From public school music teacher to local in-demand bassist
Exclusive video interview with FBPO’s Jon Liebman
May 30, 2022
John Barker discovered his passion for music in the 4th grade, inspired by his school band director’s love of jazz. From that point, a career in music education was inevitable. For the past 17 years, John has been a music educator in Kern County, California, where he currently serves as Director of Music at Foothill High School. He’s also worked as a music mentor, band and choir director, and music festival chairman, as well as working with after-school programs to provide free music lessons for students in need, and is a past recipient of the “Teacher of the Year” award for the Greenfield Union School District.
Since John began learning bass at For Bass Players Only, he has become a dedicated student, showing more determination than ever to get serious with the instrument. He’s now having the time of his life, playing everything from Broadway musicals to dinner theater, Dixieland, bluegrass gigs and rock shows. John’s become known as someone who can fill in at a moment’s notice for any style of music. Watch this interview and get ready to be inspired to learn bass!
Watch our interview with John!
See Jon’s blog, with key takeaways from this interview here.
Hello Jon. It would be nice if you can, from time to time also interview some female bassist to get their stories, as I’m sure we do have some brilliant ones around.
Thanks, Joy. I couldn’t agree more! In fact, we have some great ones coming up. In the meantime, you can check out our interviews with Carol Kaye, Rhonda Smith, Tanya O’Callaghan, Ariane Cap, Divinity Roxx, Lynn Keller, Emma Anzai, Katt Bell, and a bunch of others. We also have a cool feature called “Girls Gone Bass,” in which we pay tribute to Tal Wilkenfeld, Esperanza Spalding, Gail Ann Dorsey, Meshell Ndgeocello, Suzi Quatro, and others. There are some truly phenomenal female bass players for sure. Thanks again for your comment, Joy! 🙂