How many started playing the bass without playing guitar first?

[ERIC31]

Bass from the get go! I've dabbled in guitar a bit here and there but I'm a bassist all the way!!

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Me.

I played piano for years - picked up bass at age 15 because all my friends wanted to form a band but no one had a clue about bass playing. I was it, by default. Of those 5 kids, only two of us has stuck with it (and we're still buddies)

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Bass first. Got an acoustic guitar and A keyboard later for songwriting. Got an electric guitar somewhat later and ended up in a band playing guitar and keys a month later as the presumption was I'd started on guitar... Bought a bigger bass amp for the bassist to use and played guitar through a Marshall amp emulator into my smaller bass amp, which worked.


Then went back to bass.

But at school... Percussionist.

 

[kevteop]

I took up bass guitar when I was 15 because two friends had guitars. I'd never played an instrument before. As it turned out, all my favourite songs from when I was a kid had really interesting bass parts (House Of Fun, Too Much Too Young, Rhythm Stick, etc.) so maybe I should've been a bass player anyway. I took up double bass too in my 20s, and I also play a lot of synth bass now.

I've never really played guitar but I do have one for recording demos of new songs and stuff like that, and I know more chord shapes and inversions than our guitarist does, but I can't play it very well because I've never been that bothered about it. I don't really listen to much music with guitars in it.

 

[JakobT]

Started out on bass. Never played guitar, or any other instrument, for that matter.

 

[kodiakblair]

Started on bass and stayed on bass. Can finger a few guitar chords and play the alien riff thing from Close Encounters on keyboard.

 

[Short-scale]

I started off on drums and then picked up the bass about 12 years later. From then on I've been a bass player but those years spent as a drummer most definitely helped my bass playing.

 

[Crystalman85]

I did actually play bass before I played guitar. even though my first instrument was keyboards. I started playing bass at age 14 and then I started playing rhythm guitar at age 16. and after that I figure out how to play other instruments like piano, synthesizer, flute, ukulele, etc.

 

[irbass]

I did start on keyboard for a year and than i got the Bass. I don't know how to play guitar until today, i can do basics chords only and i don't have any groove on guitar.
Bass and keyboard is my thing.

 

[2saddleslab]

Started w/ bass, still w/ bass. Just like my musical career in general, started with nothing and still have most of it left.

 

[Nev375]

Started on bass when I was 17 or so. Dabbled on guitar and other instruments but not enough to gain any skill whatsoever on them. Later started building new guitar-like instruments like my baritone octaved 9 string guitar that felt more natural and comfortable to the scale length and string spacing I was used to.

But I'm still a bassist.

 

[kleinenenten]

Yeah my school teachers had nothing to do with the "why". We were taught to read and repeat. Suppose it was assumed we would "get" it, or shove that instruction off to our university professors. College music theory totally didn't do anything for me either. Writing chord sequences may have been the least illuminating task I ever undertook. Nothing clicked for me until I was able to map out theory on the fretboard.

It was in high school where some of the guys said: hey come play with our band. You know, electric guitars and drums. Not the pep band or the jazz band. Kids who wanted to rock. With me on sax? I was like: where's the music? Sobering moment to realize I couldn't play anything without sheet music to tell me what to do.

Wife's the same way. She's a classically trained violinist, I'm a mostly self-taught bassist who likes metal (and other stuff, too!). I'd love to play with her and have tried to get her to jam, but without sheet music she's dead in the water. No improv skills to speak of. I've taught myself basic theory, so I can at least catch in if I'm told the key or something.

Anyway, I started on bass in high school. About 15 years later I picked up guitar, but am still primarily a bassist. My guitar playing has a lot of catching up to do!

 

[blocka]

Played double bass in primary school orchestra then in high school my cousin gave me his bass guitar. From then on that's what I knew I wanted to play, I have tried regular guitar and own a couple but I suck and they just don't feel right.

 

[mindwell]

My seventh-grade band teacher, Mr. Boner, insisted that I move from cello to bass. Thirty-five years later here I still am.

 

[socialleper]

I tinkered around with my sister's acoustic before I got my bass. I've only ever been a bass player.

 

[oldcatfish]

Hi,

I just started playing the bass about a month ago. I'm having an absolute blast, but there's so much to learn. On the other hand, if there wasn't so much to learn, I don't think it'd be nearly as much fun.

I never learned how to play the guitar, so picking up on where the chord changes are in a song is a little harder for me than I like to admit. (Great, so admit it in a HUGE public forum. Well, as they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem.)

Anyway, as the thread title says, how many of you started playing the bass without playing guitar first? Was it easy for you to pick up on chord changes?

If you played guitar first before picking up the bass, did you find that it helped? Were there any guitar playing habits you wished you hadn't brought to playing the bass?

Thanks for any insight!

- Melissa

Welcome to the forum. I started on guitar when I was a teen. Took lessons for awhile and got decent enough to get gigs, but I never really felt like I was a natural at guitar. I have a lot of musician friends and I always felt like I had to work twice as hard as them to pick things up. When I was in my 20's (I'm late 40's now), I learned a bit of piano/keyboard.

When I was around 30, I was in a music store buying guitar strings and saw a used bass for a good price. I had tinkered with a band mates bass a few times and thought that it had been fun, so I made an impulse buy. Within a few weeks, I picked up things very quickly and started gigging the bass after 2 months. Playing guitar first definitely helped...I already knew where the notes were on the fretboard, I knew music theory, and I had dexterity in both hands even though the technique is different on bass.

When I was around 40, the same music store that I bought the bass at went out of business and had Abigail clearance sale. I bought a drum set for my kids....though they tinker with it and can play along with songs, I actually gig as a drummer on occasion.

Despite my history, I consider myself a bassist first. I feel much more comfortable with it, and I play bass to destress. I never have gigged as a piano player. I currently gig more as a guitar player, and occasionally as a drummer, but I love gigging as a bass player.

By the way, 2 of my kids also play multiple instruments, and one gigs as a bass player regularly.

As for picking up chord changes, that comes with time and practice. Though I read both standard notation and tabs, I generally don't use them. I do use chord charts to save time though. You might try the chord charts for more complex songs, and try learning easier songs by ear.

And bad habits...just really one. I can't play Ibanez type basses, because the skinny necks feel too much like a guitar--I end up putting too many fills in songs. I become the dreaded "lead bassist." Not a problem with Fender or Musicman type instruments though, so I stick with them. Too bad, because I like Ibanez basses--they sound great and are very light.

 

[BassNamedRosie]

Had a guitar but never played it as it did not interest me. Oneday (early high school) i walk into a music shop and i see a black Cort Action (old shape with the square headstock). That was it for me, love at first sight. My brother was a drummer and also played guitar (still does), so bass felt like a natural step foor me.

I think if you learn to play bass before guitar you approach your music differently. The rythm of a song is foremost on my mind when writing.

 

[Killens84]

I've never learned guitar. I started playing trumpet when I was 12, and picked up bass as a sophomore music major in college. 12 years later, my bass skills have surpassed my trumpet skills.

 

[Hounddog409]

I did.
Played drums and sax before picking up the bass.

 

[Wolfenstein666]

I played snare in the grade school band, which really helped with my timing. I learned to read music and that was another huge help. But I put it down my 8th grade year, and didn't touch an instrument till about 5 years later when I bought my first bass. I never played guitar or anything else, went straight to bass. Best (and most expensive) decision I've ever made.