Just Play the Song, We'll Learn It Later

I’ve banged around on the guitar, bass, and mandolin since I was a kid…a long time now. Plenty of people can say the same. While I probably should’ve been content to sticking with porch and parking lot picking, I had to push it, I had to be “on stage,” as The Dead said, playing in the band.

Even though I started young, nine or ten, I didn’t really learn to play, didn’t figure out how to be a musician until my late twenties, early thirties. I started writing (bad fiction, worse poetry which led to bad songs) at about the same age. I’m still trying to figure out how to be a writer, but I know when I started figuring out the musician thing.

Bill Price, who once was one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and played with Jimmy Martin, called me Monday one night, saying he was putting together a new version of his Country Pardners and wanted to know if I’d play bass. I told him I’d not played bluegrass in a long, long time, but I’d be happy to come audition. I went over on Tuesday night, he called me back on Wednesday night and offered me the gig. I accepted, and then he said, “good, we leave for Ralph Stanley’s festival Friday morning. Be here at nine.” I was in no way qualified or ready to play a festival of that size, but I got through it (backstage afterward, Dwight Yoakem, who was playing next, mumbled that he liked my bass playing…but I’m pretty sure he was being sarcastic since everybody else played bluegrass and I kept throwing in “jazz” notes).

I spent most of the next decade on-stage with Bill, trying to keep up and learning how to actually play as a musician as we went. Bill was notorious for playing songs in a different key every show, depending on how his voice felt. Bass players don’t capo, so that taught me a lot…fast. Bill also kept things interesting by modulating keys or switching to another song entirely while we were in the middle of a song. He’d cue us by raising his foot (right one for a modulation, left for a new tune, or vice versa, I never really got it). I learned to repeat a chorus or end abruptly based on a cocked eyebrow or an exaggerated G run.

I appreciated the education. Now, I can “jam” with just about anyone without embarrassing myself too much. I’ve heard it said, I’ve said it myself, many times in “jam” situations, both on the porch and on stage in front of a crowd—just play the song, we’ll learn it later. And since I’m more writer than musician, I’ve realized the same phrase modified applies to revision.

Part of getting this novel ready for the world, after my revising it double-digit times before submitting it anywhere, is revising and editing it with the guidance of my publisher,  SFK Press. It’s a five step process—meaning I go completely through every—single—word of the manuscript five times. It’s a love/hate thing. Wanna know what’s on page 233, third paragraph? I can now tell you without paging through the manuscript.

So, if you’ve got a novel in you (“they” say everybody does, right?) or anything else you need or want to write, just write the thing. Get it on the page. You can learn it later… (while you’re revising).