Before the pandemic, I was the house photographer for a local music venue. I enjoyed creating images that helped generate a following for the musicians performing there, and increased audience size. The photography led to working closely with a band, recording and mixing live performances, and producing high quality videos that they featured on their YouTube channel. Things were really starting to come together. Then it all came to a completely full stop.
Overnight it all went away. Performance, recording and working in the same space ended. With no commercial work on the horizon, and time available, I pursued a long-delayed dream of learning to play the bass guitar. I discovered a musician based in London who had a series of Soul and Rhythm & Blues lessons online, and dove into the music of my youth, learning chord tones, scales, syncopation, shuffle and muting techniques, riffs and rhythms to songs recorded at Stax Records, Motown, and Philadelphia. There was a lot to learn, and I was eager to spend my time with the instrument first created by Leo Fender, a precision bass.
My bass was inexpensive, and over time I addressed its shortcomings. I refinished the neck to make it easier to play, changed the electronic controls and pickups for a more authentic sound, and experimented with strings until I found the flat wound strings that suited me. I also learned how to correctly adjust a bass guitar so that it was set up like an expensive instrument. During this journey, my relationship with the instrument changed. I had shaped it both literally and figuratively and this created a true sense of accomplishment and pleasure that I had not anticipated.
This naturally led to exploring other basses. Two excellent German-made instruments were added to my collection – a jazz bass and a Höfner bass that is constructed in the same way as a violin. I fussed over each of them until they were adjusted to my preferences, and they play as well as my precision bass.
Although I regularly play each instrument, my precision bass is the one I most often turn to when I am working on a song or a technique that seems to be just beyond my grasp. It has become my emotional support instrument; the familiar that reassures me that I can do this. To be honest, I never saw this coming, but I am grateful that it happened.
website:
https://bobkidd.myportfolio.com/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/bob.b.kidd/
- Emotional Support in the Time of Covid - September 17, 2023