How did you get your start: Part I

[BassmanI]

OK peeps, let's delve into how you got into this fine mess known as bass playing in the first place.

For me, Freshman year of HS back in 1982 here in Buffalo, NY at South Park High under the direction of Mr. Daniel Pieczynski. I actually started on trumpet that year and my ex-BIL had this cheap Japanese Gibson ES-whatever short scale copy that he gave me. In that time, I began to learn the basics of the Bass Clef while learning Treble Clef at the same time. By the end of the year, I went exclusively to the Bass Clef by switching to the OTHER end of the brass family. Yep, the good ole' tuba. During that time, I literally played that cheap bass until it fell apart. The next year, I got as a Christmas present, my first REAL bass, which was an Antigua/Rosewood 1978 Fender Precision Bass, and had that axe for 19 years after.

 

[5StringBlues]

Already playing tuba in school band and singing in choirs.


Me and a guitar playing friend start a band and I'm going to sing. The bassist, no matter what the bass part is, is playing a 1-5 power chord to whatever chord the guitar plays.


I tell the guitarist we have to figure something out, this guys not working. He says, "Hell man , you already play a bass clef instrument, just get a bass, you'll be able to play it".


9 months later we play at our first highschool party. That was 41 years ago.

 

[filmtex]

A working guitar player who also was employed as an electrician where I was working, came over to jam with my roommate drummer. He brought a bass with him and showed me a couple of things so I could play along with them. I never looked back and bought my first bass that week at a pawn shop- a Harmony semi-acoustic. That was 1978.

 

[hrodbert696]

Bass was one of a string of instruments I dabbled on as a teenager (80s) - I took piano lessons for a year or two, had a drum kit for a little while, my main instrument was saxophone from 5th to 10th grade, but from 10th grade on I was much more focused on theater than music. I picked up a bass and amp around 11th grade but remember very little about it other than it had four strings and was black. I spent the last two years of high school at a boarding school and a kid downstairs had an electric guitar so we had fun jamming sometimes, but that was about it, and I pretty much left off when I went to college.

Later, living in NYC, a friend expressed an interest in playing bass so I offered to lend him mine next time I went home to NH. Went I got back to the City with it he wasn't home, and rather than drag it up my fourth-floor walk-up I left it in the back seat of my car overnight. Next morning the window was smashed in and it was gone, so that was it for bass in my life.

Fast forward fifteen years, I'm married with three kids, in grad school. I go to Germany to work on my dissertation, which entails six weeks in a language program on my own before they join me for the full academic year. The students go out a lot so for six weeks I find myself experiencing nightlife for the first time in forever and getting to dance again, which I love. I find myself listening to bass lines a lot and imagining playing them, constantly.

A couple of years after we get back, one of my daughters wants an electric guitar for her birthday. We're pretty broke, but my wife tells me about this new website called "Craigslist" with online classifieds, maybe we could find a cheap one there. So I browse it, and find a woman near us who is selling a guitar and bass as a package deal, at a good price. My daughter winds up with a Cort strat copy and I have myself an Ibanez GiO.

After that it's what I call "climbing the food chain." Figure out how to play again - start learning songs to a CD - when that gets boring, back on CL and see if I can find some guys to jam with - hey, we have some songs we can actually kinda play, could we actually play out? - not with these guys, try another group - another, another - Eureka! a group that actually lands a gig - it breaks up, more bands, build skills, find better groups with better gigs... and here I am.

 

[garp]

Playing trumpet, cornet and baritone in elementary school and junior high school gave me a decent musical foundation, but I soon lost interest.

By the time I got to high school, something called "MTV" had arrived on the cable box. I saw no trumpets, cornets or baritones on the tube. I decided that I wanted to become a drummer, so bought a used kit and joined a band.

A few months later, the bassist generously allowed me to borrow his Cort J clone and Peavey Basic 112 combo overnight. I remember going into my bedroom, plugging everything in, turning up the amp master to maybe 12 o'clock, and plucking the open E…and all of the windows of my parents' house rattled! I caught the bug right then and there.

 

[bassbrad]

Music was always a part of my life it seems between the radio, church and school choirs and starting learning guitar at 8 with free folk lessons at church on a borrowed guitar and also Cello in the school orchestra. Showing some promise on guitar my folks struggled to but me a POS plastic guitar for Christmas that I literally played the frets off of by my Birthday in February when the bought me a Sixties "made in Korea" not much better beater. I began doing yardwork and mowing yards soon after to earn money to buy a better guitar and by the end of the summer had enough for a Gibson LGO. Thus began my work ethic on music earning skills, knowledge and gear along the way.

I continued to play cello in school and then take Spanish guitar lessons, bartering cleaning the teaching studio for lessons.
In the sixth grade I got punished and stuck on bass after being caught messing around on an upright by the late arriving new instructor, I was playing bass lines for pop songs and having the class guess. He was thrilled as there wasn't a bass player that year and had too many cellos, darn.
I still played guitar and by this time '69 I had started playing with pro level bands doing country and pop dancehall gigs. I was even introduced to some R&B players on the other side of the tracks and played with them as well. All through Jr and Hi School, I played in bands and eventually even fronted my own band for a couple of years until quitting. One weekend I was visiting some old bandmates attending UT and saw Eric Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan who were not much older but were so far beyond me I was stunned and simply saw no option but to quit.
My senior year I was still obligated to play in the orchestra and had a spot in the Jazz Band the director wanted me to double on electric bass and putting those together reignited my interest in playing as well as hearing Jaco Pastorious and Stanley Clarke inspiring me to goals I could attain.

 

[Lo-E]

Worked at a small, local recording studio while in high school and early college. I found I was mostly listening to bass players during sessions and decided I wanted a piece of the action.

Mentioned it to a keyboardist friend in college who told me he had a bass he wanted to sell for $100 and I agreed sight-unseen. It turned out to be an excellent instrument that he sold cheap because "it wasn't shiny or anything." He put the money towards a new Westone bass he really wanted and I got started learning to play.

Took lessons on and off for a few years and played with people sporadically but didn't start playing with other people regularly until a few years after college.

 

[gln1955]

I've played guitar since the late 60's, just for my own amusement and jamming with friends. I went through a long stretch of hardly playing at all after I got married and starting a demanding job. Then in 2004, our church put together a band to play contemporary music in services and someone needed to play bass. I've always wanted to give bass a shot so I jumped on it. After playing a few years in church I felt confident enough to try out for a weekend warrior band and got my first real gigging band position.

 

[CletusMarley]

I've played guitar since the late 80s. I've played bass here and there over the years but never took it serious. About 4 years ago I picked up a bass and got serious. I wish I'd have started decades ago. Lol

 

[LiptonJigglers]

2007 (or was it 09?) Australian Prime Minister gave all pensioners $900 as a vote buying exercise.
So I bought a low cost Ibanez GSR100EX, a second hand Berhinger (Bell Ringer) cab, 400 w Ashton amp (sturdy but low budget, low quality amp) and the remainder on leads strings and cables... and maybe a 6 pack of beer..
Never had a lesson. Didn't know what I was doing. Got dragged into a band. Learned everything on the run so to speak and played my first gig by the end of the third week.
Luckily I knew the songs and how they progressed just had to learn the fretboard and scales and put it all together

 

[ryco]

Joined orchestra 4th grade in '66. Wanted to be a drummer, but there were already a zillion dummers. Orch teacher said "I someone to play this": holding up a double bass. I liked the sound of basses listening to the folk's jazz records, so raised my hand. Also played a [very] little guitar at that point being a huge Beatle fan figgered Paul plays bass - the marriage of bass fiddle + guitar could turn out useful.
Worked in the summer of '68 to buy a used bass guitar - a UniVox copy Beatle bass; and my parents pitched in and bought me a Traynor Bass-Mate YBA-2 combo amp.
Played in orch 'til 8th grade and then dropped it. Kept playing the electric up to the present point. Wish to heck I would have kept playing double bass --- but ah well.....

 

[Kaa]

Played guitar badly for years, just noodling around. One night, as a grown up, I had a dream I was slapping the hell out of a white Spector bass, and sounding like a god. I took it as a sign, and a few decades later, I'm playing bass badly. Been in one gigging band, and a semi-regular basement jam band.

 

[jdaunt]

Played guitar for 16 years, had a bass player that was consistent in trying to get together to jam, but drummers were hard to come by. He dabbled on electronic drums a bit and i had a CHEAP used bass and little 25 watt amp that i fooled around with. One day i said to him, half joking, "You should switch to drums and i'll switch to bass. Finding a guitar player has to be easier than finding a drummer."
So we both took a couple months to really seriously take on our new instruments, i got on Scotts Bass Lessons and learned a lot of the basics. And sure enough, during that time we were woodshedding, he randomly ran into a guitar player he had played in a high school band with, exchanged numbers and we've been playing together ever since for 6 years now.

 

[Jigmay]

Piano lessons > guitar > then I heard Cream "Disraeli Gears" and it's been bass ever since.

 

[Geri O]

Having a jazz trumpeter/ban director for a father and an opera singer/pianist for a mom, I can't remember a single moment growing up when music wasn't a major part of life. I started playing trumpet in 1966, making my way around all the brass instruments eventually.
Dad came home with a Blood Sweat, & Tears album with Spinning Wheel and that was my eventual move into playing bass (or downfall, as my dad put for a little while until he got used to the idea of my NOT being a trumpet player.. ). After that came Chicago, Tower of Power, Larry Graham, Weather Report, Chick Corea's Return To Forever, and on and on in that vein. Well, some prog rock, too (Yes, ELP, Kraftwerk, etc).

And here we are…..

 

[jerry]

Just neighborhood guys starting a band before we could even afford instruments or knew how to play. Man, that was fun!

 

[Nebula24]

Lots of friends played instruments. Brother had guitar. Chords and my hands weren't friends. So bass (like I can play chord if choose). And fingers no pick. Our fav bands at time had bassists that were just as lead as guitar (chili peppers, minutemen, nomeansno, primus). So could be as active or as mellow as wanted to us.