Agonotheta

My Greatest Accomplishment

December 16, 2003

One day when I was seventeen I stayed home sick from school. I lay on the couch in misery over something I've since forgotten. As I flipped through channel after channel of daytime soap operas, talk shows and otherwise monotonous drivel, I stumbled upon a program on a public television channel about Jazz music.

The first half of the program discussed the history of jazz*. What started as African-American slaves keeping beats and singing songs in the field to keep their spirits up turned into the only true form of music to be born in the United States. Many of our modern types of music originate with Jazz. It truly is the American sound.

The second half disected the sounds of jazz and focused on the essential parts of the jazz band. They explained that the rhythm section of a band is the drums, the piano and the upright bass. I watched the show intently, enjoying every solo performed by musicians and marveling at the finished product, where all "solos" played in perfect rhythm and harmony to create one piece of music.

It was at this moment that I decided I needed to learn to play the upright bass. The next day at school, I spoke of this to a friend of mine who was in the school orchestra (his father also happened to be the orchestra conductor). He told me that I should talk to his dad, whom I had for concert choir. I pulled him aside after class that day and told him what I had intended. He was thrilled for me to learn an instrument.

You see, my family, although having a keen ear and being able to "carry a tune," is not a musical one. My father played guitar and sang many years ago, but hasn't done so in probably 20 years. My sisters and I took piano for some indistinguishable amount of time when we were very small. Other than that, the only experience I have is singing in choirs, which I did from the age of 15 on. (I joined the choir in 9th grade with a lot of guys because the beautiful girls of the choir stood up in an assembly and asked us to. But that is a completely different post.)

Back to the story:

Arrangements were made, and by the end of the week, I was enrolled in orchestra and had taken one of the school basses home to practice. I played in the school orchestra for the rest of my junior year and all of my senior year in high school. By the time I graduated, I was "First Chair" Bass, meaning, I was the section leader and in charge of all the basses. When I went to college, I even sat in for some time during my freshman year with my college orchestra.

I'm telling this long, drawn out story for a definite reason. Last week, I bought an acoustic guitar. I did this because I decided it was time to regain that feeling that I long for of creating music. I love music. It's a huge part of my day. I listen to it all day while I work. I carry almost 2500 songs with me on my iPod everywhere I go.

There's a great quote by George Eliot that says, "I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas in to my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music." This is me. I love music. I need music.

Music is back in my life. My fingers hurt, my hand is been cramping as I type this sentence, but I love it. To me, there's no greater satisfaction in life than playing music.

What's your greatest accomplishment?

* If there are any historical inaccuracies in this, I apologize. I am going strictly off of memory, which for me, can be a very bad thing.