I ended up getting the opportunity to play bass for my high school during my senior year. First, my school did a production of Grease. When I first heard about it, I figured they were going to just use prerecorded backing tracks, but it turned out they wanted to use a live pit orchestra. I was going to audition, but said, "Screw it." A girl I had dated that year ended up giving my name to the play's musical director, and I then found myself in the rehearsal room playing Summer Nights and Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee (Don't laugh. That stuff is actually very well-arranged!). I learned a lot by doing that gig, most notably I ended up really getting my lead sheet reading chops together.
Then that was the first year my high school started a jazz band. Though technically it really wasn't jazz we were playing; we did a couple jump-blues numbers (i.e. Zoot Suit Riot; Jump, Jive, and Wail), and some pop/rock tunes (i.e. Smoke on the Water; some Bread tune, I forget which one). I also got the chance to perform an original composition solo bass piece and an original solo 6 string guitar piece. At the age 17, it was really cool to see my own composer credit on the program alongside other famous composers.
Doing the Grease gig ended up putting me in the position to do the local minstrel show (Don't worry. It was PC. Nobody wore blackface
). It was a cool experience to play with a lot of the local jazz cats who have clocked a number of gigs with some the region's top swing bands. I learned a lot on that gig too, like how my sight-reading really sucked (and still does to this day). *lol* I also learned a lot about the history of dixieland jazz.
Wow, looking back on my early years, I didn't realize how many experiences I've had with music. While it's been a few years since anyone's thrown a chord chart in front of me, I'd be confident today if someone did that. I definitely learned a lot back then.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
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