February: GT Player of the Month

The GT Player of the Month for February is a young up-n-comer with tons of potential. His name is Bert Emery and his guitar of choice is the four string  electric bass guitar. Bert has been a GT Member since August of last year and has displayed not only a solid work ethic toward the instrument, but has a great attitude and lots of possibilities. Allow me to flesh this out for you.

First, he shows up for his lessons…every week. When he’s here, he listens, asks pertinent questions, displays gazelle intensity, and never complains. He’s a machine, but a machine with heart. You can see it when he’s here and you can hear it when he’s thumping the old four string.

Second, he practices faithfully. Because he practices faithfully, he makes gains in proficiency with the bass guitar every week. That’s right; weekly improvement. Some of you might be surprised to find that getting better isn’t rocket science. It’s merely a matter of applying the correct application of technique with regular frequency and duration. That’s a high fallooten way of saying, that if you just practice correctly every day, you should make solid gains each week. In a year’s time, that’s a lot of improvement and Bert is well on his way.

Third, the boy has shown he’s a raw talent with an intense desire to excel. The point here is not how much talent Bert has, but how much desire he displays. I’m talking about drive. Your will to succeed if far more important than how much innate musical ability you have, and that goes for everything in life. I’ve seen many students who had incredible potential. But because they didn’t have any personal initiative to get the job done, they washed out of the program and never did anything with their talent. Conversely, I’ve seen students who had no talent or very little talent succeed with the instrument because of their intense desire to learn and get better. It wasn’t their talent that made them great; it was their heart. These kinds of students make their own potential.

Bert is one of the lucky ones who just happens to have both a measure of talent and a whole lot of drive. However, it’s his determination to succeed, which has won him this award. Congratulations Bert on a job well done.