Anthony Wellington

The amazing thing about the few very talented professional musicians that I have met is that they all seem to be genuinely humble people.The same is true for Anthony Wellington. Back in 1998 I’d been playing guitar for a couple of years, but wanted to learn more about the bass guitar. I’d noticed that this was where my ear naturally went anytime I listened to or played music. At the time I lived at the very southern tip of MD in a very rural area. There were a few local music stores but none of them had instructors for bass guitar. The closest shop was Hot Licks Guitar Shop in Waldorf, MD which was over an hour away. I went there and set up lessons with Anthony Wellington, not knowing at the time who he was. He was the busiest instructor in the shop but was willing to let me come for an hour once every other week, this is something that I would learn later is usually not allowed by instructors.

Anthony turned out to be one of the best instructors that I would ever come to meet. He was the first to teach me the value of the metronome. This was a lesson that I learned the hard way. He was also fun to be around. I was amazed by the way he played. He could take a four string bass and play full musical arrangements on it. One time we took a melody and he then played and accompanied the melody in a number of styles; jazz, country, gospel, etc. All of this on a four string bass. That was when I realized that Bass was an instrument that could perform any function in music….not just nailing down the root notes.

I didn’t attend lessons with Anthony for a very long time, a handful of months only. But later I was sifting through the aisles at Record and Tape Traders Music store and picked up a Victor Wooten CD. Victor Wooten has always been one of my favorite musicians. On the back of the CD was Anthony’s name.

It turns out that Anthony had been on tour with Victor Wooten for a while by then. He was playing bass behind Victor. Yet, he still manage to maintain a full list of students. Last I heard he has nearly one hundred students….the most I’ve ever had was 12! Anthony is still affiliated the Hot Licks guitar shop in Waldorf, MD. He was nice enough to drop me a line recently inviting me by the shop. When I’m in town I will be sure to stop by.

Check Anthony out here!