What was the first instruments you played? And eventually we played bass.

[sef]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed before but here I go.

I played a snare drum in junior high, then since I was in the school band I also got to play (gasp) the triangle, crash cymbals, the bass drum then I played trombone for some reason. All me and my buddy did in the practice room was to play the loudest worst possible notes we could find with the trombone.

So it was always in me to play the backbeat and was attracted to lower notes (trombone) so eventually I started to play the Bass in the early 80's.

I haven't played bass for years but will be again in a few weeks, and my 5 year old daughter wants a drum set for X-Mas. She is taking after me and hopefully, if she wants will be learning bass shortly.

[iamdenialNJ]

I played piano for 10 years. Stopped for like 3 and lost pretty much everything. I hate that I'm not as fluent on piano as I used to be. I picked up guitar in high school but never got serious until senior year. My friends band was going on tour and they needed a bassist so I picked up bass. The rest is history...

P.S. Yes teach your kids to play an instrument!!! I seriously wouldn't know where my time would have gone if I had not picked up guitar and especially bass.

[Hollywars]

I played violin for some amount of time in my early years, and dabbled in piano until I was in my pre-teens and picked up bass.

[C.Linton]

Guitar, originally, for maybe 6 months or so. I had a POS Domino solid body electric with medium guage rebar for strings that was impossible to play, so I switched to bass, which I figured would be easier to play as it had two less strings, and I didn't have to learn chords, LOL. Fortunately, I got a decent Univox bass that was easy to play, so I was a little more inspired to stick with it. And forty+ years later ....

[Genericbassname]

Piano (badly), trombone (badly), guitar (shouldn't even really count), then bass; everything else I'd been kind of pushed into by my parents and thus didn't dig it, but I bought a bass on my own initiative and practiced on my own time. It was only then that I really got into the whole music thing.

[hrodbert696]

Some piano lessons as a kid that never really took. Then I played saxophone for about five years, grades 5-10, got to be good enough to play solos but not really all that good. 10th grade I discovered theater and largely dropped music, though I did get my first bass junior year of high school, just to noodle around with. Summer after freshman year of college I learned mandolin while working as a camp counselor and bought myself one at the end of the summer, which I still have (I still have my grandfather's sax, too, though it's not the one I played in school). Ummm, let's see, I also picked up a bodhran (Irish hand drum) after college and fool around with that sometimes. So basically I'm the old jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none, I'll fiddle around with just about anything but can't claim true proficiency on most of these instruments.

The bass I had in high school was stolen after college and since I hadn't really been playing it I didn't replace it. It took about 15 years before I finally got obsessed with it and picked up a new one about a year ago, now I'm totally hooked.

[Richland123]

I took drum lessons for 2 years as a kid and then started to learn how to play guitar. My first two band gigs were as a percussionist. The bass player quit and I became the bassist. It always helped me being a drummer first.

[garak7]

Trombone (still play it), guitar. Switched to bass at 11 years old because our garage band sounded very unbalanced with drums and three guitar players. Sure glad I made the switch! I met many bass players over the years that also play trombone. I'll bet there are more than a few here on TB.

[sef]

Originally Posted by garak7

Trombone (still play it), guitar. Switched to bass at 11 years old because our garage band sounded very unbalanced with drums and three guitar players. Sure glad I made the switch! I met many bass players over the years that also play trombone. I'll bet there are more than a few here on TB.

Interseting that some bass players here play trombone. It's the low notes man.

[DISCOSTUVW]

I started out on Flutophone (sp) in 4th grade.

Then Bb Clarinet starting in 5th grade through High School.

Junior High is when I learned to play guitar and then bass.

Through High School I played Bb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Tenor Sax, Guitar, and Bass

[Emm9T]

never really liked music, bad at piano (never tried to learn because it was just too much of a mystery) and bad at guitar (I sang in our 9th grade music group where we only had to know like 2 chords) but i picked up bass and took to it like a fish to water. Where would I be now without music? I don't know, doing something "constructive"? lol, I've started branching out into guitar and am interested in other instruments, bass is my true love though, I spread my practice time evenly.

[smperry]

1) Piano
2) Saxophone (Alto, then Bari)
3) Bass

[Riverrunsred]

Started on baritone in 7th grade,midway through the year switched to tuba. Played tuba through high school, was all state junior & senior year. Got several scholarship offers and like an idiot I didn't take any. I kick myself everyday for giving the tuba up.

[iamlowsound]

I started on bass, branched out to guitar and a bit of hand percussion. I always wanted to take piano lessons, but my parents never put me in them, but did with my older sister. I used to sit at the piano and teach myself how to play the stuff that she was learning, but I would get frustrated because I didn't really know what I was doing and I was 8.

lowsound

[Punk Rock Jason]

Played saxophone (alto) for a year in the fifth grade. After that I didn't pick up an instrument until I started playing bass during my junior year of high school.

[CamMcIntyre]

1997-bass guitar. Attempted to play it. I didn't take lessons, and just messed around on it.

1998-cello. I joined the middle school orchestra on cello, and played bass guitar in guitar society.

2001-double bass. freshman year of high school, focused on bass guitar and started to learn double bass.

Since 2002, I've doubled. I started playing outside of school groups in 2008.

Eventually, I want to learn how to play guitar, drums, tenor sax, and cello (relearn).

[FrenchAK]

Viola ("Do you mean violin?" "No... Nevermind.") starting in 6th grade, got a pretty standard classical music training. Played up through my freshman year of High School, and I was mildly successful, made the school district's city-wide Honor Orchestra in 6th grade, and made the Anch. Junior Youth Symphony in 7th. I guess I just had an affinity for music, I was probably one of very few, if only, musicians in each ensemble that hadn't ever taken private lessons. Quit after 9th grade to take Engineering classes.
Sophomore year I was instrument-less and it s-u-c-k-e-d.
Skip forward to Junior year I had a few friends who played guitar and I wanted to play with them, but, seeing as I was kind of a harmony-playing background instrument kind of guy anyways, I took up bass and never looked back

[bassteban]

bass guitar

[emdsd]

Started on trumpet in 5th grade, then moved to baritone, tuba and sousaphone and played them on through high school. Started on guitar in 8th grade, but like so many others it seems, there were too many guitars in the neighborhood band..and since I liked the kind of parts I played on baritone and tuba, decided to take up bass and never looked back...that was over 35 years ago! Love the bottom end!!!!

[James Hart]

Recorder in 2nd grade
Alto Sax in 4th grade
Bass guitar in 7th grade