How many started playing the bass without playing guitar first?

[blubass]

I picked up bass from the start. My dad had always played guitar, and during my early high school years I started hanging out with a bunch of musicians, but they all played guitar. They were looking for a bass player, so they kept influencing me subtly, telling me how cool bass was, and we should start a band. I went home, told my parents, and my dad was all too enthusiastic to buy me a bass. I started out with a tape called rock bass for beginners. It taught a lot of blues and standard rock progressions. I found it easiest to learn a simple blues bass line. It helps teach you common chord progressions like G,C,D or E, A, D. Once I was familiar with those, it made it more simple to remember 2/3, or 1/2 of the chords in other more complex songs. Was it boring to play some of that stuff, SURE!!!!!! But it was an invaluable learning tool.

Using another example, take the song, 7 Nation Army from The White Stripes (which I don't like). It's the same melody over and over..... ad nauseum. Start out learning the tabs 7-7-10-7-5-3-2. Then, say the tabs out loud with the melody until you memorize it. Then, learn the associated notes that correspond to the frets, and say them out loud.... B-B-D-A-G-F#. Pretty soon, you'd have 5 notes memorized on 1 string. There's a million ways to learn, and none of them are wrong! Pick one that works and burn up those fingers until they're callused little nubs! Best of luck!

 

[Bassa Nova]

Violin, trumpet and drums - in grade school.

Bass from age 37 on.

Never played guitar.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Started on Bass aged 59.....Never tried to learn another instrument.....Dunno why.....Life just happened that way....

Still 59....wish I'd started earlier.....

 

[jwilson67]

Started taking piano lessons when I was five, then moved on to drums and then around 15 years old picked up the bass. I was just always drawn to the instrument. The bass always seemed so much more mysterious than the guitar.

After that I learned only the guitar I had to learn for a given situation.

 

[bogwart]

I've been playing for almost 19 years and I still have zero desire to pick up a 6 string. It feels so weird to me.

 

[FunkySpoo]

Got my first bass when I was about 12. My Dad bought it from the bass player in my older brother's band. Sat in my bedroom learning songs off the radio and my records. I picked up an acoustic when I was about 18 and taught myself to play that to. I'm 54 now and still playing and I still have the acoustic I bought back then. My first bass burned in a house fire but I bought one off ebay that look nearly identical.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

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

Started on guitar forty plus years ago. Still play somewhat regularly.

Picked up bass for some studio work I'd been doing........sucked but got better.

Had the pleasure of playing guitar with some unbelievably talented bass players which put my bass chops under a microscope and I took every suggestion offered.

Joined a band as a bass player after my playing improved to help with occasional studio work that came my way, now much better prepared.

Play for pleasure now though still fill in on occasion, though the experience always threatens to unnerve me, it doesn't.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

 

[Mushroo]

Bass was my first instrument, but I've since learned to sing and play guitar, piano, and drums. Being a well-rounded musician is important to me.

 

[Doner Designs]

Son started on guitar 7 years ago. I got a bass to mess with at about the same time (at age 50). Played trumpet in HS and nothing since then.

I have had a blast with it and just recently started playing at my church. Never played guitar and don't think I will ever even want to try it. Four strings (BEAD) are all I want to deal with.

 

[KickingBass]

I played bass first and I just started learning guitar. I noticed that they're very very different animals but that being said, I felt like my knowledge on bass gave me a huge advantage and I've been learning at a rapid pace.

 

[Bassmaticmatt]

Started on bass when 15 or 16. Didn't play any guitar until years later. Only instrument I feel comfortable on is the bass.

+1

 

[Blaargh]

I never played the guitar. Both of my older brothers and my dad play the guitar, and I'm a bit of a contrarian so I picked up the bass. Guitars feel a bit too small and cramped for me, but I see if I can get to grips with it for some writing/recording ideas. I don't really feel the need to pick up any other instruments (the only other one I can play worth a damn is the harmonica), the bass is enough fun.

 

[BassGH]

I've played guitar for 35 years and bass in a committed way for just over a year. The first time I played bass several years ago, I was very drawn to it but didn't get serious about it til recently. I've barely played guitar since I got serious with the bass. Callouses are all gone. I feel like bass is now my band instrument and guitar is just for fun, for some songwriting and for figuring out chords on music I can't readily find on tab sites.

For lots of general purpose music, just looking up songs with chords on guitartab will help you with those changes. Unless you're doing note-by-note imitations of a particular bass line, chords are more valuable than tab.

I sure recommend bass lessons if you are new, at least for a few months. You can go from lame to serviceable in short order if you do. I did that,and I'm now playing in a folk group with gigs on the calendar and just hooked up on a really cool little jazz/r&b project which is gonna really stretch my skills.

Have fun!

 

[gregmon79]

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

I played bass first. Then picked up a guitar a few years later. My main thinking was that it would teach me to write and compose better. Pretty much along the same lines as you. It sorta worked. I actually played guitar more often for a few yrs barely touching the bass even. Nowadays though, I rarely touch a guitar. Bass is home to me. I still struggle with writing at times. But being in a band helps immensely. If I get stuck, I just bring what I have to the band and we build on it. That's pretty much how we write songs. Its great fun. So in short, picking up a guitar did end up helping me. What helped me and still does to this day even more is playing with other musicians/a band. That is where 80% of what Ive learned so far has come from. Sure I've learned a lot from books, tab and even a few lessons, but where I really stretch my playing is with other musicians. That is where its at!

 

[Lo-E]

I started on bass at 18 or 19 and it was my first instrument.

I did end up becoming proficient on guitar, too, but not until more than ten years after that.

 

[smperry]

I never learned guitar either. Piano->Saxophone->Bass for me

 

[PortlandBass77]

I did. I didn't first pick up a guitar until 6 years after starting bass.

 

[eekamike]

I started on saxophone while in school. A few years later I tried guitar, that lasted all of 6 months. Then I bought a bass and never looked back. I'm not interested in guitar, but I am currently trying to learn piano as well.

It would be kind of nice to have all of these replies condensed into stats, I think it would be interesting to see what instruments everybody plays.

 

[wellshuxley]

I'm enjoying seeing how your paths led you to the bass.

I should mention that I played violin in the school orchestra waaaaaaaay back in junior high. I can read music (treble clef -- still haven't gotten the bass clef down), and I understand about whole/half/quarter/eighth notes. The 3 notes in one beat still throws me for a loop, though. And my fingering technique isn't quick enough for sixteenth notes at a typical tempo. Yet.

In the orchestra, we had sheet music, so you just played what was in the page without really needing to know how it fit in with everything else.

I need to work on my ear. It's getting better - I was able to map out the roots of the chords to "Dock of the Bay" and "Blue Bayou" but it was a lot of work.

It sounds like you have the right idea! I went from tuba to bass and starting poking around on the guitar a few years later. Picking out the roots of chords to simple songs like "Dock of the Bay" is a great way to start. Also, shout out to another Bay Area bassist

 

[Afc70]

I started out on the bass- an original 62 fender sunburst p-bass which was left in our music room by an old guy who played music w/my parents.This was around 1985- There were guitars around the house when I was a child, but they never drew me in. Bass from day one!