How many started playing the bass without playing guitar first?

[Marc61]

I never really played guitar, definitely didn't start on it. During the first day of Orchestra class in 7th grade, the teacher asked "Who wants to play the bass?". No one responded so she said "You! Tall guy in the back! You're on bass." My life was never the same after that

 

[skruch]

Started on bass. Played guitar years later.

 

[DavC]

started on piano at 6 , trumpet at 8 , guitar at 12 , bass at 13 ... and many other instruments ...

but i do think that starting first on piano , and learning to read music very young , has made any other instrument fairly easy to pick up ... but learning and getting good at any new ' technique ' is the challenge ... but having the reading/theory part already learned , seems to make this easier ...

YMMV

 

[CGremlin]

but i do think that starting first on piano , and learning to read music very young , has made any other instrument fairly easy to pick up ... but learning and getting good at any new ' technique ' is the challenge ... but having the reading/theory part already learned , seems to make this easier ...

I started on tuba, and had already added saxophone and French horn before I learned bass. It was a *huge* help having previous musical experience and being able to read coming into it.

 

[wmhill]

It's complicated~~~~I started out as a bassist.... but i didn't have a bass (at the time) but I found a $40 electric guitar. so i just took the 2 "extra" strings off and started working on bass riffs. It got me started,and a few months later , I scored a real bass.

 

[petch]

I started with a loaner bass in the college dorm in 1974. I always dug the bass more than other instruments. Self-taught - I've never had a lesson. I cannot play a lick of guitar; my brain just won't work with it. It's all about that BASS anyway...

 

[-Liam-]

I'm in the same situation.
Subtle chord changes are the bane of my existence.

 

[Dan B]

Never played guitar before playing bass. I was originally a trombone player, so reading sheet music is easy (especially if it's in bass clef). I do noodle a bit on guitar, but I don't consider myself a guitarist. Bassist yes, though.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

Me, I haven't played guitar before playing bass ... I still don't play guitar

 

[staurosjohn]

Played tuba for five years (age 8-12)

added BG when I turned 15... bought a RIC... the rest... history

playing tuba, of course, helped - but never have endeavored guitar...

 

[AcadianBassman]

The first bass I ever actually held was a white Mako copy of a P-Bass minus the pick guard. It was a gift for my fourteenth birthday, I'd only been nagging for one for about two years. Never played anything but records and cassettes before hand. I took lessons with a cousin of mine who is an amazing instrumentalist. He helped me learn songs for gigs with the small band I played with on the week-ends and aided my technique a bit. By the age of seventeen, I was in a touring band. At that time, I started learning guitar chords basically by copying what I saw the other guys in my band doing. I got to be fairly good at it but never got so far as to play lead. As time went on, carpal tunnel struck due to repetitive action at my job. I stopped with guitar altogether but for some reason, bass has never hurt me in the same way. Not sure why but I am glad it didn't. Even after double wrist surgery I find I still can't comfortable play guitar for long periods but the bass doesn't bother me. So now, twenty-five years later, I still play bass, still play in a band and still love the hell out of it. And I just got my first Stingray today! Very excited to try it out with the guys. So yeah, bass was my first instrument, always was my main instrument and always will be. Not everyone plays guitar first - or even ever in some cases.

 

[twinjet]

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 bumbled on a guitar for a short while. Then the strings slowly came off as I realised I was playing the wrong instrument. Nothing I picked up on guitar affected -positively or adversely- my bass playing as I only played guitar for a few weeks.

 

[GMC]

My first instrument was the piano. Which was great for general music theory and such. I chose the bass because every one I knew were playing guitar and were good....so I didn't want to be in competition...and have to work so hard to catch up. But every band seemed to need a bassist. So I took it up when I was 15 years old...my first bass was bought over monthly installments from a catalog and was a Marlin Sidewinder in grey metallic.

 

[Mike Sorr]

I played guitar (if you want to call it that) for about a month before switching to bass. As an impressionable 13 year old I was told by my guitar teacher that my fingers were too big and fat to ever be a good guitar player. That made him a fool. But he did suggest that I might be happier playing bass, so I suppose I should thank him since here I am 36 years later still playing bass...and still not playing guitar.

 

[bongostealth]

Tried to learn drums, then guitar. But neither clicked and I could not catch on. Then learned bass and I wondered, "Oh bass... Where hast thou been? I found you without looking... Shine thy low-end wonders upon this lowly seeker!"

A few years later, the drums clicked and I was able to play. I then also learned some keyboard. But I have never cared to learn the guitar.

 

[Mastermold]

I started on piano. Then bass. Guitar came later.

 

[foolforthecity]

Played tuba for five years (age 8-12)
View attachment 858162

added BG when I turned 15... bought a RIC... the rest... history
View attachment 858164

playing tuba, of course, helped - but never have endeavored guitar...

Much like my background following the bloody two-day ordeal with a guitar(earlier post). Tuba from 6th grade through High School, but the electric bass at 13 changed it all for me.

 

[LowFish]

Started on bass in my mid 30s, picked up the guitar in my late 40s
Look into the blues, 12 bar format(I, IV V) for picking up chord changes, and learning bass patterns, and song structure fairly easy, it helped me when I started on the bass, and it will get you playing songs fast.

 

[Phildevoid]

I cannot say I started with bass. I started with guitar but was talked into learning bass by a good musician friend of mine. I think he wanted another bass player around even though he plays anything with strings. I took it up because I heard someone say it can help with guitar playing. I was not sure how at the time but did it anyway. So my motive was to become a better guitar player. After I figured out enough to make it by, I realized I wanted to practice bass, not to be a better guitar player anymore, but to become a better bass player. It was the best thing I ever learned, and am continuing to learn. I am in a few different bands and stared as a bass player in one of them since they advertised for a bass player at the time. They found out I played guitar and hinted at me playing guitar instead. Not because I was a bad bass player, but because they liked my guitar style. I turned it down because over the 10 years of learning bass, I found that I prefer playing bass.

Bass has helped me with timing, music theory, and opened the door for me to pick up other string instruments. In the end it did make me a better guitar player but now my goal is to be a better bass player. I suppose my next step would be percussion.

 

[pbass64]

Well here goes my long but short story of playing the bass. Best friend in grade 8 wanted me to play bass in a band he was starting, so I goes home ask Mom and Dad for a early Christmas gift, I wanted a bass guitar so i could join a band, Christmas rolls around, and waiting under the tree is a box that I knew had a guitar in it, there was another box as well, must be something else. Opened it up and it was a 6 string electric guitar, and the other box was a bass amp, so my folks got part of it right, I quickly learned all my bass lines on that guitar as I didn't want to be ungrateful to my parents. Quickly found a $30 bass special out there, and it was missing the G string, quickly learned to play that bass too even without the G string on it. 1976 I made a phone call south and bought a brand new unseen Gibson Ripper Bass Guitar the rest is history. Never learned to read or write music it was all by ear too. So glad for Music and playing bass guitar in my life, wouldn't have changed any choices I've made.