If you weren't a Bass Player...

[JLW]

Trumpet. Such an impactful instrument.

 

[Kro]

Let's see, I got my formal start on piano. Not by choice, mind you. I then picked up guitar informally and sax formally all while I was still very young. I didn't pick up bass until I was in college, where it was pretty much impossible to find good bassists. The first time I seriously picked up a bass I realized I was having more fun with it than playing guitar - bass actually reminded me of sax a bit from a state-of-mind perspective.

I guess that's a long winded way of saying that if I didn't play bass I'd probably still be more focused on sax and guitar.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I'd be a drummer and then regret it for the rest of my life because of transporting gear.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

I would be a rap hype man. All the music star benefits, and you don't even have to learn an instrument. Best gig in the biz!

 

[LordRyan]

I started on Piano which is still my main instrument. Guitar was my second instrument for a long time. Then I started gigging as Bass player usually alternating with Keys. Many years later I took up Flute and got good enough to use it on gigs for a few songs. I also have an Alto Sax which I have begun practicing on again after neglecting it for years. I bought a new Ludwig drum set last year which I practice on a lot. Most recent instrument is a Mandolin. If I were to just play one instrument really well it would probably be Violin.

 

[twinjet]

What other instrument would you play?

for me it would be the drums.... when I was 10 my parents suggested I learn the cello - which I did for 6 years along with the clarinet, but when I was 13 I met a boy at my high school who played the drums and that was it...

I remember going home from school that day and saying to my parents at dinner time "I'm gonna learn to play the drums"! - my dad replied "not in this house you're not"! and that was it - my dreams of becoming the next Keith Moon or John Bonham were quickly extinguished.

my friend at school sat me at the drums one day and said your right hand goes here, left hand here and you use your feet to control the kick drum and hi-hats... and it just somehow came naturally to me and I found I could play the drums, but I knew my dad and no actually meant no.... so when I was 15 I picked up the only bass at school (it was right handed and I'm a leftie) and because I could read music I just figured out the notes and began to teach myself to play right handed.

I got my first bass when I was 17/18 and began to leach myself to play U2 songs (this was the 1980's) but when I tried to learn other songs I found it difficult - then I learnt that U2 had 'tuned down' a half step on their first 3-4 albums and I had tuned my bass to the key of U2's first albums!

anyway I've been playing bass ever since and when I was about 22 my originals band broke up and I realised my dreams of playing at Wembley or Madison Square garden had all but diminished and I needed the day job to pay for rent / food..etc... I then joined my first covers band - we got paid 2 pizza's and a bottle of Jim Beam for our first gig and got paid $25 each for our next gig - I thought I had got it made!

I still play the drums if any of the drummers I play with will let me jump on their kit for a bit and I've always said to my wife that if we win the lottery I'll buy a big house in the countryside and buy a kick ass drum kit - like Alex Van Halen uses on the video for 'Jump'.

So if you weren't a bass player - what instrument would you play instead?

Tenor sax. It's the last instrument I played and studied on before bass. I'd also study up on jazz piano, as well as actually learning drums.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

After getting burnt out playing in bands and gigging some years back I taught myself finger picking acoustic guitar. Got really good at it but realized I was sitting home by myself LOL. That transitioned into a great acoustic duo with my wife.

A

Lovely! And a nice demonstration of an old guitar adage: Your left hand is what you know; your right hand is who you are.

 

[BradH]

Drums. Played them when I was younger.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

I had to suck at violin and then at trumpet before I got to guitar, and then to bass guitar. Now bass is the only one anyone will pay me to play. In my fantasy life, I'd be one of those piano bar guys that plays the first notes of your favorite song before you've finished saying the title.

 

[Gaolee]

All I'd need is a Fender Blues Junior, a bullet mic an a half a dozen harps. Everything would fit in the back of the amp, I'd carry it like my grade school lunch box. Ah, the good life!

My son is a trumpet player. He travels light, even if he takes two instruments with him.

 

[Big Hoss]

I am pretty horrible at all of them, but aside from Bass, I play or am learning Guitar, and Drums...

 

[mikewalker]

[disclaimer] I recently spent nearly ten years gigging as a singer/rhythm/lead guitarist/frontman, but I identify as a bass player

However: I have recently acquired a nice Yamaha kit and a full set of vintage Zildjians, and am now in the process of building a DRUM ROOM. Soon I will be able to self-immolate?

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[redwingxix]

I'd go back to playing lead guitar. Apparently, I only really enjoy playing one string at a time.

 

[nilorius]

Chello or upright.

 

[Spidey2112]

View attachment 3402108 I would be a rap hype man. All the music star benefits, and you don't even have to learn an instrument. Best gig in the biz!

And have a great time doin' it...

... who says clock size doesn't matter.

 

[LYNCHMAN]

Sax...played sax for 6 years...if I hadn't switched to bass I would prolly still be playing sax...

 

[Tommy V]

i play bass, guitar, uke, dulcimer, lap steel, banjo, harmonica, and as of last week, i'm learning how to play fiddle..

 

[easyj]

Guitar....the other stringed instrument. Close enough. It even has the same number of strings, if you play a six string bass.

I was actually born a guitar player, but I choose to self-identify as a bass player.

 

[BassBrass]

I play bass and the hi brass pantheon equally, but the instrument I'd add, which I got to borrow once for a few months, was Pedal Steel guitar. You even get to sit as you create sounds that come from some cloud

 

[BassGeekJack]

I play piano and guitar too, but I think I would in any alternate universe in which I'm a musician. They're just so universal and handy solo instruments if you need that gig money and don't have a band. I'd say my main thing would be the trumpet. I used to play in elementary/middle school and I was apparently good enough to keep 1st chair all those years. Got braces one day and completely gave it up but didn't think twice about it at the time. Now I occasionally regret that I didn't keep it up, but heck I'm in my 20's so there's still time. I could be like Flea and do both