As you may know, I never had the chance to go to music college. I nailed my audition, but because I barely scraped through high school and had the worst grades imaginable… 

My application to music college was rejected.

I was devastated when I got the news. 

Honestly, I spent the next few weeks wondering if I should give up on my dreams of becoming a pro bass player. I even had an interview scheduled at the factory my dad was working at. 

After a lot of soul-searching, I decided I wasn’t ready to give up on my musical dreams just yet. I became determined to find my own path to make a living from playing bass.

But I have to admit, it was lonely having to figure out so much on my own.

Sure, I had the chance to study with legends like Gary Willis early in my journey. But I had to fly to Spain to meet with him, so I could only afford to do that a few times a year at most.

The rest of the time, I was stuck figuring everything out by myself.

I was searching for any information that could help me on my journey, but this was 1999, so YouTube didn’t exist yet.

I was struggling to make any real progress until late one night when I finally found the answer to my prayers.

Or so I thought…

A friend told me that a few American cities, New York and San Francisco, had schools with adult music programs that anyone could join — no fancy school grades required. All you needed was your instrument and a passion to learn. I definitely had these qualifications!

Every day, they offered multiple classes taught by experienced instructors covering a broad range of skills, genres, and topics: Jazz, Latin, Gospel, arranging, composition, and harmony; they did it all. 

And there were dozens of classes each week, so I could check the schedule to see which workshops were the most exciting to me, show up, plug in my bass, and participate live in as many seminars as I wanted.

Best of all, whenever I was struggling with something — which happened a LOT to me early on — I could bring it to one of the “open workshop” sessions, speak directly with the tutor, and I’d be able to get the guidance and encouragement I was desperate for at the time.

It was like an all-you-can-eat buffet combined with a choose-your-own-adventure book for becoming a fantastic bass player and all-around musician.

This was a dream come true for me!

But there was one big problem. 

These schools were in the U.S., and I lived in the UK and had zero money. 

So, no matter how badly I wanted to enroll, there was just no way I could make it work. Ultimately, I was forced to continue to spend the early part of my bass journey isolated and learning alone.

I can’t tell you how many times I was left wondering, "Am I doing this right?" when trying to learn something new. 

Or how many times I spent days or even weeks practicing a particular exercise, only to find out I had it all wrong and I had to start over from scratch. 

It was grueling.

And even all these years later, I still think about how different — and more fun — my bass journey would have been if I had been able to go to a music school like the ones I just described. I could have had access to the constant guidance I needed in those live workshops every week.

I also think about the hundreds — if not thousands — of other bass players out there who feel the same way right now: sick of that isolated, lost feeling of learning alone.