Hi Katy! This question is for John. I'm 20 years old, and I recently took up playing bass myself. I've only been playing for about a month, but I'm completely in love with it. (Many thanks to you for inspiring me to pick one up) But there's a few things I have trouble with, as is to be expected. So my question for you is, when you first started playing bass, what did you have trouble with, if anything? Did you ever get frustrated with it? Were there certain things you thought "I'm never going to get this!!" about? Or did it all come pretty naturally to you? Thank you, Meghan

"Hello Meghan, One thing I always recommend to anyone who wants to play bass - Buy yourself a simple rhythm box, something you can just press 'play' at different tempos and jam along with. Also try james Brown records. Ideally someone in the house (child, friend, partner) plays drums. It's a dull instrument to play solo for too long, and you'll soon lose heart without a rhythm partner. Also: if you are going to jam for a while using your fingers, keep vaseline close. I don't pick up my bass these days without a tub of it nearby. I'm sick of blisters. One more thing: Practice tuning and keep your instrument in tune. Otherwise you'll never sound much good and won't understand why.-JT"