Perhaps the biggest commitment is to Carnatic music, but the jazz music that my father introduced me to is a another relatively deep area. I studied classical guitar in college, but didn't keep it up after changing my major to computer science. Perhaps the biggest loss we have in modern life is that anything goes, and culture is a dizzying competition of styles, everything trying to grab your attention. So the depth and nuace of a long-term commitment to a single focused music is a rare experience. The classical musicians have the best discipline, but there's a depth to folk and jazz in many cases as well.
High culture has the financial structures to pay the way of a promising musician.
But that leaves so many of us to the barrage of mass media, defining our tastes, and keeping it as shallow as possible, so we can be easily enticed again and again with 'newer' and 'better' styles. The Electric Bass One time, days before Christmas, even though my father discussed it with me, I was surprised to find a new electric bass guitar in a black case leaning against the water heater in the basement, near the washing machine. I guess I was excited, but little did I know how this was to turn out. In retrospect, the bass plays the role of a galley slave in music. Keep time, just crank out the roots and fifths, maybe do some walking.