My friend recently told me he wants to master the guitar before jumping to learn the bass guitar. I had a similar interest of mastering them both, including the saxophone, and the drums, wanting to be the jack of all trade musically. I quickly called him back to reason, you can never master any instrument, and jumping around would make you even more of a mediocre (and like the saying, master of none).
I started my musical journey (as much as I can remember) at the age of 5; hanging around my dad’s church choir where my mom was the lead vocalist and my dad a percussionist. I was more around the drum kits player than my dad’s percussion who taught me basic rhythms, one rhythm after the other, I got the basics right and went on to start filling in for him when I was around 6 – 7years old.
Year was 1993, Lagos Nigeria. That marked the start of my walk through discovering music.
After that year, I laid low in music as I had some family turbulence that killed the growing music in me (parents divorce). After I settled in with my dad (who gained my custody) at 9, I joined a local church orchestra playing the soprano recorder and vocals. Our ensemble (of about 20 players) stated local but soon, got drafted into a larger statewide orchestra. I remember always envying our young conductor and wanting to be like him. To what I can remember, he was a brilliant multi-instrumentalist.
Few years later and after some moving [with dad] away from Lagos, I became once again detached from music and the journey kicked off again after I graduated high school at 15, headed for a music school in my new locale (Akure, Nigeria). Was enrolled in the music school for 8 months majoring in Guitar as my main instrument (thanks to my uncle who sponsored my tuition).
To be honest, I didn’t appreciate most of what I was learning at the time considering I was only trying to ‘play’ because it was cool and I had no serious plans in furthering to traditional college yet.
Fast forward to today, 7 years later, Boston, USA. I have jumped from guitar to bass guitar, from drums to percussions, from saxophone to keyboards, playing varying instrument as need called for at various places. I tried to be a [master] jack of all [instrumental] trade but kept failing. And now, I’m fully back to my love, the instrument I decided to master and pushed me into music school, the guitar.
It feels like yesterday as I hear my guitar teacher (a guitar maestro to say the least) say to me: “…practice, Dele, practice, this things don’t come that easy” to which I would respond: “I just want to know how to play for fun nothing serious, this is too tough.” I even remember more humorously when I told him: “…my hands are too small, they can never bend well enough to play the guitar well.”
I’m grateful for his patience, I wish he was somewhere around seeing his ‘son’ bend his ‘small’ hands beautifully to play the guitar. I’m practicing everyday, learning new tricks and tips, continuously looking for that zone of mastery.
I haven’t forgotten that I said you can never master an instrument. Why? As soon as you think you have ‘this’ figured out, something new pops up, or you see someone else play that and you’re like, ‘damn!’ But of course, you can always be in the zone.
As I continue to explore music, I’m beginning to see why Bach, Beethoven, Miles Davis, and many greats, gave their all and commitment to it, it’s empowering and relieving, it’s as old as it is new, it’s as strong as it is weak, I doubt that many would want to pursue a core commitment nonetheless, I encourage you to have an element of music appreciation and even better, a music participation (learning to play an instrument).
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