With a new month comes a new Bass Lab PLUS Legend!
This month's Legend is no other than Misty Buckalew!
Misty is one of the 10% of the Bass Lab PLUS members who are female, and she's loving what the BLP community has to offer. Not only will you see Misty regularly in eBassGuitar Zoom calls, Accelerators and competitions, but through the years she has grown to be a great bass player as well!
Learn more about Misty's bass playing journey with eBassGuitar below:
James: Hey guys! I’m super excited to announce this month’s Bass Lab PLUS Legend; please welcome to the call Misty Buckalew!
Misty: Thank you so much James for having me here; I really appreciate it!
J: That’s my absolute pleasure! Now we first got to know each other probably about 2 years and I’ve watched your progress really rapidly in that time. It’s been such a joy to watch you gain confidence on the bass.
We need to state the obvious here; you are probably one of about 10% of Bass Lab PLUS members who is female. You’ve really been championing that cause.
I’m kind of interested what it’s like as a bass player, how did you fall in love with the bass guitar?
M: My husband brought me a guitar; he’s a guitar player. He came home with a jazz bass for me one day and put it on my lap. He showed me a few chords, I started playing some of the songs he did; all basic stuff. I took a few lessons but being a full-time worker and caregiver, it was hard for me to continue to practice so I was always slamming songs a few weeks before we would go out to play.
J: What first made you join the Bass Lab PLUS?
M: I came to a point where my caregiver days were over and I had extra time now. I decided we have this set of songs that I want to improve on. One of those songs was Moondance. I started searching the internet. In the earlier days I had to learn with a CD and play it over and over again. Now I have the internet and off pops James of eBassGuitar teaching Moondance.
J: You know that exactly is the same story as Drazen; he found that one lesson and that was kind of his gateway into some of the incredible progress that he’s made as well.
So you discovered Moondance, what happened after that?
M: The 14-Day Trial I jumped into that. I thought these lessons are easy for me to understand; they are broken down into a process to get you from point A to point Z. I’m a real process person so for me that was easier to understand, and I’m still here!
J: I’ve also seen you on I think several of our Challenges as well as Accelerator programs; what’s that been like?
M: My first one has been the Classic Rock Challenge. I had just joined, I’ve only been in a few months. I was kinda swimming around in all the lessons. I jumped into that, I thought this was way bigger for me but I thought I’m going for it because I thought I needed some direction. I worked hard and I think I did an okay job. I learned a lot.
I think you were my coach on that one!
J: I can attest to the progress that you’ve made. I believe in one of them you got the prize for the most improved student!
You’re often found sat on a Zoom call or coaching call, probably one female to 10 guys roughly speaking. What’s that kind of like for you?
M: I really never think about it too much. All of the guys they treat you as if you’re another bass player. They don’t separate if you’re a male or a female. They’ve all been very helpful if I have questions and encouraging to keep moving forward.
J: That’s just a sign of the beautiful community that we’ve got and I’ve seen this across everybody we coach here at eBassGuitar and that’s wonderful.
I am really really keen to see more female bass players go into the program as I have seen such great results. What would you say to any lady who is on the fence to join because it is more of a male instrument. What would you say to that?
M: I would say come and join the party! It’s fun! It’s a wonderful community and there’s all levels; you don’t have to be worried about if you’re a beginner or if you’re very advanced; we all share and grow together. It’s a very wonderful community James that you’ve created here. It’s phenomenal; people all over the world, so many wonderful people. Just come and party with us!
J: That was the unexpected thing when I stumbled into eBassGuitar. It was about sharing how to play bass and it just grew into a community of people which share the same values and the same love of the bass guitar. It’s a real pleasure to see you championing the female bass player. I want more of you guys!
Let me put it our there; if you’re a lady and you want to play the bass guitar, please come to eBassGuitar! We want to have more of you!
So what’s next with you and your bass playing?
M: I have so much to learn! For this year my short term goal is to get some chords and slap under my hands. I’m sure I want to jump into more of the challenges even if I’ve taken them once. You always should go a second time.
There’s so much information!
J: The interesting thing is you did one of the challenges twice; you had a different coach each time so you had a different perspective. Part of our challenge is you had to make these videos, and so you had this one year before and one year later POV and you can track your progress.
What did you pick up doing one of the Accelerators for a second time?
M: I realized that my knowledge was much better; I could understand the language of the music better and I was more comfortable in front of the camera; more relaxed.
J: This was something I picked up as I saw your videos and I noticed you were more relaxed and had a deeper commitment to the notes. This is hard to quantify but I could see the confidence.
I thought that was absolutely fantastic!
What would you say to anybody thinking of joining the Bass Lab PLUS?
M: If you’re serious about growth this is the place to be. All lessons are thoroughly broken down, easy to use and understand. You can go out and play them in the real world and the community is wonderful.
J: Are you taking what you’ve discovered on the real world?
M: At this point we don’t; I’m hoping we can get something going on very soon. We did have a friend sit with us last week and it was so fun. It’s been several years since COVID so it was so fun. We’ve got the music bug again so hopefully we’ll be pulling stuff together.
J: What I would love you to do is take some videos of your gigs and post your videos in the BLP Clubroom so we can see what you’re up to because I can see you have an exciting bass playing journey ahead of you. Thank you so much and congratulations again for being this month’s BLP Legend.
M: Thank you very much James!
Bryn says
A brilliant showcase for the commitment of teaching bass guitar on a global scale. Firstly, James – not only an outstanding teacher, but a genuinely great guy; and Misty, it was great to hear you play. If, like you, bass players are taught, or coached by top class teachers, the students can only get better. Is it me, or can you hear the enthusiasm shining through!!
Keep playing guys, keep the faith, keep the beat, keep the rhythm.