What made you start playing?
 

Ok so hello all,
First post! so dont be harsh!

So I thought id make a post just for some fun...
And my question is What made you start playing bass?
Was it straight to bass or did you play other instruments before etc?

For me it began when I heard The Mad Capsule Markets - Pulse on THPS 3 around 2001 (Was it was really that long ago!?)
I just loved the tone they had on bass!
But I was young and without cash and thought it may just be a dream.

A few years went buy and I was well into my skateboarding untill when I was 15/16 and a friend was selling his Bass/ Combo Amp for £50 I grabbed a bargain, it was a "does the job" Squire precision thing and 35watt Laney Hardcore Max amp (which i still use today)
However I couldnt really grasp it and my fingers felt all too weak to really play it, so it became an on and off thing.

I hate to say it but I later converted to guitar :hmm: and bought a used Ibanez GIO for £90

I played that for a while and gained strength in my hands learning some ramones and stuff like that and kept switching between bass and guitar.
I finally decided to stick with the bass and now my guitar sits in its guitar bag

Its only been in the last few of years ive been really getting into it, like really trying to learn scales chords n what have you, which is another reason I joined the talkbass site it has loadsa good posts and lots to think about


Love bass

I saw Victor Wooten playing on TV when I was 14 or so. I expressed my desire to learn to play bass, and my mother bought a bass and amp for my 16th birthday.

Nice! Victor is a monster! -in a good way

I was never the best guitar player in any band I played in! Now the guitar doesn't even interest me.

I played rhythm guitar in my first band, years back. Took up bass when our drummer and bass player bailed on us. So, at first, it was logic and necessity. It just seemed that as the rhythm guitarist, and the one most closely listening to and grooving with the bass player, I was the logical one to take it over. But it quickly turned to love. Still play some guitar, but my love of bass makes it my primary instrument.

Rush. Moving Pictures tour. 4th row. 1984(?)

I was about 10 when I touched my first bass. I had a immediate attraction to the way that the instrument felt, the fat strings, and powerful sound. It would be another 5 years before I started playing (another story), but I always knew what instrument I was drawn to.

I decided I wanted to play bass guitar after seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan TV show February 9, 1964.

This will only make sense to TBers approaching 60.

Blue

Cliff 'em All.

I hear that!

Seeing Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, & Led Zeppelin (in that order) live and blowin' up my first set of stereo speakers the summer of '73. :bassist:

I played low brass in the band. Band director walks up to me one day and says he wants me to play tuba in the jazz band. I decline 'cuz tuba ain't cool. Few days later he takes me into his office. Over in the corner is a brand new Fender P and an amp. "You have 4 weeks to be ready." The rest is history. I'm actually working with my old school to get that bass. Wish me luck!

Wanted to expand my pallette from just being a drummer and I always loved the bass, so I picked one up. Been neglecting my drums ever since. :D

+1

I remember watching that on TV at age 7 (I'm now 56). It was that moment on Feb 9, 1964 that the music switch in my brain got flicked on.

But it wasn't until I heard Chris Squire grinding away in "Yours Is No Disgrace" in 1971 that I knew I had to become a bass player. Got my first bass in 1972, and I've been playing ever since.

Listening to motown,british invasion.and then driving in the car with my Dad listening to Bob Moore/Buddy Harman nashville cats,my mother was an opera singer who loved listening to Black Gospel,and then hearing all the great horn bands of the late sixites,and seventies...Rocco Prestia,Verdine White,James Jamerson,Bob Babbit...etc..
It really was all about my listening environment as a child.

It was the seventies. Women liked big, muscular jocks, or guys in bands.

I was 5'5 or so, and around a hundred pounds.

I went the obvious route.

If that was you're reason for doing it and you're still in it after all this time, it must have pulled you a lot of tail! I wouldn't know, I have yet to leave the bedroom! ;):p:D

It´s the power and the rythm that made me do it!

Well, mostly the POWER! :hyper:

1961 and I bought my first record player and about 20 singles from a friend whose father made him sell them.

I started with the sax

Now 50 years later I am learning to play the bass.

I had moved to a new town when I was 16 years old. I met some people at school who played in a band and I wanted to fit in. I started playing guitar and put a band together. It was myself a guitar player and a drummer. We could never find a bass player. One night the other guitarist pointed out that whenever I did any kind of fill it sounded like a bass run. He suggested that I play bass. I thoought about it and the next day, I picked my guitar and started messing around, not playing anything specific. I realized that the guitarist was right and I decided to buy a bass. I found that I picked it up very naturally and taught myself to play. I have been playing ever since. I still play guitar and also play keys.