How did you start playing bass

[5thsand4ths]

My parents were fiddle players and my older brother a guitarist so it was natural to gravitate into a different instrument. I originally took classical guitar lessons then bass lessons. When I was 13 I joined a popular kids band and we played weekends at cabarets for a few of years. In high school joined the senior jazz ensemble and we won a number of jazz festivals. By the time I finished high school I felt I had already been there and done that. I left the scene entirely except for the odd year. I am now 56 and enjoy playing with a bunch old old rockers.

 

[lat]

What a great story. Good for you!! You're never too old to learn and do something new. To me that's what life's all about. The minute you stop learning you stagnate and then boom--you're just that crotchety old man, mad at everything and just existing, waiting to die. I did start playing early, 14 actually, but when I got married (albeit, it was quite late in life) and had a family, that was all that mattered to me and I stopped playing. I don't regret having done that, but when I retired, it made sense again. I don't play golf or go fishing or hunting, but I'm playing again and I love it. That's my retirement hobby, so to speak. I'm playing in a big jazz standards band, a Christian Outreach band doing all originals, and a Classic Rock Band and loving every minute of it. Even though I didn't have to learn it totally new like you, I had to relearn after all that time away. And it's ten times more fun now. I'm not so intensely serious like I was when I was younger doing it. Plus I am learning new things, like taking up painting, and doing jazz recital poetry, like back in the beatnik days. God never wants you to stop living and just exist. Live the life man, till your your last breath.

Thanks Mike,
Yep, it's a lot tougher to learn once you're dead! Do it while you can, since you never know what tomorrow will bring.

 

[isaac42]

The background is a little complex so I’ll stick to basics.

I played a little acoustic guitar and knew maybe four chords. I had been playing just over a year and didn’t know anything about licks or riffs. I may possibly have been able to play “House of the rising sun” by then.

This was 1969 I was 17 and living in a small town on the coast of BC and met two other teenagers spending the summer in Canada who happened to be from Mendocino California. One was a drummer and one was a guitarist.

They wanted to form a group while they were living on a piece of rural land clearing trees for one of their dads to build a house. They needed a bass player and I got talked into it.

Only we had no bass nor was there one anywhere in the neighbouring villages to buy, beg, borrow or steal. So I borrowed a Harmony Meteor electric guitar and we took the two high strings off, borrowed a Sears amp and turned all the controls on the guitar and amp to “Bass.”

The guitarist then set to showing me bass patterns and I spent the summer memorizing them. I didn’t really “learn” to play bass that summer, but was taught the notes and learned them by rote and repeated them.

I had no ear for chord changes at all and actually 49 years later still struggle with that. But He showed me the basic boogie woogie pattern in A and I memorized a lick for “Season of the witch” and I learned “Wipe out” and “You really got me” and similar songs.

The guitarist really had a hard time with me because I couldn’t figure out the changes to the blues without memorizing how many times each pattern had to be repeated before switching to the next chord.

“You have to feel it, can’t you just feel it?” he said repeatedly. Well no, I didn’t and couldn’t.

Like I said before, I had never played single note licks before on anything, just chords, so I had to learn how to make my fingers move around and hit one note at a time.

Well, by the end of the summer we had enough songs together to play one gig; a dance at the local community hall and it was a great success.

I returned the Harmony to its owner and didn’t get a bass until 7 years later when my first wife bought me a fretless Japanese Jazz bass copy off a Czech political refugee who had taken up banjo. I still have the bass. And the wife. You keep a woman who buys you a fretless electric bass.

I've had my wife for 37 years, but she never bought me a fretless electric bass.

 

[retslock]

I was a rhythm guitarist in a school rock band and the bass player couldn't make a gig. I've been hooked ever since.....

My drummer mate and I wanted to form a soul/funk band and in Australia at that time - 1973 - we couldn’t find a bass player who could play the styles. I was a rhythm guitarist and wasn’t that great at lead so I bit the bullet and bought a Japanese Jazz Bass copy to try and get the lines and the groove right. Boy what a learning curve! Trying to play James Jamerson, Jerry Jermott, Willie Weeks and Chuck Rainey lines kept me VERY busy. I must have been out of my mind. Anyway, here I am 45 years later still trying. When you get it right and the groove is sitting pretty, there’s no better way to go. I’ve had enough good feedback from bandmates over the years to know that at least I’m o.k at it so I keep doin’ it. Sure feels good.

 

[isaac42]

I started out as a singer. I started playing guitar as a way to accompany myself. Got together with some friends, and we decided to form a band, with me on lead vocals. We found a drummer, but never a bass player, and eyes started turning my way. I started playing bass in the most amazingly simplistic way, but eventually I got better. After 46-47 years, I've made it to barely adequate, but there seems to be a demand for overweight, middle-aged mediocre bass players.

 

[isaac42]

I started out playing guitar mostly folk music which required finger picking. With the technique I used, I played the bass parts with my thumb. A few years later, our 6th grade class had a talent show and I did a couple of numbers.

My teacher came up to me afterwards asked me if I could play bass parts like that on a bass. He had a polka band on the side and needed a bassist. So with a borrowed bass started a lifetime career and avocation. BTW, I was knocking down $40 a gig back in 1966, at age 13. Sure beat mowing lawns, washing car, or running a paper route.

I'm lucky to pull down $40 a gig now.

 

[twinjet]

I still have the bass. And the wife. You keep a woman who buys you a fretless electric bass.

This made me chuckle.
Cool thread.

I had wanted to play bass since I first heard Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You", when I was around 5 years old ('96-'97). However, the story starts much later.

The year was 2005. Eighth grade. At school, my buddy would take me to the orchestra room to fool around on the double basses during lunch. I had always wanted to play bass, but my parents never knew. Here was my chance. By January 2006, I was enrolled in my first orchestra class.

At the same time, my youth leader at church wanted to start a band. He had an old Washburn P bass. We got around to practicing a little bit and I found I enjoyed the sound and feel of playing bass. He let me take it home to practice, which really solidified my desire to have my own bass.

Around April 2006, mom helps me buy my first electric bass. I paid half of it with money I had earned working for the family business. It felt great. Next thing you know, I'm officially the church bass player and I'm studying double bass in school. Mid-semester concert featured my best friend and I playing the overworld theme to Super Mario Bros on alto sax/electric bass. Had such a blast!

After a year of playing I knew this was to be a major part of my life. Twelve years later, it still is. I've had many fun adventures, from swanky jazz nights and my first recording job to big band bashes and musical work. Best part is, I'm only 26 and know I have plenty of time for more fun!

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I'm lucky to pull down $40 a gig now.

I hear you man. Same here.

 

[Plutonium244]

I had played violin since I was six. However -- while later I would be thankful-- by the time I got to junior high there was an element of feeling forced to do it by my parents. Finally, as I entered high school (which in my town was 10th-12th), because orchestra met BEFORE school at 7 AM, and because I wasn't enjoying it all that much, I stopped. Shortly after, a few friends of mine (all about 2 yrs older) approached me.. they knew I had music training (violin). One guy played drums and two guys played guitar. They said "we need a bass player and you're it" even though I had never even held one before.

One of the guitar players (though at that stage that might be a generous assessment of his skill to call him a guitar player) had an old Kay electric bass, based on the Gibson SG, and a 40W Kustom amp that was all exposed electronics (no case cover), and a stereo speaker cabinet with a woofer that would not screw mount (stripped out holes) and so was held in place by an army belt strapped around it. He lent me those to use. Before long I bought the bass from him for $15 (1980) and somehow came into possession of a homemade 15" cab with what looked like gorilla fur on it... the rest is history.

I am the only guy out of that little terrible band (that got better) that still plays ( I am past 50 now). We did play (and for me learn how to play) together for 5-6 years, jam-band format, and we got to be fairly decent but not great, went off to college (lost a gtr player and gained a better one) and had a decent little following.

Then one guy made a tragic error... we were supposed to play a double-bill gig with a quite popular local band with whom we were good friends (having come from the same town), but this guitar player was on "tour" following the Grateful Dead, driving, with the other guitar player in tow. Well, guitarist #1 met a girl... he wanted to stay on tour to try and get with/be with her... but was too chicken poopie afraid to call the other 2 of us from the road to say he wasn't coming back for the gig... no cell phones in those days so we couldn't call him... gig day arrives, they are not back... hours pass... finally gets to be time that we had to load up all the gear (including theirs) and drive 2 hours for the gig... thinking... well, they are cutting it way too close but they'll be here... we hauled that PA etc, had to carry it all up a long metal fire escape stairs to a 2nd floor. the other band had me and the drummer play with them... so they had 2 bass players and 2 drummers that night.

A few days later, the drummer and I were offered permanent positions in that (much better) band, with which we had a pretty good run, at a higher level of skill and success than before. That was the end of my first-ever band, but the start of a long "career" in playing even though that band disbanded about 2 years later when the leader/main writer moved out of state... for quite a few years playing bass was my sole livelihood, and it took me to various points on the globe and led me to meet/play with many interesting people and some name performers. Nowadays I have a day job-- something you can buy a house and raise a family on... made the conscious decision to settle down when I got married, and stopped touring widely and living more or less hand-to-mouth; but I still chuckle about my humble beginnings, being drafted to play bass though I'd never played a note on one before. Fate, I guess you'd say. Now, I play about 60 gigs a year, but all local, and all stuff I WANT to do.

 

[4-Strings]

I started playing guitar back in '76. I played with various groups and churches over the years. Around 5-6 years ago, the bass player in our worship band at church was going to be out. They slid me over to bass that morning and I have never looked back. I enjoyed playing guitar....I love playing bass.

 

[tubamanz]

This has been a great, fun thread to read. There are aspects of many of the stories posted with which I can identify and it has really caused me to reflect on the the various parts of my musical background.

My road to bass:

Around about 3rd or 4th grade I started playing classical guitar (learning finger plucking, how to work the frets, and music reading). While I liked playing, it was more at my parents initiation than mine. I continued playing for about 5 years through the requisite 1st band and junior high talent show where I played rhythm guitar. I think we played Smoke on the Water, Cat Scratch Fever, and God of Thunder. In parallel with this I had started trumpet in 5th grade and switched to baritone/euphonium in 7th (could never play very high on trumpet). By 10th grade I had quit guitar and was seasonally alternating between bari/euph and tuba (solidifying bass clef interest and non-chorded music reading). With HS graduation came the end of my musicianship (for a time).

Fast forward 20 years - I was 38, married for 15 years, and the father of an 8 year old daughter. We started attending a new church that had a brass ensemble that played about 2x/month but had no tuba player. My wife pointed out a note in the Sunday bulletin, something along the lines of "Looking for a tuba player. We have a horn and will provide lessons." (kind of sounds like a band looking for a bass player doesn't it?) Knowing of my previous playing my wife encouraged me to give it a try. I got the horn, got my lip back in shape, and played with that group, both at church and in the community, for 15 years. (Side note: I got called a few times to sit in with a really good local quintet and play for pay. I never in a million years thought I would be a "semi-pro tubaist" )

Very recently our local church decided to plant a new church in a nearby community and my wife and I went with the plant. The new church didn't need a solo tubaist but it did need a bass player. Thinking to myself "I can remember how to finger pluck and I can read bass clef" I volunteered. Not knowing where this would end up, I decided to not invest a ton initially and bought a Squier Vintage Modified '70s Jazz bass (natural finish), a Fender Rumble 25 amp, and the Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete Edition. I had heard of tabs but decided to start with what I knew best - reading music. The thought of trying to do it by ear frankly hadn't occurred to me. I'm only about 3 months into this new journey but having a lot of fun. I've played in front of some appreciative (and very gracious) people, learned that I'm far more likely to just get song sheets with chords than scores, found a great on-line community of similarly interested people (TB!), and am thoroughly enjoying myself. The most frustrating part is there are never enough hours in the day to practice. Two things of note: I recently got to see Larry Graham perform (the former bassist for Sly and the Family Stone) amazing at 71 years old and I did learn the bass part to the theme from "Barney Miller" via tabs.

 

[ChemDave]

I was a drummer for a few years but had an interest in getting a bass guitar...why my parents purchased an inexpensive Kimberly-brand bass from a neighbor for my 13th birthday. This led to some lessons--alternating weekly bass and drum lessons with a local teacher. It was easier finding a gig as a bass player than as a drummer (and I mistakenly thought that I'd have less equipment to cart around...boy was that wrong!), so I sold the drums and continued with the bass for the last 48 years.

 

[isaac42]

I was a drummer for a few of years but had an interest in getting a bass guitar...which my parents purchased an inexpensive Kimberly-brand bass from a neighbor for my 13th birthday. This led to some lessons--alternating weekly bass and drum lessons with a local teacher. It was easier finding a gig as a bass player than as a drummer (and I mistakenly thought that I'd have less equipment to cart around...boy was that wrong!), so I sold the drums and continued with the bass for the last 48 years.

It could be true. All you really need is a bass, an amp, and a cord to connect them. Ideally, that is.

 

[thmsjordan]

I was sitting in 7th grade (1973?) band with a French horn in my hands and a surly section leader whom I hated (my luck that she turned out to be one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen later in life) when the string teacher came up to the director and spoke for a second. The band director asked us all to stand. I was the tallest and he said "you, come with me." I was taken into the orchestra rehearsal, handed a double bass and that was it. I discovered shortly after that day that my band director was a very active electric bassist in the local casuals, jazz scene. I got my first instruction from him and he later turned me over to the top local upright bassist. I soon found myself on both of their sub lists. I played my first gig at the tender age of 13 and it's been pretty steady in the 45 years since.

 

[skwee]

I had been playing acoustic guitar, but when my friends were putting together a band, lead and rhythm guitar were taken already. Thus, my journey began.

 

[Kevin Colt]

The background is a little complex so I’ll stick to basics.

I played a little acoustic guitar and knew maybe four chords. I had been playing just over a year and didn’t know anything about licks or riffs. I may possibly have been able to play “House of the rising sun” by then.

This was 1969 I was 17 and living in a small town on the coast of BC and met two other teenagers spending the summer in Canada who happened to be from Mendocino California. One was a drummer and one was a guitarist.

They wanted to form a group while they were living on a piece of rural land clearing trees for one of their dads to build a house. They needed a bass player and I got talked into it.

Only we had no bass nor was there one anywhere in the neighbouring villages to buy, beg, borrow or steal. So I borrowed a Harmony Meteor electric guitar and we took the two high strings off, borrowed a Sears amp and turned all the controls on the guitar and amp to “Bass.”

The guitarist then set to showing me bass patterns and I spent the summer memorizing them. I didn’t really “learn” to play bass that summer, but was taught the notes and learned them by rote and repeated them.

I had no ear for chord changes at all and actually 49 years later still struggle with that. But He showed me the basic boogie woogie pattern in A and I memorized a lick for “Season of the witch” and I learned “Wipe out” and “You really got me” and similar songs.

The guitarist really had a hard time with me because I couldn’t figure out the changes to the blues without memorizing how many times each pattern had to be repeated before switching to the next chord.

“You have to feel it, can’t you just feel it?” he said repeatedly. Well no, I didn’t and couldn’t.

Like I said before, I had never played single note licks before on anything, just chords, so I had to learn how to make my fingers move around and hit one note at a time.

Well, by the end of the summer we had enough songs together to play one gig; a dance at the local community hall and it was a great success.

I returned the Harmony to its owner and didn’t get a bass until 7 years later when my first wife bought me a fretless Japanese Jazz bass copy off a Czech political refugee who had taken up banjo. I still have the bass. And the wife. You keep a woman who buys you a fretless electric bass.

lol, you have a good woman if she encouraged you to play. I bet that fretless threw you for a loop. all the women I ever was with tried to get me to quit music, jealous of the attention I guess. I've played a fretless on and off over the years, it takes a bit to get used to, but I still have to pay close attention when I play one. keep those strings a vibratin.

 

[Don Woods]

I wanted to be a drummer until I heard Steve Priest from the Sweet bringing the second verse in after the guitar break on Blockbuster ! Just a couple of notes using the octave. That got me !!!

 

[PaulJSmith]

I'd played cornet in school band since 4th grade. I quit after jr. high because the high school band teacher was a legendary d*ck, and I had no interest in spending four years with him. A friend I'd met in jr. high band who played the baritone came to me one day in our freshman year (1981) and told me he was taking guitar lessons. He suggested I should buy a bass so we could start a band. I initially kind of blew it off. When I started in grade school band, I'd originally wanted to be a drummer, but the teacher steered me away from that, saying she really needed cornets instead. Well, my friend persisted with the pressure, and in the summer of '82 I went to a local music store and traded my cornet for a Lotus p-bass copy and a small Marlboro bass amp. I learned to play it by watching my friend play guitar, and I'd just mimic whatever lowest note he was playing in a chord. I eventually got familiar enough with where all the notes were on the fretboard, and started playing along with my vinyl records and cassette tapes to learn songs. First song we learned in its entirety was Peter Frampton's Breaking All The Rules. After that, I started delving into my passion for Rush, Yes, and Iron Maiden. I spent most of my teen years in my bedroom learning that stuff. Then, along came Billy Sheehan and Talas ... and completely ruined me.

36 years later, and in spite of playing 14 instruments now, I still consider bass guitar as my primary instrument.

BTW ... I got to know that high school band teacher many years later. Turned out, he wasn't a d*ck at all. He was actually a really nice guy, who happened to be very passionate about learning and teaching music. I was poorly misled by an unjust reputation.

 

[MichelD]

lol, you have a good woman if she encouraged you to play. I bet that fretless threw you for a loop. all the women I ever was with tried to get me to quit music, jealous of the attention I guess. I've played a fretless on and off over the years, it takes a bit to get used to, but I still have to pay close attention when I play one. keep those strings a vibratin.

The bass did not have fret lines on it either, just dots on the edge of the neck.

I had no amp, but we lived in a one room cabin and all I had to do was hold the bass against a wall and the walls would vibrate. It was like living inside a speaker.

Learning on a fretless, when I got an upright 22 years later it was easy to make the transition.

Regarding my wife; as long as I don't play guitar in the house, I can play electric or upright bass any time. She hates the jangly high pitched sound of guitars.

 

[EpicSteve]

Attempted to learn guitar my senior year in high school (1979) on a cheapo pawn shop electric with high action. Trying to learn chords felt like I was a finger contortionist. Just couldn't get the knack. Spent all my time noodling around trying to learn single note riffs. Went to a neighborhood jam session and the bass player took a break. Someone suggested I try to play something on his bass. Picked it up, played one note... What a rush! Been hooked ever since. I was also encouraged in the direction of the bass by the fact that I'd been listening to a lot of Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Stanley Clarke, Alfonso Johnson, Ralph Armstrong, etc.

My dad bought me a cheapo pawn shop bass (recurring theme here? Hmmm...) about 1981. It was a "Sonora" - a Korean copy of a Fender Precision for $89, complete with hardened drips in the varnish. I started playing with a pick, because I was already familiar with it from guitar and after all, if it was a good enough technique for Chris Squire, it was good enough for me! 37 years later, I still play much better with a pick, but I'm finally starting to become something less than abysmal with my fingers and thumb slapping. I graduated from the Sonora (which I modified with a Badass bridge and Schechter machine heads) to a Washburn Force 8. What a difference! These days my work horses are my Aria ProII Avante and my 1973 Ric 4001, which my wife bought for me as a surprise. As someone else said earlier in this thread, "still have the bass, and the wife!"