I'm Curious

[Robert Grosz]

I'm a relative newby to bass. I played guitar since I was a kid but only picked up bass a couple years ago. And if I'm honest it's because the praise band I'm in had 3 guitarists and the bassist quit and someone had to fill the hole. So I picked it up and muddled through. Two years later here I am still trying to get it down and have a whole new appreciation for bass. So my curiosity lies in how many people started on guitar and eventually took up bass for whatever reason?
And yes I'm that guy playing the short scale bass with a felt pick because some things die hard.

 

[MynameisMe]

My path is similar to yours. I found after playing bass for a while I caught the bug and had a bass conversion experience and now I am part of the collective. You will be assimilated!

 

[Joe Nerve]

My path is similar.

Played guitar for 10 years, dabbling on bass - then got asked to join a band on bass. I was bored and up for the challenge. I had a Mustang at the time, and considered it a beginner, or toy bass. I used it until I could afford a "real" full size bass.

The guys I was playing with were AWESOME in that they let me flub around with my fingers. I really wanted to be a finger style player, and they had faith in me. It was rough going for a few months, but I finally locked in. About 25 years later, I'm absolutely certain that bass was the instrument I was born to play. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. I've had lots more success with it than guitar, and I actually did pretty well in my first bands - on guitar.

Something I realized in the 80s while I was still playing guitar. As a guitarist, even if I played awesomely, I'd be one out of a million guitarists who played awesomely. Though many don't want to admit this, I knew I could be a much better bass player in much less time - and I was right. It was far easier to land great gigs as a bassist for me, than as a guitarist. That realization came to me when I was first wanting to play covers. I was learning Sweet Child of Mine, and realized how much ridiculously easier it was to learn the bass, than all those solos. I was right .

Bass is easier.

Bass is more fun.

Bass trumps guitar always, cuz as Gene Simmons said, "A guitarist can play a C chord. If I play a G on top of that, the band just played a G."

I could go on.

I love the bass.

Oh, almost forgot - after all those years of playing every long scale bass under the sun, I'm now playing Mustangs only - for the past year.

 

[Stumbo]

I was taking guitar lessons for about 3 months when the "band" got together the first time. I was one of three guitar players to show up. I was also asked to play bass because I had the least experience.

Never looked back. Always gigging.

P.S. I also kept up my rythm guitar playing. Win-win.

 

[Chad Michael]

No guitar playing in my history - only bass. However, I've thoroughly enjoyed playing keyboards as a second instrument (even got paid to do it). Something about chord structure, hand independence, etc... still like keys to this day. Guitar - not then not now not ever. Zero appeal. Don't get me wrong - I certainly appreciate what they do.

 

[biguglyman]

I went from trumpet to tuba to bass. Once I started playing bass, I also started playing guitar and and keys. Since starting bass however, that has been my main focus.

 

[Son of Wobble]

I went from trumpet to tuba to bass. Once I started playing bass, I also started playing guitar and and keys. Since starting bass however, that has been my main focus.

Dude, bring the tuba back to rock! (and while you're at it, bring back rock).

I hear a lot of mariachi music in my part of Los Angeles, and the tuba bass lines are so great. Really brings even simple octaves
more to the listener's consciousness. Tuba cuts like a Ric

 

[biguglyman]

Dude, bring the tuba back to rock!

Wish I could afford one. &*$%ers are expensive!

 

[Ghook]

Drafted for bass in my first band (50+ years ago) I always had a six string accoustic lying around but never got good at it. 2005 I bought a Strat Pac at Sam's . (Chinese Strat and 10w amp.)Thirty some odd guitars later I realise I'm still not very good at guitar, better then I was as a kid, but not good. Fast forward to this past 6 months I decided to switch back to bass. Amazing at how reduced my effort has been playing and jamming, over guitar. An old friend, who never heard me play bass said he was floored when we jammed together. We both sounded well enough for the wives to actually comment in the positive ( many know how rare that is). So funny how life works out . Back to where I started, feeling competent and comfortable, having a great time and knowing I'm way ahead of where I was as a guitar player. My current thinking:

Bass is easier than guitar to accel at.

Being able to jam on bass takes much less time than jamming on guitar.

A competent bass player in the groove will sound better than they are to untrained ears.

The pressure of subtle competition when jamming with another guitarist is gone. Bass is a non competitive , value added component to a guitarist when jamming.

Having an intermediate ability to play guitar will no doubt improve your skills playing bass.

Noodling at low volume on my bass connects me to something I never acessed on guitar. It's a very soulful place.

 

[zontar]

I started on guitar--as far back as I can remember I wanted to play guitar.
At one point I switched to a different teacher & the music school had an option of bands & group lessons.
Part of that was learning bass as well--even though I never played bass in any of the bands I was in at that music school.
So I was reluctant in a way--but after I learned it, I found I liked it.
I still play guitar more, but I do like bass, and since I have been playing bass at church, I have been more serious about bass--so I started as a guitar player who also played bass, but now am a guitar player & a bass player.

 

[Bob_Ross]

So my curiosity lies in how many people started on guitar and eventually took up bass for whatever reason?

I started playing guitar when I was ~11 years old, formed a band immediately thereafter. The bass player in that band also played guitar, and was a better guitarist than I was...so sometime when I was about 13 years old, during a rehearsal where i was struggling to play a guitar part, she said "here, you play this (handed me her bass) and I'll play the guitar part." And it was like a lightbulb moment: That bass felt so cool in my hands! By the end of that rehearsal I knew I just had to play the bass.

It took me several years of waffling back and forth and playing both guitar and bass before I recognized that my ear and intuition were so much more aligned to the function of the bass, so I was probably 20 years old before I "came out" and recognized that I AM A BASS PLAYER. That was almost 40 years ago.

I still dabble in guitar occasionally.

 

[Ekulati]

What everyone said.

My two cents: I learned how to "play bass" by taking pop/jazz organ lessons at age 11. As for actual stringed instruments, I never actually owned a bass until I was 20. Had guitars all along, but still gravitated toward playing bass parts, if not on an actual bass.

My point is: learn theory, especially chord construction, root movement, how common progressions in both major and minor keys work, how modulations work. Stuff like that. Don't just be a "put your fingers here" kind of player.

To be a GOOD bass player you have to know WHAT note you're playing and WHY you're playing it. Oh and combined with thinking like a drummer.

 

[garp]

Bass was not my first instrument. The first stringed instrument I ever played was a hand-me-down Silvertone acoustic guitar purchased at Sears – I still have it. Bass came much later, after many years of playing trumpet, baritone horn, drums and a little piano.

 

[interp]

I think switching from guitar to bass because a band needed a bass player is the most common scenario. It was in my case.

 

[One_Dude]

I studied jazz guitar for many years. My instructor concentrated on reading music and learning chord structures all over the fretboard, along with lead playing. I played in his jazz guitar ensemble where we played material from the Berkley School of Music. At one of our rehearsals the bass player didn't show up, and my instructor asked me to fill in on bass.

Once I did that I was hooked. For the last 30 years my primary instruments have been the bass and the mandolin. I still play guitar and my training there helps me on bass and mandolin, but I no longer persue guitar only gigs. The low end and high end speak to me in ways that the guitar does not.

Thump on,

One_Dude

 

[And I]

My "full time player" days were on guitar. I played guitar for about 25 years altogether before switching to bass. For me I switched to bass because I wanted to, not out of necessity.

I was the front man in a power trio, and acid jazz / funk band, played in a 2 guitar rock band, a hip hop band (not a funk band with MCs but an actual live band playing hip hop). After all the time on guitar I realized not only that my skills had plateaued but also my interest in playing...

i had dabbled in bass and had been blessed by playing with several great bassists over the years. The thing that moved me about the music that really moved me (funk, afrobeat, hip hop, soul) was the low end. I got a squier vm jazz in 2007 and haven't regretted it even a little. I played trumpet in a funk band because it was with friends/family, i love funk, and the band was (still is) busy and in demand. But I really don't like the trumpet and was always looking for side projects on bass. Eventually I quit the band because I quit the trumpet... I'm now the first sub they call when their bassist can't make a gig.

It's been 12 years and I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be.

 

[Bodeanly]

I played guitar first, but wanted to get into a band with some older kids. Traded two Kramers and a Kmd for a bass about a half hour before the audition. Played with those guys til college. I still play guitar, but if anyone asks, I’m a bassist.

 

[kdogg]

I started playing guitar when I was ~11 years old, formed a band immediately thereafter. The bass player in that band also played guitar, and was a better guitarist than I was...so sometime when I was about 13 years old, during a rehearsal where i was struggling to play a guitar part, she said "here, you play this (handed me her bass) and I'll play the guitar part." And it was like a lightbulb moment: That bass felt so cool in my hands! By the end of that rehearsal I knew I just had to play the bass.

It took me several years of waffling back and forth and playing both guitar and bass before I recognized that my ear and intuition were so much more aligned to the function of the bass, so I was probably 20 years old before I "came out" and recognized that I AM A BASS PLAYER. That was almost 40 years ago.

I still dabble in guitar occasionally.

I had to quote your story, because it mirrors mine so closely. In my first band, I was the second guitar player. The other guitarist was a crazy good player, and also the lead singer. We had a drummer, but no permanent bass player. I was competent on guitar, but certainly wasn’t setting the world on fire. One day, our fill in bass player couldnt make rehearsal. The other guitarist says, “why don’t you play bass for today, so we can at least work on our songs.” I agreed to his proposal, and though I struggled to get comfortable initially, I loved the feel and sound of the instrument. That day, I became the permanent bass player!

Although I continued dabbling in guitar, every project I’ve been involved with since has been as a bass player.

 

[DrThumpenstein]

I took lessons on acoustic guitar from age 10 to 14, sticking exclusively to classical and worship music, being sheltered from the evils of rock and roll and jazz and soul during those years. When I finally got a chance to poke my head out from under that veil, there was a whole new, cool musical world out there! Still exploring it to this day. I don't think I even knew there was such an instrument as a bass guitar until I was 16 or so, but it only took me a couple of years to make the switch. I grew up singing bass as soon as my voice changed, and I've always had a good ear for bass lines, so the instrument comes naturally to me. I love the groove! I still have a couple of six string guitars that I noodle around on, but I'm a bassist through and through!

 

[Element Zero]

Came from Piano and Clarinet background. Played a bass one time and new it was what I was supposed to do.