I am going to an open mic tonight at a wonderful coffee house in a charming nearby town, and it will probably run late with a community jam session afterwards. I have been attending and playing there for the past two weeks. It has been an amazing, life-giving experience of awe and joy. I so highly admire and prize creativity. I would probably place it just a little below kindness and just above discovery. I aspire to live a life saturated with and emanating kindness, creativity, and discovery. Most other things feel like distraction to me, although there are other important human traits I treasure, like honesty, authenticity, integrity, humility, gratitude, courage, and at least a few more I am sure.
(Man, I’ve arrived at the point in my life where I aspire to be a goddamn Care Bear…)
My intention and aspiration with this website, this project, this LIFE, is to share my offerings of these most sacred human gifts. To celebrate commonplace beacons of these precious aspects who shine without recognition or reward from broader Society. To express my grief that the Hive Mind explores and extolls only the extremes of “greatness,” while fixating upon and broadcasting the depths of cruelty.
(And why does Society offer such a puny measure of attention and material reward to those who express these qualities? I strongly suspect it’s because they cannot be easily monetized).
At any rate, since Ironhorse has a slate of chores lined up for me this morning, I will leave you with this. An old song written and recorded fifteen years ago as a solstitial gift of gratitude for two wonderful groups of friends who celebrated my creativity when I needed it. I dedicate it as well to the new community I have found who have given me the same support and appreciation.
Thank you.
The Daily Stone
Hi Dirtsmith!, Great post , infused with so much truth about LIFE! I love hearing your perspective … Great to have you part of the community !! See you next Wednesday 🙂 Kanoa
It was wonderful to meet you! Thanks for taking a look at the post 🙂 It seemed to reflect the same feelings you were expressing tonight. Looking forward to seeing you next week!
Wow, I’m just loving your music so much Dirtsmith! You’re one damn talented dude! Do you play bass as well as guitar? I tried playing bass when I was 20, but had to give it up as my hands were too small at the time and each session was like experiencing an early onset of arthritis!
I am so glad that you are enjoying it Wilf!!!
I play bass as well. I can’t claim to be a “bassist,” but I LOVE playing bass.
I’m sorry to hear about your frustrating experience with the bass. Guitar and bass both have a steep learning curve at the beginning because they put your hands through the wringer.
But I would strongly encourage you to try again! I’ve found playing bass to generally be more fun and rewarding than playing guitar. Also, I don’t think that small hands are necessarily as big an issue with bass as they can be with guitar (where you need to finger multiple strings at once).
I think the issue you experienced may have more to do with grip strength. So I have two suggestions, if you wanted to give it another try (and I hope you do!) –
Start by first working on some grip exercises for a while, before you even pick up a bass. Maybe get some kind of squeezy exercise device or a stress ball. And use it everyday but DON’T OVERDO IT! just try to gradually build your strength.
Then, when you feel ready to try the bass again, approach it the same way. Hold off on the lessons until you have developed some hand strength. But watch a video (or go old school and do some exercises from a book!) Again, the key is to work on it every day, but DON’T OVERDO IT! (It can help to set aside a practice time, at the same time every day). Even five minutes a day at the beginning is totally fine, and you can build from there.
☺️
That’s wonderful advice Dirtsmith, I appreciate that truly and I think I will give it another try! I still have my Ibanez which I bought 9 years back and yes, it was definitely the grip which I struggled with most of all – far more than the fingering. A stress-ball to practice is a brilliant idea – I really like that!
I’ve been playing keyboards & synths ever since giving up on the bass, but I was told recently that getting to know a bass really well completely changes one’s understanding of music, so I’d be very keen to have another go! Plus I just love the meaty sound of them!
These tracks of yours are awesome and good food for the soul! Keep on rockin’ the mic!!
That’s great to hear! And keys and synths are great as well, but I agree that bass will give you a whole new perspective. It can strongly affect the motive of the tune. And some of my favorite things I’ve written have started from a bass line 🙂
(Also – I am excited to read the new post! But I’m gonna save it for tonight before I go to bed so it will be spookier. It’s like reading a ghost story!)