Prelude
I’ve been a double bassist for 10 years now, and I never imagined that this instrument would be by my side so consistently for a decade and counting. I’ve done a lot more with the bass than I ever thought possible. I’ve found that being a bass player has taught me more about myself and about being human than anything else ever could have when I was a student at any of the educational institutions I’ve been a part of.
I know myself as a person much better because of the bass, regardless of whether I’ve accomplished certain things on the instrument, like becoming somewhat versatile in both orchestral and jazz settings, or have come up a little short in other areas, like learning and performing solo repertoire.
I have my high school band directors, Kevin Williams and Lane Folds, from Western Heights Public Schools, as well as my bass teachers, Professor Michael Boyle and Dr. Michael Geib, to sincerely thank for opening up this Pandora’s box regarding myself and my bass. I have more optimism than usual during these uncertain and, quite frankly, chaotic times in our world today.
These two stories aren’t the only ones that define me as a musician. However, these two personal anecdotes have important lessons that I think any musician can learn from. Please enjoy these two true stories from my life as a musician.
Story 1
Anyone who knows me knows I often arrive super early to the gig. Even if I’m not the greatest bass player, I always ensure that I communicate, show up on time, practice the tricky spots in my music, do in-depth tuning before a tuning note is sounded, have music pulled up on my iPad, make sure I’m plugged into my amp if it’s a jazz or bass guitar gig, and everything else under the sun.
You can probably imagine the scene. I try to always be prepared, and even on days where I’m lagging behind, I still often find that I’m not underprepared at all. As a result of my preparedness, I find that I can be the most relaxed control freak ever. That is one of my many paradoxical personality traits. So, when chaotic events occur out of my control, I often find myself in a state of fight or flight.
When I was a junior in high school, I entered a small rock band into my high school’s talent show. I was in my second year of playing bass and seeing some advancements in my playing that were relatively unexpected. Three of my friends and I formed a band called “Drum Set Not Included,” which should tell you two things. Number one, we couldn’t find a drummer at all. Number two, my confidence was growing in my ability to play bass without a drummer or any other reference for the beat.
I genuinely felt confident in my growing comfort with the bass and felt okay about not having a drummer. My three-person band decided to cover a Linkin Park song that I had done a transcription assignment on in our piano class as our talent show entry. We practiced as a group, and it went okay for what we were trying to do.
The day of the talent show arrived. We got on stage and started playing, and halfway through our song, the equipment suddenly died in front of our 500+ high school student body. Somebody had tripped backstage over our cables, which were taped to the floor, and unplugged them from the wall.
You can imagine me, the relaxed control freak, suddenly becoming a not-so-relaxed control freak when our equipment stopped working. You can imagine me becoming even more irritated when the stage curtains were closed on our band and we were told to move off the stage before we could plug the cable back into the wall that had been accidentally removed.
As you can imagine, we lost the talent show and were probably last in the ranking of 10 entries.
The moral of the story is that no matter how much you prepare, practice, and run through different scenarios in your imagination to become more prepared, you cannot control everything that comes your way. My experience with my high school’s talent show taught me the importance of patience and grace with those who do make major mistakes, as well as with myself when I make major mistakes.
You cannot control everything that will happen to you as a musician, or really as a human being. If there is one thing I hope you take away from this story, it’s to always try to make the best of difficult situations. Be as prepared as necessary, but also be prepared to not be in a position to control everything, because things outside your control can always go astray.
Story 2
I don’t know about anyone else, but I find that if I’m involved in too much, I put myself at severe risk of deteriorating my health. My health is extremely important to me as someone who used to weigh close to 600 lbs and was briefly a type 2 diabetic.
I am no longer diabetic in any capacity, and I have lost over 250 lbs the old-fashioned way. In the aftermath, my energy levels naturally got higher, I’m sleeping better, and I’m not as tired throughout the day. I truly believe the quality of my musicianship has a direct correlation with the quality of my health. I also believe this correlation should be explored by music scholars and medical professionals even more than it already is, because the potential breakthroughs could send shockwaves through both the medical and musical worlds.
I still remember it like it was yesterday. I had been consistently exercising for over a year and watching how much I consumed, as opposed to what I consumed, all while keeping an eye on the scale. I had fully beaten type 2 diabetes in March 2022 and prediabetes in August 2022. I was on the verge of finally being out of the 400-lbs-and-above club for the first time in over 10 years.
I woke up that January morning with a positively strange energy that screamed, “Today is the day, Cullen!” I ran to the scale and checked it. The scale read 395 lbs, and I instantly became so emotional. After 10 years, I was finally free of the 400s club, and as the next few days arrived, it decreased even more. I simply couldn’t believe it. I felt like I had won a war I’d been fighting for a long, long time.
Around this same time, I began to notice a major increase in the quality of my bass playing to the point where even my peers began to notice it taking form.
The increased ability in my bass playing, along with my weight loss, soon brought me new challenges that I didn’t expect. I found myself doing more things I had never done before, like auditioning for professional orchestras, traveling with my bass, performing more solo bass music, and being physically able to be more involved in my music community.
While these visions did come true in many ways, I also began to experience a sense of guilt when I wasn’t as involved in my music community. As such, I believe I became a little too active by taking every gig, attending every jam session, and playing in every community orchestra. You name it, I was probably there. The power of being physically able to do more in my music community went to my head a little too much.
Over the last three years since I lost the weight, I’ve learned that even though I can physically handle more musical activity, I still need to keep an eye on how much I agree to do for my own well-being.
One thing my weight loss changed involves my sleeping patterns. If I do not get enough sleep, I seriously feel it. A lack of sleep doesn’t prevent me from being active in my music community like it used to when I was much heavier. However, a consistent lack of sleep negatively impacts my ability to play the double bass well and can easily be detrimental to my self-esteem and well-being.
In recent months, I’ve been keeping an eye on how much sleep I’m getting and doing whatever I can to increase it. I’m noticing a positive difference in my playing.
This series of events taught me the importance of saying no to things. The fear of missing out is real, but the possibility of losing your well-being over not missing out on anything is even more real.
I hope you take away a sense of reassurance that you always have a choice in life. I believe it is extremely important to be on the scene, but I also believe it’s extremely important to ensure you take care of yourself so you can be on the scene for a very long time.
If you enjoyed these two stories, consider subscribing to my Substack at therealcullensmith.substack.com or following me on Instagram @cullen.smith.practices.bass.
Thank you for reading. Happy musicing!
