Grant, aka the Slim Picker

It was about the time I had started to figure out bass that I met one of my best friends, Grant. In highschool, I was auto mechanically inept. I thought it a good idea to sign up for auto tech in my final year of highschool. Much to my surprise, at least with my school, auto tech was like art class or home ec. The class was comprised 95% with the bottom feeders of high school. Not that I was judging, but most of those guys were suspended on a weekly basis and on their 2nd to 3rd term of the 10th grade. And I know for a fact, that several of those fellas are currently serving jail terms. Needless to say, it didn't help my auto intelligence, but it was a nice break from the real classes. And I can thank that class for me and Grant getting together. Albeit, Grant was in 10th grade and I was a senior, but we just sorta clicked (not in a gay sense, but not that there's anything wrong with that). Grant had been playing guitar for at least longer than me so we instantly had a common interest. I think he was the first musician I ever played something remotely resembling a song with. The first time he brought his out of brand cardboard guitar to my grandmas and I had my bass. I couldn't afford an amp yet so I played through this karoake machine I had gotten for Christmas years before. It was very distorted but served its purpose.
Anyways, Grant and I struck up our friendship then and would share in the musical journey for years to come, from the music to the drug-induced stupors, and from alcohol to just good ole pickin. I wanted to introduce him early as he will be mentioned more than occasionally.

Trading in Sax for Bass, ok Guitar

In all my dorkness of highschool band, we always had parties after the football games. There was this band made up of at least one member of the marching band who played the parties here and there. All covers of pop songs of the time, rock. Bush, lots of Weezer (who are the ninja), and stuff. They weren't real good but man it looked fun. I had just begun dabbling with guitar very late in life, 11th grade methinks. I couldn't play but decided I wanted to play in a band. So my best friend FarmerJ and I came up with an idea, I would learn bass and he would learn guitar. I already had screwed around with bass slightly so we began. Now just like anything, practice is key. I played constantly much to the annoyance of my sister, and soon as I halfway had a pop song down, I would force her to watch me struggle to play it over and over. I know she hated it, but I do have her to thank for broadening my so called musical influences. Born in NC, I was all country til roughly 10th grade when my sister was really into rock, specifically the Smashing Pumpkins. And once I heard Siamese Dream, I was hooked. And Say it ain't so a la Weezer really got me hooked on the alternative rock scene and I left the country behind. And luckily for me, the bass lines in the current rock such as with Bush and Weezer was very simplistic so I thought I was hot potatoes really quick. Unfortunately, FarmerJ was struggling with guitar and thought bass was easier to pick up and we should trade. While I do agree that the very beginner level of bass is easier to achieve, I practiced my arse off and he wasn't as committed. But I picked up the guitar and began to attempt to play. Man, bar chords suck and my fingers never hurt so bad in all my life.