sure I will buy the DVD set (if they make one). I just wish I knew why I like it so much.

II. Bass

In less insane (and slightly embarrassing) love notes, tonight I learned to walk the bass. No, this is what my book calls it, and Mom and Dad both call it, so it is what I will call it, whether it's actually walking or not. I have had it less than a week and I know a bunch of rhythms and notes and can walk it a little. Woo.

Of course, I also feel like an idiot much of the time. I know some of you (at least one of you) plays the bass, yes? (data_warrior, you do, don't you?) What was it like when you started to play? How did you learn? Any suggestions or stories?

I remain in love with it. Plus I am not reading the notes and playing them. I've not talked about it here, but my whole life Dad has been trying to get me to learn to play by ear. I'm tone deaf, so this has been a futile activity, helped in no small part because everything else I play I learned to play note by note, not memorizing rhythms and patterns and fingerings. (I mean, eventually I did memorize fingerings on the piano and the clarinet, but I did that by playing off of the written music.) I am not doing that with the bass, I am learning to listen and feel (and watch, I'll admit I spend a lot of time looking at my left hand--but not all the time), and I am very, very proud of the progress I've made in this completely new style of playing and instrument.

My fingers continue to not hurt, just be numb at the tips. The first few days my left wrist hurt a lot, because it wasn't used to being held at that angle, but it's feeling a lot better now. I am having trouble playing standing up, not because I can't play standing up, but because of the way I don't trust the (gorgeous) strap, and I try to hold it up with my hands (mostly my right hand) and play at the same time, which puts a lot of pressure on my wrists. I think maybe the strap is adjusted too long for me, and I might be able to solve some of the problem by shortening it.

I'll also admit I spent a little bit of time pretending to be a rock hard bass player tonight, I was so proud of what I accomplished, but I swear there was no fake-stage performances and certainly not in front of the big picture window. *ahem*

I need a bass icon.

III. Bending-your-ear

Yeah, okay, I'm stretching with that section header.

I have two XMM stories to finish and post and then I can sign up for this year's remixredux. One just needs a final edit, and one needs to be finished tonight, edited tomorrow, and posted Friday morning. Or something like that.

Must go edit now. And then write. And then sleep. I'm so tired.