This post needs to be done on this blog, and, well, I’m looking at the “Zero to Hero” blog challenge, and it recommended doing this. Since I’d already done an intro on my more personal blog, I decided I’d do one here.
“The Book of Five Strings” is meant to be my bass/music blog; it’s also the name of my bass book I started years ago, and one day will get back to. Music is my passion; in many ways, music is my religion. Music is the way I best connect to the universe. I wish I was better at it; heck, I wish I was as good at it as I used to be. Stupid ol’ life getting in the way.
If “Zero to Hero” is WordPress’s way to get us blogging, “The Book of Five Strings” is my own attempt to get back to being the bass player I used to be, and pushing forward to becoming the bass player I’ve always known I can be.
My playing is partially technical, but more spiritual. Obviously I’m influenced by Asian philosophy; the works of Chuang-Tzu changed my whole perspective on life, the works of Miyamoto Musashi not only provided the name for this blog, but introduced me to the entire samurai ethic (and a wealth of samurai cinema). I try to approach the bass by feeling the Way move through me, to use the instrument as an extension and expression of my own being, to take my playing as a way to better know 10,000 things about life.
I hope to reach others interested in infusing a spiritual element to their music, others who are looking to expand their playing. I hope to use this blog as my own method of accountability; if I’m going to write regularly about my playing, I have to be playing, I have to be thinking about my playing. I would love to gain readers on a similar quest, but if I keep myself on task, that accomplishes its own purpose.
The Book of Five Strings 