Of a History in Music

Music has always been an important part of my life. Growing up in a church exposed me to  singing, harmonising and performing in front of hundreds of people week in and week out. This background really has helped in avoiding stage-fright on occasions where I’ve had to speak or perform since then.I thought it might be fun to write about some of my experiences with music.It all started so young. I endured (as many do) compulsory parent-enforced piano lessons. I remember my first teacher clearly. Mrs Hicks. She was haggard and gray and kind of mean. She also collected bottles for a hobby. Lots of bottles.I remember being made to sit and do music theory papers after each lesson if I hadn’t practiced enough during the week.My second teacher recognised that I was crap at piano fairly quickly. My only recollection of him is that he always smelled of onions.Then I started with Bugle and Trumpet.I actually never enjoyed learning these instruments as when you play you end up with a weird little red mark/impression on your lips which I was acutely embarrassed about. I remember being asked to play some trumpet tunes for my parents and relatives. But I was told to do it outside in the hallway. With the door closed. Yes, apparently I'm a little scarred.The main benefit of trumpet was being able to avoid compulsory marching at my High School by being in the school band. People marched to our tune. An aside: as 3rd trumpet, you learn to count 34 bars before playing ‘baaaaarp barp barp’ and starting to count from 1 again. Awesome.It was about the age of 15 or 16 that I realised that I pretty much hated ‘traditional’ instruments and took up playing bass. I scraped together some money and bought an instrument. I acquired an amplifier and cabinet  made by my older brother and painted them yellow and black due to a somewhat misguided love of Stryper. (It's a really long story!).I also had a weird and thankfully short-lived phase where I wouldn’t listen to or play any music that wasn’t created by a Christian band. Of course, it was all pretty lame and I quickly figured out that if I actually wanted to get good at playing then I’d better expose myself to music of a higher standard.I was around 18 when I discovered Level 42 and Toto. Level 42 inspired my bass-playing unbelievably. Toto taught me about studio musicianship and attention to detail.Here's a clip of Mark King. It will explain better than I can what I was in awe of.One of the coolest days I had was when I met Steve Lukather and Mike Porcaro from Toto in person backstage after a gig they did in California.At 20 I was selected to be the bass player for a Christian touring team. It was a nationwide tour. We played 3-4 times each day in high schools (a 30-45min show) and then 2-3 times each weekend in the local theatres (a 2hr show). We we able to arrive at a school, set-up for a live concert, get changed into performing clothes and be ready to go in under 10 minutes. We toured New Zealand top to bottom and then the next year did the same thing in Sydney and Melbourne for six months. This was an invaluable experience for me as I was able to learn aspects of the craft that few actually do.Sadly, this is what I looked like just before joining the tour. Please be gentle with me as it's a little mortifying.Things have improved markedly since then. Thankfully. I have to point out that it was fashionable to look like that in Palmerston North back then. Actually, the hairstyle is still in fashion in Palmerston North today.I think one of my major disappointments is that I didn’t stay in the performing side of the industry. I played a lot in church and I got to play for artists that came out from the US requiring additional band members. It's really fun and it definitely is time to get back into it.However, I have kept practicing and have acquired some lovely toys along the way. My pride and joy is the Pedulla Thunderbolt 5-string bass. This is guitar porn so look away if you're easily offended by things of great beauty.Over the years I’ve built my contacts overseas and locally and have been building a small business which imports and sells really high quality amplifiers, effects and cables for guitarists and bassists.Check out Audiozone and follow me there as well if you’re interested in such things - @audiozone. I am planning that there will be more activity with Audiozone this year.The last twelve months have seen my passion for music reignite. I’ve been introduced to artists and genres of music that are completely outside of my experience. I’m loving it. I’m inspired to get back into the creation of music again. It’s been too long.- Simon.