“Please Daddy can I get one?” I pleaded my dad as we left the music store.


“Maybe for Christmas,” he assured me. But Christmas came and no bass was there. I have wanted an electric bass for about a year now. I was the one in my family that played something that no one else played. My two sisters and my dad played guitar, my sister played piano and I played the drums. I wanted to start a second instrument like my sister who played sax and guitar. I picked the bass; I didn’t want to play the guitar because then I would be compared to my sisters and I wouldn’t ever be better than them. Yes, I need to be the best. So I wanted to learn something that they didn’t know so I would be ahead of them in anyway if they wanted to learn.

“Daddy please, I will practice every night I promise, please daddy,” I would beg him every day we went to the music store for my sister’s guitar lesson, “I will even carry it around all by myself,”

“I thought you would do that already if I got you one,” he retorted in a sarcastic tone with a grin painted on his face. I would play the ones that were at the store, I wouldn’t even go over to the drums section until I played at least one bass.

About 6 months passed of begging and wishes. And June came, my birthday month.

I got a black bass guitar just my size for my birthday. It was smooth with a nice, round sound I liked; it was jet black and mini which is good for me because I could not handle a huge one.

“Do you like it?” asked my parents.

“I love it! Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, thank you guys so much!”

I fiddled around with it but I didn’t know anything about it, how to tune, how to do anything! My first lesson came and I became more excited, I would learn how to play the bass!

“Play something,” my bass teacher asked me on the first day.

“I don’t know how to play anything. I just started,” I replied sheepishly.

“Well we got to change that missy!” he responded. That was the first time I played the bass, just a few scales, but it felt amazing. I knew I would stick with this instrument. I continued with the lessons for the rest of the year. In September school started and I wanted to be ready to try out for jazz band with my sister. I did so many things to make me better. I went to summer band over the summer and played bass and percussion. I felt confident in myself to try out in September.

September came I tried out and I made it! Once I saw my name on that list I was as happy as anyone could be. I was one of the 4 sixth graders to make it. I was playing stuff I haven’t even seen before and I had no idea how to play them. I felt like a midget with a giant boulder on my shoulders. But by the end of the year I was on a roll. I was playing “Free Bird” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. I decided I would do summer band again and that year I was with the high schooler’s in one short year. I was playing high school music pieces like “Higher Ground” and “Feels so Good”. I was very happy with myself and what I have accomplished. I believe that bass guitar changed my life in many ways. It isn’t an instrument a girl would usually pick, so now I don’t live by stereotypes or labels. I don’t care what people think or say about me.