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How many started playing the bass without playing guitar first?
- Thread starter BoatyMcBoatface
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Started playing bass 11 years ago. Chord changes will get better with practice. Your hand/finger muscles will get stronger and more flexible too. Look up some vids on YT for some warm up lessons. Could be helpful. Picked up guitar a few years on bass. I still prefer bass but will occasionally fool around with an acoustic.
I noodled around on the family piano, pots and pans, and my brother's guita for a while, but my first instrument, really, was the bass guitar. I asked my parents for a bass and amp on my 12th birthday. Still have the bass... Amp is gone, though.
I played piano at eight, Wurlitzer organ at ten, guitar at twelve, and bass at fourteen. Pedal-steel at twenty-something, and then mandolin after that. Why stop? Damn I want to learn full-blown accordion...
Me. I was always drawn to the bass. With just two fingers, I can make butts wiggle, that's a great power.
I learned bass first. It was my first instrument. All of my friends were guitar players, but the bass seemed to me like it would be a better fit.
After a couple years I learned how to play guitar after my parents bought me an acoustic. I'm glad that I did but bass is my first choice!
After a couple years I learned how to play guitar after my parents bought me an acoustic. I'm glad that I did but bass is my first choice!
Went straight to bass, no guitar first. I imagine that's actually a better path to take - I don't think there any many disadvantages - as a bassist won't end up playing a bass like a guitar, carrying guitar habits towards bass. I'm told by other bassists that I'm a "lead bass player", but there's no guitar influence there, it's just what comes natural to me when jamming.
I've just begun playing around with acoustic guitar, learning basic chords and stuff. It's pretty fun, but it hasn't influenced my bass playing at all; my bass playing, on the other hand, has definitely influenced my (extremely rookie) approach to guitar.
I've just begun playing around with acoustic guitar, learning basic chords and stuff. It's pretty fun, but it hasn't influenced my bass playing at all; my bass playing, on the other hand, has definitely influenced my (extremely rookie) approach to guitar.
I started off playing double bass in grade school orchestra 4th grade.
Dropped double bass in jr hi 8th grade and picked up bass guitar.
Tried relearning stand up in college, but even after 2 yrs 6 hrs a day it wasn't happening.
Dropping double bass is by far the biggest regret of my life, and I have quite a few! lol
Just started learning guitar as a good friend and former band mate passed away and left a copy tele to me.
Started learning piano about three years ago. Tough instrument. Wish I had started long ago!
Dropped double bass in jr hi 8th grade and picked up bass guitar.
Tried relearning stand up in college, but even after 2 yrs 6 hrs a day it wasn't happening.
Dropping double bass is by far the biggest regret of my life, and I have quite a few! lol
Just started learning guitar as a good friend and former band mate passed away and left a copy tele to me.
Started learning piano about three years ago. Tough instrument. Wish I had started long ago!
We got a dinky Yamaha keyboard for Christmas one year, and my brother and i messed around with that.
Then the next year I got a guitar. Literally made of hollow plastic but with real strings. I tried playing it but I found the left hand part hard so I just strummed. It eventually cracked into pieces.
A couple of friends played guitar, so I convinced myself bass was the way to go. It took a year or two for Santa Claus to get the message, and he delivered a hot pink Kramer bass. I eventually started bugging my parents for lessons and got into a band, and when I was 15 they finally got me a Fender.
I tried out other instruments first, but bass was the first thing I made any real music on. Since then it's been my main instrument, but in emulation of John Paul Jones I taught myself keyboards (mostly organ type stuff,) shortly after that.
When I was 19 or 20 I borrowed a friend's classical guitar, and learned some chords and such, but made little to no progress for the next 12 years. Last year I finally decided I was going to get good at guitar, so I played that pretty exclusively for a while.
But then I found Talkbass, and since then my guitars are gathering dust.
Then the next year I got a guitar. Literally made of hollow plastic but with real strings. I tried playing it but I found the left hand part hard so I just strummed. It eventually cracked into pieces.
A couple of friends played guitar, so I convinced myself bass was the way to go. It took a year or two for Santa Claus to get the message, and he delivered a hot pink Kramer bass. I eventually started bugging my parents for lessons and got into a band, and when I was 15 they finally got me a Fender.
I tried out other instruments first, but bass was the first thing I made any real music on. Since then it's been my main instrument, but in emulation of John Paul Jones I taught myself keyboards (mostly organ type stuff,) shortly after that.
When I was 19 or 20 I borrowed a friend's classical guitar, and learned some chords and such, but made little to no progress for the next 12 years. Last year I finally decided I was going to get good at guitar, so I played that pretty exclusively for a while.
But then I found Talkbass, and since then my guitars are gathering dust.
this was how I was for the longest time. I was trying to play rhythm guitar, basically playing basslines with a few chords thrown in. I finally gave up and decided to learn lead guitar, and I was able to apply a ton of stuff i'd been doing on bass. I bought a guitar scale book and its all stuff I learned in the first 3 months of bass lessons.
Well as a lot of people I played the recorder and little bit of piano in school and in middle school I took the bass because I found it cool to be the "hidden" melody only reveal when you have a subwoofer. But then I saw ( and hear ) that many pop music is quite simple so I gravited to jazz until I put my hand on a DB in college and played classical music.
I started playing guitar and did so a couple of years before starting on bass and it quickly became my preferred instrument of expression.
It was definitely a relatively easy transition for me, and it seemed like I was better from the start at playing bass than I was at playing guitar at the current point.
I knew a fair deal about chords and scales already, just seemed to translate easier to bass for me than on guitar for some reason.
I still play guitar though, and happy I do so, cause it's a neat tool when composing and recording songs.
Anyway, good luck on the bass.
I am sure you'll quickly learn how to follow the chord changes, just practice a lot, like it seems you are already doing.
It was definitely a relatively easy transition for me, and it seemed like I was better from the start at playing bass than I was at playing guitar at the current point.
I knew a fair deal about chords and scales already, just seemed to translate easier to bass for me than on guitar for some reason.
I still play guitar though, and happy I do so, cause it's a neat tool when composing and recording songs.
Anyway, good luck on the bass.
I am sure you'll quickly learn how to follow the chord changes, just practice a lot, like it seems you are already doing.
I just about finished with a college degree in trumpet before getting into bass. Since then graduate study on french horn, and a good bit of keyboard playing ('arrangers piano') but no guitar.
