How did you start playing bass

[electrichead]

I was a singer starting in my single digit years and had a natural talent for it. I also picked up the guitar at 11 but wasn't any good with the chords and used to just write a lot of riffs. Around 12 years old my 3 closest friends, 2 guitarists and a drummer, started playing together. The two guitarists were great song writers but mediocre singers. I figured I would see if they would let me sing what they were writing but being young future rock stars they weren't having it. They were rehearsing and writing three days a week and that meant either sit around at 12 years old while my best friends have fun, or find new friends. I chose the third option and borrowed a no name bass with a busted truss rod and twisted neck that my uncle had lying around his studio. As terrible as that hunk of junk was to play and keep in tune jamming on it was a blast and I took to it very quick.

That band played it's first paying bar gig when we were 14 years old. That summer we played 5 more paying gigs. 14 years old, having a blast with my best friends, feeling like a rock star hanging out in bars, and having a bunch of my own spending money. After that I was hooked for life. In my mid thirty's and haven't looked back.

 

[IamGroot]

I had latent bass impulses.

Played classical guitar from the age of 5. Around 1967, my father allowed an electric guitar in the house and I used to detune the strings to sound what I thought Jack Cassady on the Crown of Creation was doing.

I saw my first real bass in my first real band around 1970 - An old Fender P Bass. I played guitar and was obviously not interested in an instrument for dummies could couldnt play chords or 6 strings.

In the 90s, I played guitar for a group of musicians that would create cassettes (later CDs) for local bands to give to clubs as their own work. Usually covers. Recording was done in a rundown house with a small soundboard. We did everything except the vocals. 3 hours/5 songs. One day the bassist was a no show, so I took a Beatle Bass and played the bass parts for "Losing My Religion","If you love me like you say", and a couple of Stevie Ray Vaughn songs. Hmmm.....could I borrow the bass and practice on it?

I got hooked.

Later went to an excellent night school jazz program at the local community college and became a musician.

 

[JW56789]

How did I start playing bass?

Badly, but it's come up some since then.

 

[glocke1]

I was fascinated by the sound of the bass guitar as a kid...Led Zep and Mayalls blues breakers were my introduction to bass and I just thought it was an amazing sounding instrument and around the age of 15 or so I got my first bass.

Never really had much interest or inclination to pick up or learn another instrument although I've dabbled in acoustic guitar playing over the years, and learned enough about piano to be able to know how to play chords on that instruments but I don't have enough skill level on either of those to be of any use to anyone.

 

[interp]

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.

My story—and I suspect a lot of bass players' stories—is very similar to yours. I started on guitar and was convinced by a guitar player friend to switch to bass because the band he was starting needed a bass player. This was in 1967.

That guitar playing friend, by the way, has been a studio/touring musician in Nashville for over 30 years and has a Grammy. It helps to have good mentors .

 

[el_Bajo_Verde]

I was walking down the street with my ex and there was a busker playing guitar. She was very impressed and we stopped to listen a while. I was a bit jealous at how impressed she was so I went to Guitar Center to buy a guitar.

I left with a bass and she was never impressed

 

[jaco944]

Orchestra at school, 5th grade 1977. My dad furthered my basseness with a P bass copy and a Magnatone amp that summer.

 

[Skybone]

For some reason, the bass guitar spoke to me from the records that I heard.

Played bass before I ever picked up a guitar, and this continues some 30-odd years later.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

back in the 1990s, I was in a dual guitar band, and the other guitarist was solidly better than me.

Bassists were really hard to come by in my area, but when we did find one, he was a dream come true. Never saw a person play like that (think stanley jordan meets billy sheehan).

I was very inspired by his playing, and he made it look like so much fun, so when he quit to pursue a classical bass career dream, I figured what the heck, I would just switch to bass, we’d turn into a 1 guitar band, and continue on without having to try to find another member.

27 years later, here I am. No ragrets!

 

[inthebassclef]

I was in a remote village in Tahiti and they needed a bass player for the chiefs wedding. I was sanctioned as that person and thus have played since.
Or.... I listened to Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz album and knew immediately I must play bass and thus start my journey first on upright and electric

 

[Sgtpepper89]

I did play some bass during my growing up at some different occasions when me and the friends made bands and the guitar spots were taken by the bigger egos. But I did not concider it my real starting point as it was more noodling around and just playing roots without any real structure exept trial and error, and not really doing much practice.

Didnt play an instrument again for around 7-8 years but last winter I was visiting a friend just slightly older than me that picked up guitar a few years ago. I have always had some bad excuses in it being pointless to try learn instruments after you become an adult aswell as bad confidence in my own discipline. Doing some background check on this forum together with other sources and reading off all those people aged 50-60+ just starting out made me extremely motivated/inspired so here I am now!

I acually first bought a electric guitar first as it felt it would be more fun playing alone, but I just cant get it to completely work with my hands, especially with a pick.. But when I pick up a bass guitar I feel like I have 100% control over the instrument and my body, and all my creativity/melody/groove is let loose I concider this winter the time I start becoming a bassist for real as I am doing practice and studying in getting a solid foundation, learning note sight reading, all the theory with chords, scales, keys, proper techniques, setups etc and I am extremely happy I gave it another shot.

This forum also helps as there is a general great positive atmosphere here even tho internet often is a terrible place (GAS is dangerous for me tho so thank god im a poor student..)

 

[dxb]

I couldn't sleep one night so I went on ebay to look at guitars, but there weren't any good ones so I placed a last second bid on an old Ibanez bass. I ended up winning the auction and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

[rtav]

Back in 1978 my mom gave me a 1966 Precision bass, case and amp. My best friend got a 71 Tele and a Twin Reverb (he already could play guitar, but I never played bass before I got my bass).

I sat down with 2112 on a turntable and learned the Overture.


Loves me some bass.

 

[interp]

When I was 13 (1981), I started playing guitar, and of course, I was going to be the next Jimmy Page. At the time, I was really into Zeppelin, Ozzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, etc.--but I never really payed much attention to the bass playing on any of their records.

Then.....at 14, I picked up the 'Journey To Love' album by Stanley Clarke---but only because Jeff Beck played on it. Got it home, put the needle on the record.....first track is 'Silly Putty'........first 3 notes sound out and BAM!......I'm hooked. I never realized a bass could do that.

Not long after, I took $50 of my paper route money and bought a Hondo Bass. It was more suited for archery than music, but it got me started.

That last line broke me up. I gotta steal it.

 

[rtslinger]

My Dad jamming in the living room with a bass player friend of his I was very young, but that was the time I caught the bug. After that I got my first chance to learn how to play in elementary school at 9 years old, the upright bass was one of the instruments no one wanted accept me, my teacher didn't think I could play it I was really short back than and had to stand on a stool to play it. The thing that sucked though everyone could take theirs home to practice I only could use it when I was at school my parents seeing I really was going to keep going came to my rescue kind of and bought me my first electric bass at 11 years old $54.00. It was a Norma Japanese copy of a P but short scale I didn't continue playing upright when I got into middle school, I was already playing electric, but left handed? Not sure why coming from the right handed strung upright would I do that, but I did as a natural left handed person I filled it over and played upside down? When I start taking private lesson my instructor told me this isn't going to fly and I should switch to right handed after I mention I played upright right handed when I was younger. I had been playing upside for about two years and with a pick so, it wasn't easy as I assumed it would be to switch back, it fact it was like learning from the beginning He wanted me to learn fingerstyle, which I did think I would have an issue with but, came to realize upright and electric are to different animals, so learned technique wasn't helpful. Anyway I flipped it took private lesson for 9 years with him and 1 with another instructor I got my stuff together and have been playing a total of 50 years this year

 

[ONYX]

That last line broke me up. I gotta steal it.

It's yours! But I'm pretty sure it's in the public domain.....

 

[Maxfenderbass]

I grew up in the 90s/early 2000's so I was super into Blink 182. My dad played guitar so I started learning Blink songs on his old 70s strat. I had a friend from school who also played, when he came over he could see me struggling. He said I should consider learning bass. Borrowed my uncle's 75 P and the rest was history.
First song ever learned on bass - Anthem Part Two - Blink 182

 

[bassliner50]

Played decent guitar for a while. Nothing but crappy bass players available to me at the time. Guitar players were (are) everywhere. Decided I will play bass, the way I envisioned it. Here I am 50 years later.

 

[Rimshot]

When I was in the 5th grade, my older brother was in the 7th grade. We listened to KISS and Aerosmith and spent hours staring at the album covers and gatefold pictures. When SPidER got a Memphis Les Paul copy, the moment he was out of the house I would slide it out from under his bed and rock out, miming along to Alive II or Toys in the Attic. When he started learning, I would do what I saw him do (when it was safe to touch Excalibur) and slowly learned to play guitar.

When SPidER was in High School, he of course wanted to start a rock band. No self respecting teenager wanted to play bass, which left me to slide into the role. I took to it and discovered Queen and John Deacon and never looked back.

 

[morgansterne]

I started in a town without a name, in a heavy downpour.