A few months ago a high school friend called to tell me that the Central Kentucky Youth Symphony Orchestra was celebrating its 70th anniversary with a reunion concert May 20 and all alumni were invited to play. I knew in an instant that I would do everything I could to be there. The CKYSO made adolescence bearable. It introduced me to a group of people whose idea of a good time was listening to Wagner’s Liebestod on a Saturday night.

The only problem: I haven’t played a the string bass since I was in high school. I had to find one (actually two, because I’ll be flying to Kentucky for the concert), then … I had to start practicing.

I accomplished one of those missions before I went to Asia and the other 10 days ago when I found a bass to rent here and somehow got it home in a small sedan. Since then I’ve been practicing whenever I can, trying to get the notes in my fingers again.

To relearn an instrument after decades away from it is a humbling experience. I forgot how much effort it takes to stretch my left hand into position and still hold up the instrument. To give you an idea just how remedial a bass student I am: I had to Google the string intervals. (The string bass is unique among stringed instruments; it’s tuned in fourths — E, A, D and G — instead of fifths.)

But after more than a week at it, the positions and scales are coming back and I’m learning how much to tighten the bow (not as much as I was the first few days — the poor thing was starting to pop some hairs).

Now I just have to learn the bass parts for Stravinsky’s Firebird and Verdi’s Aida. To be continued …