Hello, I've been coming off and on to TalkBass for years but never joined up till recently.
Well into my 30's, I started playing bass in 2004 and having zero musical education whatsoever became a roots player playing basic 3-chord rock stuff and such.
I became a living room player for years, having some heavy self esteem/confidence issues which caused me to feel that I couldn't play in a band and after a couple of tries at it that didn't go very well to put it mildly my confidence tanked and I stopped playing entirely for about 6 years & started playing guitar.
About 18 months ago. A friend of mine who is a beginning drummer suggested that a few of us get a band together so I went for it. When we got together he was surprised to see me bring my bass as I figured that as bad a bassist I might be I'm an even worse guitarist! Besides we already had at least 3 guitarists and afaik no one else played or owned a bass or amp.
That was the smartest thing I ever did! Since then my playing & overall confidence has greatly improved and I actually can play something besides root notes now. Man, I had forgotten how much I love to groove! Listening to Motown like never before, getting into blues again, having musings about jazz/fusion and jonesing hard for a good lefty P-Bass. Still have muuuuch to learn though lol.
Now I feel like an info sponge for all things bass! Pretty much selling off most of the guitar stuff to get some more bass gear that I'm gonna need. Learning about playing chord shapes and such has really broadened my playing too and now I just want to learn everything at once.
I've played a few gigs now and after almost throwing up at the first two due to nervousness I haven't experienced that again since and now I can't wait to hit the stage again! I'm now doing some heavy woodshedding so I can get into a regularly gigging band as a couple of friends of mine who are gigging musicians have noted my improvement and have talked to me about starting some new projects.
I haven't been this excited about anything this much in a long time lol.
As per my tech background I'm a big gearhead so my running gear is in my sig, my GAS and busted gear are on my profile info and I'll be making posts shortly on those very things.
I also wanted to thank whoever the team is that keeps TB running. Some of us long time lurkers do join eventually.
Today I'm so grateful to be able to create music on the bass. Been a long time coming.
Now, time to jump into TB!
Cheers
RJ
PS I'll put some gear pics up as soon as I figure out how to.
Well into my 30's, I started playing bass in 2004 and having zero musical education whatsoever became a roots player playing basic 3-chord rock stuff and such.
I became a living room player for years, having some heavy self esteem/confidence issues which caused me to feel that I couldn't play in a band and after a couple of tries at it that didn't go very well to put it mildly my confidence tanked and I stopped playing entirely for about 6 years & started playing guitar.
About 18 months ago. A friend of mine who is a beginning drummer suggested that a few of us get a band together so I went for it. When we got together he was surprised to see me bring my bass as I figured that as bad a bassist I might be I'm an even worse guitarist! Besides we already had at least 3 guitarists and afaik no one else played or owned a bass or amp.
That was the smartest thing I ever did! Since then my playing & overall confidence has greatly improved and I actually can play something besides root notes now. Man, I had forgotten how much I love to groove! Listening to Motown like never before, getting into blues again, having musings about jazz/fusion and jonesing hard for a good lefty P-Bass. Still have muuuuch to learn though lol.
Now I feel like an info sponge for all things bass! Pretty much selling off most of the guitar stuff to get some more bass gear that I'm gonna need. Learning about playing chord shapes and such has really broadened my playing too and now I just want to learn everything at once.
I've played a few gigs now and after almost throwing up at the first two due to nervousness I haven't experienced that again since and now I can't wait to hit the stage again! I'm now doing some heavy woodshedding so I can get into a regularly gigging band as a couple of friends of mine who are gigging musicians have noted my improvement and have talked to me about starting some new projects.
I haven't been this excited about anything this much in a long time lol.
As per my tech background I'm a big gearhead so my running gear is in my sig, my GAS and busted gear are on my profile info and I'll be making posts shortly on those very things.
I also wanted to thank whoever the team is that keeps TB running. Some of us long time lurkers do join eventually.
Today I'm so grateful to be able to create music on the bass. Been a long time coming.
Now, time to jump into TB!
Cheers
RJ
PS I'll put some gear pics up as soon as I figure out how to.
