Spent a thrilling 4 days at Fur Peace Ranch. Took a bass course from Jack Cassidy. My son was brave enough to join me. It is amazing how four days can be crystal clear and foggy at the same time. The overwhelming overload of information swims downstream faster than Mohammad Ali jab. Your drowning, unable to take a shallow breath, crashing into bruising obstacles along the way, grasping wildly to reach any resting point or refuge, confused and scared. Then, like 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle exploding in your head, one by one things float down and fall in place and start to fit together. Even though you are light years away from completing, you can see the basic outline of the foundation.

Big strong foundations are the key to building skyscrapers. And for playing music. Jack taught us three songs and Jorma taught his class the same three songs. The last day we paired up and played together, a guitar student with a bass student. I might add that my son's guitar player was Jorma! All of the songs were simple 1/4/5 progressions. I played a simple 1/5 bass line with a few walk downs and walk ups. I was invisible because I did not make a mistake and played within my neophyte ability. Sounded OK. As I grow as a bass player, I will spice up the gumbo when it serves the song. My strong foundation will allow many floors to be built.

The beauty of the process is this. The song sounds just fine if you play basic stuff. Jack would play the song using only root notes. Then he would play it with a tiny bit more spice. And so on. And so on. Till a version was played that was mind and finger scrambling. So you would walk out of a session with a mind numbing number of ways to play the song. Arrangements that have come from 60 years of playing bass. Thanks Jack!

Dazed and confused. Then the clouds slowly clear and you start to digest the song organically. The fertilizer kicks in on your way home and the comprehension of the lessons sprouts and branches.

Fur Peace Ranch is a magical place.

Your soul gets a full recharge.