Music is Passion

As seen in my bio, I play the bass guitar. I've been religiously playing for a little over a year now, but I first started playing about a year and a half ago. A lot of people don't consider that to be a very long amount of time. And I'm okay with that. Because in my opinion, it's never about how LONG you've done something. It's more about how much time you spend with it and how much passion you have for it.
Here's an example. I played the violin when I was little. I took lessons for 3 1/2 years. If you think about it, 3 1/2 years is a very long time to be playing an instrument at an early age. I was good at it, but I wasn't GREAT. And I didn't have enough passion to WANT to be great. Therefore, I didn't excel. I didn't strive for greatness.
A few instruments and several years later, I picked up the bass. I knew absolutely NOTHING about the instrument, but I figured it would be fun to play. I had an interest in rock music, and I liked the sound of the bass from what I had heard, but I didn't know anything about it. For a good 4-5 months, I hardly even played it.

Then something happened. I had a change in mind.

Because of a class I was taking in school, I was all of a sudden being exposed to new parts of the instrument. I was hearing new bands, I was learning to play with other people, and suddenly I realized how much I liked playing. At that time, I was good at the bass guitar. I was just fine. I had good technique, I had good ideas, etc. But up until that point I lacked the drive and passion. And then it happened that one day, when I sat down with my bass and just started playing whatever I felt. I began to realize I was capable of a lot more than I had realized. So I began playing as much as possible. I still hadn't had a teacher, but I didn't need one. I had all of the online resources, I already knew basic music theory, and most importantly, I had the PASSION.

It doesn't matter how much work you put into something if you don't have the drive and passion for it. Would I be a better player if I played everyday because someone TOLD me to, or because I WANTED to? I know everyone always says it's all about the effort you put in to something in order to get good at it. But I believe it's more than that. It's about the effort you voluntarily put into it that really counts. It's the voice in your head that says:

I CAN DO BETTER.

- Monster