My Mistress, The Music (Part 2)

Or as the french say, deux.

It was high school. It was an exciting time full of possibilities that would never be realized, and some that were.

Now, technically, at this time in my life I should have been able to play piano, but since I slacked off so hard at St. Michael's Choir School (hence forward SMCS) I couldn't really play a lick of piano. Oh sure, I knew a couple of major and minor chords, and a scale or three, and yes, I did know Little Teddy Big Teddy, but that was about it. Sure it may have been a little late, but I caught the bug. I needed to play, and I need to play as soon as possible, so I picked up a guitar. It was a left-handed Yamaha Pacifica. I still remember that glorious guitar. I temporarily traded it with my friend Antek for his left-handed Bass. We've always intended on trading back, but just never found the right time.

Quick Sidebar: If you plan on learning guitar. LEARN IT ON A RIGHT HANDED ONE. This mistake will cost you. As it has cost me.

So towards the end of Grade 9 I had started to learn the guitar. The only thing I played all day every day was the pentatonic scale, because it was so easy to jam to just about anything on the radio. When the song changed, I just moved up or down a couple of frets, and BAM, I was back on key. Unlike Piano, switching keys is fairly easy since the notes are laid out evenly, where as in Piano they are staggered in a specific non-symmetrical arrangement.

But then something happened to me in my guitar playing journeys. Something that happens to everyone who picks up a new skill... I plateaued. I could see the diminishing returns in the efforts I was putting. Sure my theory knowledge was increasing, but my playing ability was starting to even out. So I did what anybody would do when their drug of choice just doesn't cut it anymore. I found a new drug, this time, since I was broke, I went back to piano. After all, there was one just hanging out in the living room. It was december of grade 10, perfect timing! I had weeks off to indulge. So again, I went to town. And this time I got further because piano lends itself really easily to song writing. There I was fiddling around with different chord progressions, and trying to learn what I had played on guitar, this time on piano. And sure enough, just as it had happened before, I started to plateau again. I think you can see the pattern, so I'll just present you with a timeline.

Grade 09: Guitar
Grade 10: Piano
Grade 11: Drums
Grade 11 towards the end: Bass
Grade 12: brief flirtation with sax and trumpet. miserable experience, although I'm feeling it may be time to spark up that old romance. "hey baby how's it going, I've been thinking about you, I've changed, I'm not the musician I used to be. I can kind of sight read now, and I've been working on my timbre. Just give me a chance, we could be so good together."

Now to be fair, these weren't all attempts to get my next fix. And I also wasn't crazy rabid as I suggested. Once I peaked, I started playing in a band to keep things interesting. That's when I started playing with Rotor. The lead guitarist was Stephen Litvack (who could shred like I'd never seen before)  and the drummer was Tura Cousins-Wilson (honestly one of the most down-to-earth people I've ever played with).

When it came to bass, I picked it up as so many others have. Because a band needed one. That's right, so cliche, but so true. I picked up the bass to play in my friends blues band. I honestly don't remember what the band was called. (Lee you gotta remind me!) The guitarist was Lee Gancman, and the drummer was Nick Ratcliffe. This band was a ton of fun to play with, although I think I drove them a little nuts by always playing funk basslines. ("Sousa, its jumping jack flash, not jamiroquai")

Alright, so I believe this covered my last blogs promise of "learning instruments"

UP NEXT: Writing music, having my first arrangement performed, getting lazy and slacking off some more, regretting it, taking a brief hiatus, and then... something life changing.

Cheers!
Michael Sousa

P.S. I do realize practically no one reads this, but it's more of an exercise so I can remember all the various things I've done. I will be posting some other articles on several different topics so please subscribe if you find it interesting. Also, if you have any questions, I'd love to answer them so shoot me a line at mike.psousa@gmail.com.