• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How did you end up playing bass??

#21
Well i have to blame my parents, pumping me full of 70's music ever since i was born, my mother bought me the chili peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magic when it first came out i was 5, (ive worn out the origional cd and a seccond..on my 3rd now) and thats whats always had me going, then seeing the film clip to tommy the cat almost 3 years ago pushed me over the edge and i thought..i gotta be like him...and thats to blame.....

as well as our music class at school not having a bassist and 6 lead guitarists and me being horrible at piano, it was a good switch.....didnt take me long and i was playing for almost all of the guitarists in the school, and im still called back to play for exams and music nites......

and the good thing is ive bought everything myself so my parents cant touch it :p
 
#23
Musical family, started out on piano at age 6, made transition to upright at age 11. Did quite well, took it a step further and looked into the bass guitar. Got one for my 13th birthday. 2 years later I love it even more than I did in the beginning.
 
#24
I guess I started because everyone in my school was playing guitar, and I wanted to be different, so I picked up a bass. Never looked back. I got me in a good band (still together) later on, so it's been great.

Peace,
Graeme :bassist:
 
#26
There's a few here that will know what I'm talking about . My dad has had a polka band since since 1960, so I grew up around live music, I knew what everything sounded like and how it was played. One day, my dad brings the whole band over to listen to an album that just came out. The Dynatones "Livewire" It's the "Live at Leeds" or "Sgt Pepper" of polka albums. The bass player ventured out of the traditional root/5th two beat bass line that's been played for decades. Evertime he started playing chords, or sixteenth note runs down the neck, the whole band went nuts. I thought Hmmmm, that's what I want to do.
 
#28
In our high school band in the 60's, I was the 12-stringer who
did all the Beatles and Byrds parts. But when we did any Rascals tunes, our bass player thought it was too constraining for him to sing blue-eyed soul while tethered to an instrument, (and who needs a 12-string on a Rascals song anyway). SOO- I got the call. Good for me, lousy for him...
I ended up a lot better bass player!
 
#31
One night, I were messing spoons in me hammer and tack porch wen I 'eard a rumblin' sound. The sheep and the bloomin' chickens in me hammer and tack yard went all quiet as the sound got louder and I fough that it were one of them twisters that me cousin/ bruvver Lemuel says are so common in Louisiana. Funny fin' is, right, there were no wind. None that I weren’t breakin', any road.

As the sound got louder, I seen a light approachin' and the rumble became more of a low soundin' note that seemed ter echo all over the bloody valley. Evry geezer started ter panic. Me cousin/sister Brandine, right, 'oo just 'ad a baby, had anuvver! Blimey!

At this mument, I fough 'ow much I’d like for me band mates ter have been there ..instead of me. The next fin' I knew a bright light were shinin' on me Nanny Goat Race and I felt like a deer caught in 'eadlights, ffen I felt sumfink like a blow ter the head. I fough “Gee, right, wiz, an alien must done be tryin' ter abduct me” coz, my uncle/favver-in-lor done told me they did the bloody same fin' ter him.

I don’t remember much of wot 'appened next because I were disorientated, but I remember 'earin' sumfink that sounded like drunken laughter. Ann I remember is this weird laughter and bein' pushed 'round wile this light were in me Nanny Goat Race. Wen I came to, right, I were stark bloody naked in a cornfield covered in some weird stuff and me butt 'urt a wee (If I 'ad a penny…). The bloody weirdest fin' is that me spoons turned into a bass! Wen I told the story ter my band mates, they said it 'ad 'appened ter ffem too, and I believe them, right, because they were all 'ave a lookin' at each uvver funny. Oi!

So yer could say I were chosen! Oi!
 
#32
I grew up with my Dad playing music locally every weekend. Believe it or not, because playing music was always around I never took much interest in it. My Dad listened to both kinds of music, country and western. :smug:

But I listened to the radio and loved the sounds in the Disco songs out at the time (for some reason "Freak Out" comes to mond here). I didn't know what the instrument was, just that I really liked how it sounded.

Then at 17 it finally hit me. I was watching "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard. I then turned to my mom and said "That's what I want to do!"

To which my mom exclaimed "Oh no! I already went through this with one musician, I am not going through this again!" Of course you know what that means...

Within a month I was down at the local music store picking out my first bass. A fire engine red Memphis Short Scale Bass.

And the rest is history.....
 
#33
Steve Harris. Run To The Hills. Summer 1982. First metal song I heard that had the bass so prominent that you couldn't possibly miss it..even through the speaker on my tv while watching the video on MTV..that was what made me want to play bass right there.

Later on it was Simon Gallup from the Cure. Always interesting lines in mid-80's cure songs. Plus he had a floor full of pedals to have fun with...he he

Recently I have been rocking with Klaus Flouride (Dead Kennedy's) His lines are awesome and I'm copping stuff right and left..
 
#34
ERIC31 said:
Steve Harris. Run To The Hills. Summer 1982. First metal song I heard that had the bass so prominent that you couldn't possibly miss it..even through the speaker on my tv while watching the video on MTV..that was what made me want to play bass right there.

Later on it was Simon Gallup from the Cure. Always interesting lines in mid-80's cure songs. Plus he had a floor full of pedals to have fun with...he he

Recently I have been rocking with Klaus Flouride (Dead Kennedy's) His lines are awesome and I'm copping stuff right and left..
Click to expand...

Harris influenced us all. :bassist:
 
#37
I started a year ago...my dad played for his band in high school. He had to give up his bass for some reason ( :crying: ) but he bought a new one a while back.( :) ) He started playing again and when I started being able to hear the bass over everything else in songs I decided to try it...I started out playing guitar though...I think, when I tried guitar, I just wanted to learn a string instrument...my guitar fetish passed and I couldn't play anything OR remember the notes so I quit and started messing with dad's bass...now, I'm trying to get really good and start a band with my friends...I have to practice more though... ;) :bassist:
 
#40
I started out in 2000 as a frontman, but once that band blew up i couldnt get another band to take me cause i didnt play any intstruments. So i got interested in guitar, bought one and later was told that my solos were too self indulgent and long. A friend suggested i play bass instead , so i listened and bought a bass and never looked back. And it took me forever to learn how to be a good frontman and play bass at the same time . But now im like the david bowie of bass/singers. lol
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back