Meet Steve Combs | teacher, player, builder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steve Combs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The idea of starting a music school, and one that approached teaching from a bass and rhythm section perspective, came to me many years ago. The idea evolved, grew, shrunk, was abandoned, became an obsession, and went through every other phase that ideas go through. But it never stopped percolating in some part of my brain, nagging me, so I knew I had to do something about it or be haunted the rest of my life. The process began to take on a focus and reality when I saw my son embrace the electric bass and start to grow into it. His journey was the key.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve always felt that music should take inspiration from absolutely everywhere in order to grow. It can’t be the same thing all the time and still make people feel and think. As a bass player, there was always comfort in being out of the spotlight, which to me almost seemed a license to experiment without being noticed. Coloring outside the lines, playing “wrong” notes, pushing and pulling at the idea of Time, these were ways to test ideas and study the effect on my fellow musicians and the listeners. I was willing to be criticized, open to feedback good & bad, in order to shape new experiments and to look for other influences to incorporate.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My story started when my parents bought me a bass and amplifier for Christmas one year, and was cemented when they bought me a good bass and good amplifier when I graduated high school. Their support of my loud hobby and weird musician friends was essential, and I am forever grateful for it. The number of encouraging musicians I’ve been fortunate to meet is extraordinary. The non-musician friends and relationships that have likewise been encouraging and accepting is extraordinary, and I recognize that this unusual convergence of support had everything to do with my success as a player and teacher.

Website: https://www.littletonbassschool.com/

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