A Path to Success: Robert Ringer’s “Chip Away” Method

As you can see from my prior two posts, I’m going after a deferred dream with a passion:  to become a proficient jazz bass player.   When facing a major challenge, it is easy to get discouraged and quit before you start.  There’s so much to do and so much to learn!  Where do you start?  What do you do first?

When I restarted my music project, I remembered some words of wisdom from Robert Ringer, one of my favorite pop philosophers.  Ringer says that he accomplishes projects using the “chip away” method.  Using this method you don’t worry about how much there is to do, you just make a start.  Then you just concentrate on one small facet at a time.  It’s like a sculptor sculpting a masterpiece in marble.  You just chip away a little at a time.  Eventually the statue begins to emerge from the big block of rock.  Chip away long enough and the project will be finished.

I find that the chip away method may start slowly, but it doesn’t continue that way.  Once you start making progress your enthusiasm grows and your speed increases.  The project takes on a life of its own. 

Three weeks ago I decided that one of the reasons I didn’t want to practice my bass was because of the strings.  They were too thick and hurt too much to press down.  So I made a deal with myself:  ordering new strings would be the official kickoff of my music project.  I ordered some medium gauge strings and a tool for turning the keys quickly so I could replace the strings with less effort and do it more quickly.   The strings arrived in less than a week and I installed them on my bass.

Once the new strings had stretched enough to stay in tune (it takes about three days), I committed to practicing 15 minutes a day.  That was about all I could take before my hands got tired and my fingertips got sore.   After a week, however, my strength had improved noticeably and my fingers had become hardened and calloused.  Now I am practicing about an hour a day, usually in two shifts, a half hour in the morning and a half hour before bedtime.  In two weeks of practice I have made noticeable strides.  I’m enthused now and music has become my greatest interest outside of work.

The chip away method works.  Don’t worry about how much you have to do, just focus on how much you can do right now and make a start.  A major goal can be divided into many smaller goals; let one of these be sufficient for the day and the rest can wait their turn.

You may surprise yourself with what you can accomplish.

Great Jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area (as Told by a Budding Bass Player)

I love jazz and will be writing a lot about great jazz groups and their music in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I will also be recording my personal trek from useless couch potato to cool and mysterious jazz bass player.   I will, of course, need to buy a beret and some shades, and grow a goatee.  But those flourishes can wait.  First I actually have to learn to play my upright string bass.  Priorities, you know.

I made good use of the four day weekend over the New Year holiday.  I cleaned out a bedroom upstairs that had been used as a storage room, carting boxes downstairs to the garage and dragging, by brute force, a bookshelf up from the garage.  I then neatly organized and arranged my many books, music CD’s and videos on playing  bass.

In the room I found an old boom box that belonged to my son in his teenage years.  I tried it out.  It had a lot of static and cut out a lot, but after I cleaned the CD player with alcohol swabs and blew the dust out of the circuits with canned air, it worked perfectly.  The speakers are great and allow me to clearly hear the bass in my music CD’s.  It’s perfect for practice.  Finally, I cleaned off and organized my desk, putting my laptop on it for playing instructional videos or listening to music videos.  Today I watched Roy Orbison’s last videotaped performance from 1999 and played along with the music.

I spent quite a bit of time over the holidays learning tunes from my Jamey Aebersold CD, “Maiden Voyage.”  Aebersold CD’s are for teaching you to play jazz, no matter what your intrument.  Each CD comes with a book of sheet music.  The sheet music provides you with the chord changes as you play along with the CD.  It really develops your ear and your ability to read chord symbols.  I am finding these CD’s invaluable in getting up to speed as a musician.

Since playing a string bass is physically demanding, I need a lot of practice just to get into shape.  I have put in the practice time and the muscles in my arms and fingers are sore.  I seem to be building up quickly as I can play for a longer period without getting tired.  I feel encouraged by my progress.   The bass neck no longer seems so daunting.

The San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, has a lot of great jazz groups and musicians.  I obtained a CD from one of them, a group called “Round Midnight.”  Their CD “We’ll Be Right Back” can be purchased from their website.  I’ve never heard the group in person but their CD is magnificent.  Fantastic jazz!  I will make it a point to go hear them in person soon.  The bass player is very impressive too.  If feeling joyous and energetic is your thing, you may want to buy their CD.

One of my major inspirations and personal heroes is Vince Guaraldi.  He was a San Francisco jazz piano player and the head of the Vince Guaraldi Trio, consisting of piano, drums and string bass.  The VGT provided the jazzy themes for Charles Schulz’s comic characters, “Peanuts,” e.g. Charley Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy.  I love listening to CD’s of Guaraldi’s music.  Right now I am listening to “A Boy Named Charley Brown.”

Vince Guaraldi died on February 4, 1976 while relaxing between sets at Butterfield’s Nightclub in Menlo Park, California.  He was resting in a room at the Red Cottage Inn and died of a sudden heart attack.  He was only 47 years old.

On one of my days off I plan to pay homage to Vince Guaraldi by driving to Menlo Park and seeing where he died.  I don’t think Butterfield’s Nightclub is still in operation — I can’t find it in the directory.  The Red Cottage Inn is still in operation, however; I will see if the building where Butterfield’s was is still in operation.   Then I will drive to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California and visit his grave and take pictures.  I will write about this journey and share it with my readers.

Vince Guaraldi’s son David is keeping his father’s legacy alive and apparently has a music store in Stockton.  I’d love to interview David sometime.  We’ll see.

Playing String Bass (for Jazz)

One of the loves of my life is the string bass.  Also called the upright bass, the double bass or the contra bass, it’s that giant fiddle thing you see in orchestras, jazz bands and other musical groups.  I’ve wanted to become proficient at playing the bass for years, but it was always a secondary priority to getting an education and then establishing a career.  

My number one New Year’s resolution is to finally become proficient enough on bass to join a small jazz group.  I’m not getting any younger:  it’s now or never.  I have a string bass, but it’s made of laminated wood.  Laminated wood basses are strong and resist cracking, but they don’t sound as good as a bass carved out of a solid blocks of wood (they use different pieces for the front, back and sides).  These are called “carved” basses for obvious reasons.  They have a warmer tone than laminated basses and are much more expensive.  You could easily pay $8,000 to $12,000 for a fine carved bass, and if you were part of the San Francisco Orchestra you probably should.  Alas, neither my checkbook nor my musical abilities have attained that stature.

Another resolution is to buy a carved bass in 2009.  I want one and by gum, I will have one.  However, it will probably be more in the $2,000 price range.  Countries like China, Rumania and South Korea are now making fully carved basses and orchestra musicians are using them more and more.  My own music supplier uses a South Korean carved bass in the San Matero Peninsula Orchestra; it’s a Hans Kroger bass.  I will either buy one of those or a similar brand.

So far I am living up to my resolution.  I have been practicing my bass steadily for the past week or so.  Playing a big stand-up bass is physically demanding, so right now I am concentrating on building up my shoulders, arms, hands and fingers.  All are a bit sore right now.  My plucking fingers on my right hand are calloused.  My endurance will grow.  When I have the strength to play a gig, that is playing  job of about four hours, I will consider myself sufficiently in shape.

I love the twangy resonance of a string bass.  I love the clicking sound of the strings on the fingerboard.  Listen to some Vince Guaraldi records or some recordings of the American Songbook, e.g. what they call “standards,” generally dance music and ballads.  I especially recommend Rod Stewart’s American Songbook collection — the orchestral bass player is excellent and the warm bass tones are amazing.

Turn up the bass tone and listen to the string bass.   You can hear it “walking” up and down the scale and the deep rhythms attune themselves with my soul.

My approach to finally becoming a bass player include the following:

1.  Practice playing my bass daily — start with half an hour and build up to an hour once my hands and fingers strengthen.

2. Listen to jazz and standards at every opportunity.  To play great music you must listen to great music.

3. Study music theory.  Practice arpeggios, scales and following chord symbols on sheet music.  I have some play-along CD’s by Jamey Aebersold Jazz for this purpose.  You can order them from Amazon.com.

4.  Eventually, find a group of other musicians to practice and play gigs with.

If there are any aspiring musicians in the South Bay area who might want a bass player, give me a shout.

When She Doesn’t Love You: Walk Like a Man

I have a son who is at a crossroads in a relationship; it appears that he may not be able to work it out with his lady love, that she has left and isn’t coming back.  As a father, there isn’t much I can do, except to say, we all go through the heartache of a lost love.  It is a price we pay for being human.

So for my advice in this dark hour of his life, I can only offer this song of solace:  Walk Like a Man, by the Four Seasons, from 1963.

Here are the words to the song:

Walk like a man

Oh, how you tried to cut me down to size
Tellin’ dirty lies to my friends
But my own father said “Give
her up, don’t bother
The world isn’t comin’ to an end”
(He said)

Walk like a man, talk like a man
Walk like a man my son

No woman’s worth crawlin’ on the earth
So walk like a man, my son

Bye bye baby, I don’t-a mean maybe
Gonna get along somehow
Soon you’ll be cryin’ on
account of all your lyin’
Oh yeah, just look who’s laughin’ now
(I’m gonna)

Walk like a man, fast as I can
Walk like a man from you
I’ll tell the world “forget about it, girl”
And walk like a man from you

Communicating with the Dead: Lisa Williams

As I mentioned in a recent, previous post, I bought some books from Amazon.com that were authored by some mediums on communication with the dead.  I love to read about psychic phenomena, though I am by nature a skeptic.  I bought “Another Door Opens” by Jeffrey A. Wands, “Do Dead People Watch You Shower?” by Concetta Bertoldi and “Life Among the Dead” by Lisa Williams.  Of the three, Williams’ book was by far the best.

Williams tells her story in the form of an autobiography, from her first impressions as a child to her later readings with famous people and her discovery by Merv Griffin as a TV personality.  It’s interesting because it is told as an ordinary person with ordinary problems, except that dead people keep whispering in her ear.

Intrigued, I googled Lisa Williams and found that her television shows can be watched online.  I watched some of them and found them interesting and intriguing, though not definitive proof of her ability to communicate with the dead.  It is good to be skeptical, but not so skeptical that you lose an open mind.  I feel that Williams is sincere and not a charlatan, of which there are many in the psychic business.  I will continue to follow her career with interest.

While looking for Williams’ TV episodes on the net, I also came across a television show called “The Psychic Challenge,” where sixteen self-described psychics are put to a series of tests of their abilities, then graded by the persons they encounter in the tests.  I couldn’t help but feel that there is something to it — that some people do indeed have a sensitivity or six sense of some sort that enables them to see bits and pieces of the lives of deceased persons, or other facts not accessible by ordinary means .  This was particulary interesting in the investigation of crime scenes, where psychics have sometimes played key roles in solving murder cases or locating missing persons.

Of the three books I have read or am reading, I notice that all three authors express a belief in reincarnation.  It will be interesting to see what beliefs and impressions various psychics and mediums have in common.

Farewell to a Canine Friend: Benny

My dog died of old age around 2 AM today.  He was a Cocker Spaniel named Benny.  I got him from the Santa Clara County Animal Shelter on September 12, 2001.  He had been turned into the shelter by his former owners who stated they were moving and didn’t want to take him with them.  They listed his age at nine.  Oh yes, another thing:  Benny was completely deaf. 

The Shelter representative at first counseled me against adopting Benny.  He said the dog had health problems.  I said, I don’t care, I want the dog.  I got him.

Since Benny was old, I figured I’d get to share his company for two or three years, tops, before he passed on.  He was with me one month shy of seven years.  He collapsed in the backyard last night and began howling in pain.   I had to spare him from the pain and took him to the emergency pet clinic in San Jose where they administered the fatal injection. 

When you get a pet, you know going in that this day will come:  the day when you wash his bowls and put them away and clean up his chew toys and hang up his leash.  That day always seems comfortably in the future, but the future has a way of sneaking up on you.  The grief of their passing, however, is more bearable when you know they lived their full life span and that you enjoyed their company to the fullest.  Still, I will miss my friend.

Should You Marry Her?

Back in the 1970’s I knew this little Filipina girl and dated her for awhile.  I was divorced and had two boys to raise.  I had been through divorce, debt and a lot of hell.  The girl was cute and sweet, but I decided a bit too young and innocent for me.  Soon, I moved to Arizona with my two boys and left her behind in San Jose.  But she wouldn’t give up on me and started flying to Phoenix on a regular basis to see me. 

At the time, Olivia Newton John was a popular singer and had a hit out called “If You Love Me, Let Me Know.”  My feelings for the little Filipina kept gnawing at me and I sure didn’t want to give up my freedom.  But everytime I heard Olivia Newton-John’s song on the radio, I imagined it was my Filipina speaking to me:  “If you love me let me know, if you don’t, then let me go.”  I was falling in love with her despite my intention not to do so.

Then one day at Fountain Hills, surrounded by empty desert and a huge fountain shooting from the lake into the sky, my little Filipina, whose name is Tess, tried to pin me down.  While we were sitting on the grass, she lowered her head and said, “What are your plans, honey?”  I knew it was time to commit or to walk away.  I also knew that by breaking her heart I would break mine too.  So I replied, “I don’t know exactly what my plans are, but whatever they are, they will have to include you.”  A couple of months later I bought her a ring.

We have been married 32 years now. 

This week our son has faced a similar crisis.  His girlfriend, who has been with him around five years, got tired of waiting for a commitment and that elusive ring, and moved out of his apartment in Los Angeles.  I think she did the right thing.  If I was to speak to my son about the matter, it would be this:  “It’s simple son.  If you love her, let her know.  If you don’t, then let her go.”  Keeping someone in a state of limbo, is unfair and never right.  Or, just listen to Olivia Newton-John below and follow the advice.

Communicating with the Dead: Is It Possible?

Over the 4th of July I became very interested in the life of Katharine Lee Bates, the author of the great American song “America, the Beautiful.”  I read about her at Wikipedia and other sites and soon came to admire this extraordinary woman.  When I first heard the song, it was in Mrs. Nicholson’s Third Grade class at Irving School in Joplin, Missouri.  We sang it in class, and even at that young age I was blown away by the soaring beauty of Bates’ imagery: 

America, the Beautiful, For Amber Waves of Grain

For Purple Mountain Majesties above the fruited plain.

America, America, who sees beyond the years

Her alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.

I liked the purple mountains part, because I had actually seen them, from the window of my dad’s car as we traversed the country.

So after the 4th of July, 2008, I became very interested in Bates and almost felt that I was somehow in communication with her soul.  I found a photo of her grave in Fallmouth, Massachusetts at Find-A-Grave, and learned that her life partner was Katharine Coman.  Both women were professors at Wellseley College in Massachusetts, where Hillary Clinton and other famous women, like Mrs. Chiang Kai-Shek, went to school.

Coman had contracted breast cancer and died in 1910 of the disease, but Bates cared for her for the three years of her illness.  After Coman died, Bates wrote a book of poetry for her entitled “Yellow Clover,” published in the early 1920’s.  Bates expressed so well the grief of those left behind when a loved one dies and I was touched by her poetry, as I had found a free copy of “Yellow Clover” at Google Books, where you can download out-of-copyright books as pdf files.  Earlier, I had looked for a photo of Katharine Coman on the net and none was to be found.  But the copy of “Yellow Clover” that I downloaded had a photograph of her.  I captured the photo and contributed it to Wikipedia where other people could view it and download it.

After that, my near obsession with Bates and Coman cooled  and I was able to turn to other things.  I felt that I had been able to thank Bates and show my appreciation for “America, the Beautiful” by finding this photo and making it available in the public domain.  It isn’t easy to say “thank you” to someone dead for 79 years, but I had found a way to do it.  I had a feeling, just a sense or instinct, that somehow I had been in communication with their souls, and I wondered if such communication were even possible. 

A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on MSN.Com about mediums and communicating with the dead, so I went to Amazon and ordered three books on the subject.  Today I’m reading the first, “Another Door Opens,” by Jeffrey Wands.  No, I won’t believe what it says in some slavish manner, but I will look for clues that ring true with my own soul and experiences.  And, if all I get from the readings is entertainment and enjoyment and perhaps, scaring myself a little, it won’t be for naught!

My New iPhone

Grown men are not above new toys, though it takes a lot to impress me these days.  But when my old Razor cell phone started konking out, my wife suggested an iPhone.  She got it for me and boy, is it slick.  The big screen, the internet access, the resolution of the camera, the fact you can use it to store songs and access all of your email accounts — well, need I say more.

I think of myself as pretty high-tech as I love computers and software; however, I have a blind spot for text messages.  I could never figure out how to create one on my old cell phones and did not have the motivation to try.  With the iPhone it’s easy (as long as you’re texting another iPhone).  You just bring up one of your contacts and press “text message;” a little keyboard pops up and you one-finger type your message and press “send.”  No weird codes or other hoops to jump through.

My son in Studio City, Nick, doesn’t often respond to my email or phone calls, but when I text-messaged him, a few minutes later I heard the ding! and he had responded, thrilled that I had an iPhone too.

Hitchcock Television Shows Available Free Online

Growing up in Stockton, California, I loved to watch “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” on television.  These were half hour shows in black and white; I’m not sure how long the series ran, but episodes from 1955 through 1957 are available to watch free online at www.hulu.com.  You have to watch a couple of short commercials, but it’s worth it to see these old classics.  The specific page for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” is located at this link.  Three or four of these episodes feature Pat Hitchcock O’Connell, Hitch’s daughter, in either primary roles or bit parts.  Once again, Pat proved herself as an effective actress.

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” was later made into an hour long series and renamed “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.”  Hulu has episodes from 1962 – 1964.  The link to “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” is here.

It’s very relaxing on these summer evenings to sit outside in my backyard gazebo and watch these episodes on my laptop.  Many of them have famous actors or actresses early in their careers, when they were young and upcoming talents.  The episodes begin with the famour nine-line outline of Hitchcock’s profile (which he designed himself), accompanied by his well-known theme music, “The Funeral March of the Marionettes.” Hitch’s funny and engaging introductions and epilogues add great entertainment value.