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Do you ever wish you started out on a different instrument?

#21
When was a very young child, I started playing drums. When I got a little older I started playing keyboards. In my mid-teens I started playing guitar and by my late teens I was playing bass. Bass is my main instrument but I still play guitar and keys in my bands and recording projects. I guess I will have to answer the question this way. Starting on drums helped me to develop a good sense of timing. Playing keys and guitar gave me a good sense of chord structure and melody and playing bass tied everything together. Not sure I would be as strong on bass if I had not played the other instruments first.
 
#25
Phalex said:
I kinda wish I woulda took up the flute. You know, like Kung Fu? It fits in a leather sheath that's easy to carry on your back as you wander the earth and get into adventures. Kick a little ass, hang out around the campfire later, play some sick tunes, toss it back into its sheath, and crash under the stars......
Click to expand...
Like the kid in H.R. Puff N Stuff?
 
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#28
Piano at eight, organ at ten, guitar at twelve, electric bass at 14, pedal steel at 25, double bass and mandolin at about 30.

I'm 56 now and I guess I'm best at EB and DB... I can do parlor tricks on the rest that are good enough to make some non-players think that I know what I'm doing.

The keyboard beginning was very helpful, from a reading standpoint.

I still love them all, but I'll admit pedal-steel is my still my favorite instrument.
 
#30
I started on guitar I guess. Kept plucking bass lines without ever realizing bass even existed. Then, one day my teacher handed me this big guitar with 4 strings (some MIJ jazz copy) and said, "play the same thing on this." After that first note (Low G), I was hooked.

Looking back though, I've recently taken up Pedal Steel. I think if I could do it again I would've started on this damned thing and anything else would've seemed like a walk in the park.
 
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#31
My dad is a retired middle school music teacher by day and a jazz piano and bass player by night. He started me off on violin at age 6 or 7, then got me a cello when I was big enough to handle it. He began teaching me electric bass when I was 8 or 9. I picked up his upright when I could handle it in high school. Cello and bass took me all over the world with youth symphonies. Somewhere in there, I got the itch to play drums and guitar. Dad resisted saying there were too many drummers and guitar players and if I wanted to make money playing music some day, bass was the way to go. Drums proved irresistible, so eventually dad bought me a set (probably just got tired of me beating on everything in the house with sticks). But despite that, he encouraged me to take bass more seriously. I've continued to follow that advise for the better part of 30 years, and as it turns out, he was right. It's not my day job, but it is lucrative enough nights and weekends that I have a hobby I love which pays for itself and then some :thumbsup:
 
#33
Who you callin' pedal steel face?!?

I wish I had had piano lessons as a kid. Would have opened up a lot of doors in terms of understanding music theory a lot sooner. I still think about buying a cheap keyboard and learning the basics from time to time.

That said, we didn't have a piano when I was growing up, so it was a moot point. Years after starting on bass I got to be a fairly proficient guitarist and can hack around a bit on banjo and mandolin, but I still gravitate toward bass. It was no accident that bass was my first instrument.
 
#34
I started on sax in elementry and thought it was lame back then. Now i wish i knew how to play the sax.
first insturment i owned tho was guitar. Then moved to drums because i knew to many guitarists who were much better. Got good at drums and my cousin (who was a bass player first) didnt want to play bass anymore so i bought his bass n amp off him. He likes to play guitar now but always get asked to play bass lol.
 
#36
Started on guitat, even finished college with a "jazz degree", found a side job filling in on bass and a couple of months later sold all my guitars. It just felt right. I had many years of tedious practice schedules and the "guitarists chip" on my shoulder that overwhelmed my enjoyment of music to the point where it was about the "chops" and not about the music...when I picked up bass it felt like I was playing for the music and not for the glory of technique and "being hip" with my lines.

I did go through the "bass hero" chops phase when hadrien feraud first got on the scene, and while I enjoyed it I never strayed to far from "the song comes first" mentality that brought me so much peace in the first place.

Short answer: 1st was guitar, learned invaluable lessons and large amounts of theory and technique, landed on bass after I found I felt ar home in the role.
 
#37
Started on console organ at 7, took lessons until maybe 15. Learned all the musical theory along with playing, that still pays off today; I learned to appreciate the math/beauty relationship. Did OK on it, but what is really interesting is that on those, you play melody with the right hand, upper keyboard, chords/rhythm left/lower, and bass lines with your left foot. And I always loved that last part, got pretty good at it. So you can tell whats coming.

I bought my Wurlitzer at 15 with one of the first synths as the 3rd keyboard (the Orbit 3 Synthesizer), played some bars after high school, but all that went away with college, the woman, job, kids, life... Still have the Wurlitzer, though.

Oh, at our wedding, the band lets my cousin get up on guitar, the bass player hands me his instrument, puts my finger on the 3rd fret of the big string, and says here, keep playing the hell out of it. And I think I even found the fifth somehow. Another "sign."

Fast forward 35 years. My friend drums in a band, so we go see them on a jam night. The bass player hands me his Fender Jazz and says "Here, play this." I'm like "I have no idea how." "It's only 3 notes, I'll show you."

Click. That was 8 years ago. Now I'm a bass player; been in a couple of bands, played a couple hundred gigs so far. But I think I was always a bass player from the first time I actually listened to music (my dad's Bill Black Combo 33's at maybe 8?), it was meant to be.
 
#40
I came to bass late when my band mates tired of our bass player and asked if I could switch from rhythm guitar. What the heck? Don't wish I'd done it differently. Every day is a gift and learning a new instrument is a hoot. Can't change the past anyway. I'd rather take on each day and look to the future. I'm learning to read, learning theory and get to hang out on TalkBass. Works for me.
 

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