Learning a new instrument? Mood experience

[BoogieZK]

Yo Girys (girls and guys).

So i've been playing bass for 21years now and i've been really into it with my previous band.
I quit the band because of the distance/rehearsal time ratio (2h car/1h effective rehearsal) trying to focus more on building a familly with my wife.

I'm doing Ok money and we did not travel much so we spared few € since Covid.

And i've always been into drums, I like the instrument, the sound, how to record it and stuff.
It hit me like a train over a schoolbus that I WANT TO PLAY IT NOW!

So i decided to take lessons at my job 'cause in France we have a company committee in which you can have price reductions on hobbies, lessons for like guitar, bass (I started this one), renting stuff like tools....
I bought an electronic drum set and i'm enjoying it very very much.

Now all my basses (including 2 customs way too much expensive) are sitting in my music room untouched.
I'm still looking for a local band to play bass with but in vain.

And it's making me Bipolar: I'm sad to leave my basses like that still i'm enjoy playing drums, bass even guitar or do some scringing (a mix between singing and screaming like an horror movie victim).
I know that it's too early to play drums in a band because i need language and more technics but i feel like i'm growing my drum playing way faster than my bass playing.

Now i'm wondering if anyone has experience the same thing?
I know i'll keep my strings for my kid but i don't like leaving instruments untouched like that.


Sorry for the long post. Hope i'm sharing something interesting here.
BZK

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

I hear you!

Last year I bought (among a bunch of other music-related things) my first ever drum kit, a ten-year-old TAMA Imperialstar in like-new condition. I found it to be the most fun I have had playing in a very long time. So much so that early this year I upgraded to a different kit a "used" TAMA Superstar Classic.

Long story short; the past 18 months have been a GASing, gear crazed, bender from which I am now recovering and the things I haven't ditched are my Fender Precision, my Fender Jazz, and all my newly acquired drumming equipment.

Depending on your priorities, you will make the time for both (bass and drumming) or one will "win out" over the other but it depends on you. As for me, I cannot bear the thought of offloading either of my basses at this point. But when I'm not playing them, I am thinking of the drums more than the basses.

 

[el murdoque]

In my experience, it's a good thing to focus. The trumpet player of a previous band is a multi instrumentalist who is competent on drums, sax, guitar and bass. When he joined that band, he had not picked up bass yet and was fairly fresh on the trumpet. His approach is much like mine - while you're fresh on a new instrument, it's best if you don't touch your other instruments and play that one you're currently learning.

Having bandworthy abilities on multiple instruments is a great thing to boast when you join a new band. That guy actually played the drums on our first record because the band was between drummers when the recording sessions were scheduled.

So don't worry that your basses gather dust while you're banging away happily at your drum kit.
You'll come back to them when the drums are not new any more.
Maybe you'll find a band as a bassist. Maybe as a drummer. Maybe you can help out on the other one if your band has need for it ...

 

[Selta]

Late fall of 2019, I finally decided I would pick up drums as well. I started off with a Roland kit, and a teacher - meeting up weekly for 30-40 minutes. Lots of rudiments, lots of awkward practice building coordination and independence. A LOT of frustration.

However, I didn't put bass down. In fact, I might've played bass MORE for the first few months. It helped me have that angle of appreciation to what I was putting together. I'd practice whatever new groove or independence building thing for awhile (30-60 minutes usually), then I'd immediately pick up my bass and play along with that from a sample loop (made in Superior Drummer 2). It VERY MUCH helped internalize it, and allow me to remember the exercise not just as rote memorizing would, but also from the bass playing, musical angle as well. It very much internalized the exercises.

We have a few threads on TB about drumming. Most are pretty slow moving, but, this one has a lot of great information and general chatter:
Ask a drummer

I really wish "Talkbass" would expand their horizons and be more welcoming to other instruments - even just a couple subforums, where individual drum topics could be broken out and followed better, rather than mismashed in one giant thread.


All in all, don't sweat if your basses sit, or if you play them. Find what works for you and stick with that. Maybe this is the beginning of you being a multi-instrumentalist who'll just sit around and compose album after album

 

[scott sinner]

Some context for my comments:
I first was a singer, I've usually always been a singer. But my first main instrument was a bass mainly because the band that asked me to sing lost their bass player. I grew to love it though.

But when I moved across states to go to law school, I was wanting to play some unusual niche music (horror folk, which had sowling in it, a combination of singing & growling) and I couldn't find a banjo or accordion player but I found a good bass player. So I switched to accordion. Next few evolutions of bands in this city, still I'm singing or similar, but I ended up playing guitar, and then keys. It sorta just fell to what I could find others that hit the right style. I had the gift of being more adaptable I guess. Covid gave me more time to introspect and I realized I really missed bass. I formed a new group, expecting fully I'd have a little growing pains since I hadn't played bass in 15 years full time. But I was actually better than I'd ever been.

So some of my thoughts from that long view are:

• It has been really helpful to get the gigs I wanted by being a multi-instrumentalist. I absolutely could have stayed on bass if I'd played genres I wasn't in the mood for.
• Playing multiple instruments didn't actually take away as much as I might have guessed from each other. I think my overall musicianship just has gone up rather agnostic of the specific instrument. I've, in a sense, gotten better at thinking of each type of instruments' role in an ensemble. Technical abilities are more transferrable than I probably thought of before.

 

[BoogieZK]

Hey!
I'm ressurecting my own thread...

I read all your comments and it's pretty what i'm experiencing today:
I'm taking lessons at my job and we are reheasing songs for the national music day in France, we'll play at job restaurant during lunch time.
So i play 1 song on drums (Sweet child O mine) and many ohters on bass, it forces me to dust off my basses and play them.

And yes like you said, I get better at both, comprehending how a band work together, what is the place of each musician in a song.
And in the best of both worlds, i don't think it this much now.
You want to play bass? Play bass, you want to play others instruments? Go ahead, It will serves you and motivate you anyway.

So thank you guys for support and good advices.