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Bernard Worsthorne strips bare a common musical injustice.
Last week I was sitting in the office listening to a colleague tell me about her daughter’s experiences of playing in a school jazz ensemble. Ordinarily the daughter plays the trumpet in the group, and is quite accomplished (grade 7, working towards grade 8), however the gist of the story was that the bass player was sick, and the said daughter had been asked to ‘fill in’ at rehearsal, never having played a bass guitar, or even a six string guitar  before in her life.
“How did she get on?” I asked,
“Really well” my colleague replied, “Playing bass guitar is easy!”
I don’t know if there is some kind of musical snobbery going round, it’s not unusual for a parent to think that a moderate talent shown by a child is the beginning of a career as a top professional in any given activity. However, there is undoubtedly, an accepted premise that if you are the lead guitarist, or the singer in a group you must be very talented, and if you play the bass guitar or the drums you will be some kind of Neanderthal who lives in the woods and learned to play by stretching vines or beating on animal skins.
Clearly this is nonsense. To play any musical instrument to a given standard is going to require both a degree of skill, and element of practice, commensurate with the level required. Of course, some people will ‘pick up’ an instrument faster than others, some will be naturally gifted, others will struggle.
The crucial point, it seems to me, is that musical instruments in themselves are neither difficult nor easy to play. What makes them tricky is the piece of music being played. If one buys an instrument to learn, for instance, a bass guitar, and starts to study at page 1 of ‘Bass Guitar for Total Beginners’ then playing the slow, three note melody that appears will be easy. If one attempts to play the bass line from an Oscar Peterson Jazz session, then I would suggest, one is going to find it difficult.
It is my belief that all although some instruments may be technically more difficult than others, they are none of them easy to play without competence, hard work and skill. The only anomaly I can think of is the singing voice. No one is born knowing how to play an instrument, but we are all born with a voice. If your voice sounds nice, and you can sing in tune, then that may be enough to make you a star. I know that is slightly simplistic, and some our most famous singers are highly trained, however others aren’t, and fair play to them.
My final word to all those who think playing any instrument is easy, is to go and have a go yourself. You may change your tune rather quickly.
Bernard Worsthorne
Photo courtesy of www.squierguitars.com
October 2007 |
