I know that I haven't mentioned my progression with bass guitar very often in my blog, but it's been coming along well. I've certainly advanced a lot from the buzzes and squeaks which characterized my early songs. My tone has gotten better, I've gotten faster at strumming and can play across the strings with relative ease. The problem is, I've reached a plateau.

At this point, I can sort of play any tablature which gets placed in front of me. It may take a little while to work up, but the basic mechanics of how to play and makes notes come out is there. What I currently lack is the ability to take those notes and really make music.

The other day I bought a gigantic book of music theory for the bass. Looking through it, I got very excited. The things in this book are what I've severely lacked in my own playing: actual music. It's been so long since I had formal music lessons that I had forgotten how important the basics such as scales and chords are. But now, with an actual course of study ahead of me, I might just be able to someday pass myself off as a musician.