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How many of you put bass before everything else?

#21
When I was about 13-16 I played guitar constantly. Then I developed bad acne and was insecure about playing music for some stupid reason so I dove heavily into literature. I still played about once a week though. I was pretending to be someone I wasn't. I went to school and worked a job and was completely miserable. Around that time I bought a bass and I still played about once a week. Then at one point I was just like this sucks. So I picked up bass, played a lot, dropped out of school, went to a different school and began to enjoy life. Music means a lot to me. If I grow out of it that will be fine. For now I enjoy it. I simply don't like college. I need to get a job though. My family hates me playing music. They think I'm a bum. They used to show interested in it but not they could give a crap. Which I don't really care. My mom gets really annoyed when I play for her or something. I know I'm not JPJ but still she can at least enjoy it somewhat.





I know at this point too that I'll probably never be a rock n roll star. Do I want to? Absolutely. But I'm too ugly. I have a hard time making friends. The record industry is whack. I don't think it will happen. I would love to be in a band similar to zeppelin or sabbath or something but I have better chances winning the lottery.
 
#22
My family isn't fond of my passion for music. I've been told by my dad on more than one occasion that music isn't gonna ever take me anywhere and once laughed when I told him I wanna go to college for music. My mom's supportive for now, but I think it's only because she assume this is just a phase for me and that in two months I'll be on something else. No matter how supportive they are, I'm pursuing it.
 
#23
soundgardenis said:
When I was about 13-16 I played guitar constantly. Then I developed bad acne and was insecure about playing music for some stupid reason so I dove heavily into literature. I still played about once a week though. I was pretending to be someone I wasn't. I went to school and worked a job and was completely miserable. Around that time I bought a bass and I still played about once a week. Then at one point I was just like this sucks. So I picked up bass, played a lot, dropped out of school, went to a different school and began to enjoy life. Music means a lot to me. If I grow out of it that will be fine. For now I enjoy it. I simply don't like college. I need to get a job though. My family hates me playing music. They think I'm a bum. They used to show interested in it but not they could give a crap. Which I don't really care. My mom gets really annoyed when I play for her or something. I know I'm not JPJ but still she can at least enjoy it somewhat.

I know at this point too that I'll probably never be a rock n roll star. Do I want to? Absolutely. But I'm too ugly. I have a hard time making friends. The record industry is whack. I don't think it will happen. I would love to be in a band similar to zeppelin or sabbath or something but I have better chances winning the lottery.
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Reading this made me sad. I shared these feelings you're going through when I was younger. The only difference I see is that my mom was supportive through those tough years. I was a social out-cast back then and probably still am. I've learned to accept it.

Your a unique individual and you don't have to compare yourself to anybody, especially the rock stars you see in those music magazines. That's unnecessary pressure and you aren't being fair to yourself. Hang in there, let your bass be your best friend and you'll make it! Put these feelings into your music to help you be more determined! You will find that people admire you for who you are. :)
 
#24
^yep.

I was always the outcast, only a few friends, but I wasn't close to them. Never really had girlfriends or anything, and until I got into the bands I'm in right now, never had a big social life. Since then, music made me more friends, I've gotten closer to my friends who are musicians, been in numerous bands, and even though I'm still a socially awkward, non-charismatic guy, everythings gotten better. Music is a magical force. Invisible, intangible, impossible to understand. It's the most powerful force imaginable, you just need to know how to use it.
 
#26
Always try to have your personal life in order first. If not, you'll be playing all over the place with nothing to show for it, & because you were busy playing , you'll stop learning. You will only go as far professionally as you are prepared personally. For some reason the line is drwn there. :hyper:
 
#27
Jim Dep said:
Reading this made me sad. I shared these feelings you're going through when I was younger. The only difference I see is that my mom was supportive through those tough years. I was a social out-cast back then and probably still am. I've learned to accept it.

Your a unique individual and you don't have to compare yourself to anybody, especially the rock stars you see in those music magazines. That's unnecessary pressure and you aren't being fair to yourself. Hang in there, let your bass be your best friend and you'll make it! Put these feelings into your music to help you be more determined! You will find that people admire you for who you are. :)
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right, and don't forget that the vast majority of acts on the charts pretty much bought their way into it, so unless you have a couple million to buy your way into it or hook up with someone who has it, the likelihood of it happening is pretty much nil.
 
#29
Thanks guys. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in this world. I'm not a Rush geek or whatever haha. I know those guys shred it up but I like to see myself as the lonely bluesman. You know what I mean? I'm glad that you guys have found light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure I will too.

I just moved to California. Before I moved I ironically met a really pretty girl who was 9 years my senior. I'm 20! I was starting to make friends but then I moved. Right now I'm a rollin' stone. I'm ready to plant my roots.

I'm sure things will work out. And right now music is providing me a little bit of light while I'm searchin for a way out of this hole.
 
#30
meh, its all good. so far, im still looking for a band where i can do gigs and get payed. my grandparent are who i live with and they always give me this disaproving look whenever i ask for money. im probably gonna go to college for music, but when i tell em, theyre gonna give me the same disaproving look. its always the same. they tell ya go to school, get an education, get a "real" job. music is gonna be my real job. if someones gonna make music it may as well be me, or you, or any talented artist (not nessesarily sayin i have talent)
 
#31
I think about what Jimmy said about this lifestyle having consequences later in life when I'm older like all the time. Was it a good move to drop my plans for law school and study classical double bass at NYU? Was it a good move to drop out during my junior year to go on tour with a really big band and never go back to get my degree?

If I think about too much it makes me crazy. All I know is bass is the best thing I do and always has been, and I can't imagine myself doing anything else (except maybe cooking but now that dude from Tampa kinda bummed me out haha). So if you love it, do it, cause life can be shorter than you think. I'd rather worry about how I'm gonna pay my mortgage this month and love my job every day than vice versa. Plus, I've played with some amazing people, famous and not famous, and I've had the pleasure of touring all over the world and can afford to live in NYC where stuff is happening all the time. And I'm 23. Sure, I've played crappy gigs. I still play crappy gigs sometimes. But it's music, and as long as I've got that I can't be happier. And I moved to NYC with the intention of NOT making it "big" in one band but to be a session/broadway kind of guy. So of course I turn out to be in a hip-hop band that's making it "big" so hopefully those seldom crappy gigs can disappear altogether. Of course, I agree that the music business is really weird right now and most record deals suck and it's really hard for an artist to make money so I would say if that's your plan I don't suggest dropping your backup plans for it. My situation is sort of an exception and really just happened by luck and timing.

It's definitely a fun lifestyle, at least right now, and I think if you think you can handle it, do it. And the joy of being young and stupid is that you have time for mistakes and time to learn from them. Of course if you have financially supportive parents, it shouldn't even be a thought haha
 
#32
there's no shortage of musicians in my bloodline (in my mother's side at least) and since all my other siblings never showed interest in music beyond what they play at the night clubs i'm lucky that I have support to continue the family tradition, as it were.

I'm tossing up whether to study computer science or jazz at university at the moment....
 
#33
An artist's life is never an easy one. I think music is an art that is all encompassing. If you don't dedicate yourself to it entirely, you're only cheating yourself. As an argument for my desire to be a musician I told someone one time that I would rather be a starving musician busking on the street with an acoustic guitar slung across my shoulder than mind numbingly put forth 8 hours a day into a job that makes me wanna kill myself.

The inherent risks are massive, but there's a price to selling your soul for something.
 
#35
SMILEYSIXX said:
An artist's life is never an easy one. I think music is an art that is all encompassing. If you don't dedicate yourself to it entirely, you're only cheating yourself. As an argument for my desire to be a musician I told someone one time that I would rather be a starving musician busking on the street with an acoustic guitar slung across my shoulder than mind numbingly put forth 8 hours a day into a job that makes me wanna kill myself.

The inherent risks are massive, but there's a price to selling your soul for something.
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You know there's a middle ground between musician and suicide-inducing cubicle desk job
 
#36
Unrepresented said:
I put bass right up there before everything with a few minor exceptions:

a) sleeping, eating, respiration (really, all of the basic homeostasis ingredients)
b) personal safety
c) Toiletries and basic levels of hygiene
d) regularly enforced state and federal laws
e) financial stability (and the day job in general)
f) compromising my zombie defense plans
g) personal relationships of particular value (most notably, the one that shares a bed with me)
h) posting on TalkBass
i) BASS
j) personal relationships of lesser value
k) volleyball
l) appointment television
m) non-appointment television
n) maintaining my loyal support for the law of gravity
o) couch time
p) guitar
q) arguing with strangers on the street
r) singing in the shower
s) NPR
t) listening to music
u) trying to find cool jeans
v) feeding the cat
w) binge drinking
x) comic book conventions
y) video games
z) trying to convince the mods on TB to reverse whatever current ban I've earned:hmm:
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Uh.......has your cat seen this list?????
 
#38
I dropped out of college with one semester left before graduation because we won a tour bus in a battle of the bands contest..we took it as a "sign". For the past 18 years, in the name of BASS, I've lost relationships, been homeless, pawned my car, missed funerals, weddings, family reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Easters, Thanksgivings, 4th of July's, moved to Nashville to work and away from ALL family, racked up debt just to sell everything and pay it off just rack it up again, then lost every instrument in a fire, then buy it all again, racking up more debt....dooming me of a lifetime of work, a low possibility of being weathy or retireing early, and taking myself out of my family's social loop. :bawl: Just glad I found a woman who will put up with it all. :bassist:

BUT...my lowend friend has taken me to every US State, and a few other countries. I would never trade the 1000's of hours of playing and enjoyment. It has given me friends I would have never met, and years of crazy adventures that would NEVER have happened. I feel that Life's worth is measured in the stories you can tell not the number in your bank account.

I tame the "what if" factor by getting a day job every few years or so to remind me that I love what I do over the sacrifices I've had to make. As a personal rule, I have to keep the job for 3 months to drive the point home. As I get older, I am actually finding day jobs that I actually enjoy, so maybe the hybrid life is the one I'm settling on.
 
#39
SMILEYSIXX said:
My family isn't fond of my passion for music. I've been told by my dad on more than one occasion that music isn't gonna ever take me anywhere and once laughed when I told him I wanna go to college for music. My mom's supportive for now, but I think it's only because she assume this is just a phase for me and that in two months I'll be on something else. No matter how supportive they are, I'm pursuing it.
Click to expand...

This sounds just like my past. Telling my parents I'm dropping out of college was one of the hardest things to do....It took until last year, (after 13 years of making a living in music) for my Father to imply that I made the right decision.
 
#40
soundgardenis said:
Thanks guys. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in this world. I'm not a Rush geek or whatever haha. I know those guys shred it up but I like to see myself as the lonely bluesman. You know what I mean? I'm glad that you guys have found light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure I will too.

I just moved to California. Before I moved I ironically met a really pretty girl who was 9 years my senior. I'm 20! I was starting to make friends but then I moved. Right now I'm a rollin' stone. I'm ready to plant my roots.

I'm sure things will work out. And right now music is providing me a little bit of light while I'm searchin for a way out of this hole.
Click to expand...

I don't know about light at the end of the tunnel (unless we're talking death) but I think it's important to enjoy the light along the way. Sometimes that was hard for me to do, even when good things were happening. I was too worried about how to sustain any future success, than to enjoy more out of what was happening at the time. You don't get those days back.

I remember having to move from the east coast to California when I was a teenager. It took me 6 months make one friend, who turned out to be as much of an outcast as me. Damn good friend though. Later in life, some of my best moments (when I could still get around) was walking down rarely used railroad tracks out in the sticks. It gave me a sense of peace knowing I could be my own best friend. It's like that scene from "The Jerk"..... just me and my bass, that's all I'll ever need.......and maybe this amp........just me, my bass and my amp...that's all I'll ever need.......and.....this guitar chord......just me, my.....
 

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