What was the one moment where you decided you wanted to play bass?

ben_the_bass · #1 05-24-2008, 12:45 AM

tell your story!

Matt Till · #2 05-24-2008, 02:13 AM

I think the one moment where I decided I want to play bass was the one moment I can say it was destiny, ha. I went to a local guitar shop looking for a new electric guitar, I had absolutely no knowledge of music, I just wanted to RAWK!

Of course, being an amateur, the instrument of choice would be based solely on looks. I scanned the wall and found a weird guitar with 4 thick strings, I was baffled. I don't think I even tried it out, I just went home in awe.

The price tag on this local stores basses were pretty steep, I decided to get a starter bass (a cheap Yamaha) off Musicians Friend. I still had no idea what the bass WAS or what it's role was. Truth be told... I still don't! Ha. But I've played all sorts of instruments since then, the bass is the only one that feels right in my hands.

jomahu · #3 05-24-2008, 08:00 AM

when my drums got too cumbersome to carry.

StyleOverShow · #4 05-24-2008, 08:33 AM

Week before college graduation, playing guitar in a Hwd. club, but carrying out the bass player case and a guy comes up and asks if I want to audition for "Redbone" a native American group (Come and Get Your Love, Witch Queen of New Orleans). They thought I was the bass player. I borrowed one practiced, auditioned and got the gig.

I came to love the groove immediately. That sense that you could add or subtract energy from the group, lead the listerner's ear to the chord changes, rhythmically accent or by omission (make it funky now) play the back beat. Within a month I totally forgot about the front man position and was happy to be buried in the second row. Thirty six years later and still loving it.

FrizzleFry · #5 05-24-2008, 11:49 AM

I had never really played an instrument before, my friend played guitar and told me I should play bass, The first Bass I ever picked up, I bought.

Couldn't have made a better choice!

FreaqyFrequency · #6 05-25-2008, 05:20 PM

Listening to Starlight by Muse. I was playing guitar at the time, I drop-tuned the E to a B and played the bassline. It was at that time that I decided to play bass.

ducknturtle · #7 05-25-2008, 06:20 PM

When I heard Tommy Shannon play bass, not with SRG, but earlier when he was playing with Johnny Winter.

anderbass · #8 05-26-2008, 12:09 AM

After first starting out on guitar, I was attempting to play along with a pretty good singer/songwriter/guitarist friend and soon found I could successfully play along by ear, just picking the root notes instead of trying to match his chords. I soon realised I was trying to play bass with a guitar so I got a bass, requited another Buddy that played drums and we had a pretty cool little garage band going just a month or so after picking up my very first musical instrument.

Lesfunk · #9 05-26-2008, 12:18 AM

my story...

Standing in the rain, with his head hung low
Couldnt get a ticket, it was a sold out show
Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene
Put his ear to the wall, then like a distant scream

He heard a low guitar, just blew him away
He saw stars in his eyes, and the very next day
Bought a beat up Four string in a secondhand store
Didnt know how to play it, but he knew for sure

That bass guitar, felt good in his hands
Didnt take long, to understand
Just one guitar, tuned way down low
Was one way ticket, only one way to go...

MakiSupaStar · #10 05-26-2008, 12:21 AM

Listening to Concrete Jungle by Bob Marley. That was the bassline that hooked me into it.

mike phillips · #11 05-26-2008, 06:53 AM

simple. the bass line to smoke on the water. that thunderin ric drew me in like a siren song.

Dave Siff · #12 05-26-2008, 07:17 AM

As soon as I heard Rush's Moving Pictures album, that was it. Took me seven years after that to actually get a bass, but that was the moment where I knew bass guitar was the coolest instrument of them all.

svp · #13 05-26-2008, 07:23 AM

After hearing John Myung live with Dream Theater.

Visirale · #14 05-26-2008, 07:56 AM

I was playing bass clarinet throughout middle school. I came to appreciate the role of bass instruments in general. I got a guitar in third grade but wasn't big on it... Got a bass in 8th grade to carry my study of the low-end to more popular music than I could play on bass clarinet (Should've stuck with it, could have been the next Marcus Miller doubling on bass and bass clari, haha). It was definitely a gradual thing for me...

Munjibunga · #15 05-27-2008, 06:41 PM

When I was a senior in college, a friend of mine in the Geology Department was telling me he used to play bass, and had a '65 P-Bass and a Bassman 50-watt head with 212 cabinet he wanted to sell (this was in 1977). He brought it to school and plugged it in, and I ran this great big glissando down the E string, and that did it. I was a bass player. He wanted $350 for all of it, so I borrowed $350 from AVCO at about 21 percent interest, and bought them from him. The payments were $15 a month, and I think my last payment will be coming up this November.

Anyway, I had been hanging out with a guy and his wife who were kind of local celebrities, singing a duo thing at parties and wedding receptions, and they invited me to play bass with them. So about a week after I got the bass, I was gigging. The transition from tuba to bass guitar was not too smooth, and I sucked for a month or so until I got the hang of it. My brother joined us on rhythm guitar, and we picked up a kid drummer and had a band. The singer was a drunken slacker, and we ended up firing him and his wife to form the Axolotl band.

So the guy who sold me the bass is in prison now. After getting his degree in geology, he re-joined the Navy as an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic (he got the degree just so he could get a commission). Subsequently, he murdered his wife and buried her in his back yard. He had a small bulldozer and graded a pad over her. He didn't get caught until one night he started missing her, and went out in the back yard with his 'dozer to dig her up and see her one more time. The neighbors got suspicious and called the cops on him, now he's in the can for life.

That and the bass got stolen in 1980. I ended up getting $1,100 just for the bass from the insurance company. I didn't like it anyway, but I could buy a Fodera with what I could've gotten for it now.

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Lady Kayri · #16 05-27-2008, 07:12 PM

I've played a number of instruments over the years, and realized eventually that when I listened to tunes I really liked, it was the bass lines I was humming along to. So I went back to the bass guitar, and am enjoying it immensely... Just wish I'd studied more music theory when I was younger, would make it a bit easier now ...

Pat

ryco · #17 05-27-2008, 07:53 PM

When grade school orchestra was recruiting new members in 4th grade.
Wanted to play drums, like Ringo, but they already had too many in the drum line.

Music teacher held up a dbl bass and I thought "Hmmm...Paul plays that. That'll do!"

Always liked watching the DB players in big bands, too.

MissChris27 · #18 05-27-2008, 08:55 PM

I was listening to Anberlin and heard the amazing bass in the background as soon as I'd turned on the "bass booster" on my walkman. Amazing. I'd wanted to play guitar.....but soon realized that the part I'd been hearing was a BASS.....not a guitar! So, yeah. That's when I fell in love.

lbanks · #19 05-27-2008, 09:13 PM

1975, Utica, Miss.. In a ranch house outside of Utica, which was our band house. I was just waking up, hearing a big argument in the practice room. Got up to see what going; find out the bass player was quitting because I wouldn't let him use the Ripper, and he had to play my old Eko EB0 and he wanted more money. He left and I was promoted from trombone player to bassist.

TheSpook · #20 05-27-2008, 10:07 PM

Oh lord...I can pinpoint about three moments that made me really, REALLY want to eventually pick up a bass guitar...

1. When I was about eight or nine years old, I fell in love with Pink Floyd through...what else(?)..."Another Brick In The Wall (Part Two)". And the more I listened to that song at the time, the more I was drawn to Roger Waters' bassline chugging along through it.

2. About the time I was thirteen years old, I developed an infatuation with Cliff Burton Metallica...and my two most listened to songs ended up being the instrumentals heavily dominated by Burton: "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)" and "Orion".

and...

3. When I was either fourteen or fifteen, and was listening rather intently for once (I.E. putting aside my getting tired of the overplaying) to the Music Choice Classic Rock station's then umpteenth playing of Yes' "Yours Is No Disgrace"...and noticed how absolutely sweet Chris Squire's bassline throughout that thing was/is.

So, there you have it...basically a combination of those three moments...though, if I had to choose JUST ONE, it would probably be the Squire/Yes one, because if there ever was any bit of bass playing that seriously made me go "WOW.", that would be my pick. Anyway, it took me ten years, but I am finally there...at least on the front of actually having my bass and amp.