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People who started on a bass?

C

Cz93

Jan 4, 2009
83
0
#1
Well, it seems to be that most bass players that i read about have actually started playing guitar before they played the bass, but i want to know how many people actually started on a bass. Also, if you think it helped/hurt you in learning the bass.

And personally i started on the bass im not sure if it helped me actually starting on a bass or not so much.

well thanks for feedback!
 
#3
I started on bass. Sort of. I bought a book called, "How to Play Bass Guitar" and learned the notes on my dad's acoustic guitar.

It didn't take long before I started expirimenting with the actual guitar, but my intention was always to learn bass. I think it was only a couple of months before I got my first bass guitar.

I think it was definitely positive. It takes a certain mindset to specifically decide that you're willing to support others primarily rather than be in the spotlight, and it shows in the way bassists play bass rather than the way guitarists tend to either over simplify or over complicate bass lines. That's been my observation and opinion, anyway.

EDIT: I played clarinet for four years before playing either, but even then I found my way to bass clarinet within a year of starting. I like it when the room rumbles around me.
 
#4
My friends and I wanted to start a band, one already had a guitar, the other planned to get one, so I became the bass player, which was cool, since the next day I saw a Peavey T40 in the shop window and was amazed at how huge the strings were, having never seen a bass before.
Got my first POS bass that Christmas, and that was that...luckily I have some talent for it.
Guitar: not so much...drums: not at all!
 
#5
I never played any other instrument before bass, and for the first three years never touched anything else, i now have been playing guitar 3 years but i never call myself a guitarist i cant solo really just play punk , pop or nirvana style stuff.

But playing bass with a pick first like i did allowed me to pick up guitar with ease. I also am not the kind of person who plays guitar on bass or bass on guitar , they are different instruments and i have a technique for each.

btw i really am interested in piano and plan to learn it someday , also drums kinda but i wont ever have the room, time or enough drive for it
 
#6
i started in bass, was the first instrument i pick up, well at first it was kind of sad, cause most of my friends played guitar, and the play songs and they hear great, but when i play they were just basslines and everybody laugh just because they can´t understand the song, but this help me becuase know i can do chords, and more complex basslines, the still can´t understand why i love bass that much!!
 
#7
I started bass, was pretty much my first instrument, but I had taken piano lessons before bass for like 3 years.
In 5th grade, all my friends started playing guitar, and naturally I wanted to also. But I wanted to be unique, so I played the closest electric stringed instrument to guitar, which is bass. That is the sole reason i started bass, I didn't know anything about bass except for that it had four strings and sounded lower then the guitar.
 
#8
J. Crawford said:
I started on the bass.

I honestly dont know if it was a positive or negative because I cant go back and play something else beforehand! ;)
Click to expand...

I did NOT start on bass. But I didn't start on guitar either. My mother acquired a Hawaiian guitar which neither she nor I could play. Sounded mostly like "dying cats". My father was a drummer which meant that I had a large resistance to learning to play drums (although eventually I did). Nope, my first choice was piano lessons. My dad said, "Piano has it all. You can't go wrong learning that!" And he was right. I've never been sorry for that. BUT after a few years of study and realizing that I still sucked major on keys, I began wondering where in hell all these piano players that just rip up the keys come from? I certainly did not look to be headed in that direction.

So just to be contrary to drums I bought an old upright bass out of the classifieds. And I tell you true, it was just like the old joke. After learning the first few notes on a couple of strings I was having gigs all over the place! I can truthfully say that in my entire life I have NEVER, EVER had anyone pay me money to hear me play keys! I actually only switched to bass guitar later in an effort to reduce the amount of gear schlepped to gigs. Eventually I sold the upright and never went back. Of course, every now and then I do start jonesing for an upright again...
 
#11
Started on low brass in school (trombone, baritone, tuba). First stringed instrument was bass. I think it helped me not being a guitarist first. I play a little guitar now but I "think like a bass player".
 
#13
I started on double bass at age 11, and still play today (23). Took private lessons regularly until I was 18. Picked up electric bass around 14 y.o. and messed around with it a little, but always focused on double bass. Ended up putting it down until I was 21...picked it up for a summer, then put it back down until this past January. Now I split my time 60:40 (double bass: electric).
 
#14
I started on bass, played around with guitar, but never seriously. I'd had piano lessons ever since I was about eight and then saxophone, French horn, baritone, and then trumpet in school. So I knew about reading music and took lessons right away with bass. Went through several of Carol Kaye's books and then took it from there on my own.
 
#16
I did 6 solid years on bass then switched to guitar in a metal band. Friends all said that they thought I wrote 2nd guitar parts better because of the bass playing. I must agree because when you think about it a bass player knows how to hold the beat but can also go off on their own while staying in the pocket. It really did come in handy since the band I was in had only had one guitarist for like 3 years. So all their songs were written for only one guitar which gave me alot of options to add more texture rather than hold down the riffs.
IMHO I believe that all bassists should play guitar as well, it just gives you a better sense of what a guitar player does and helps out big time with writing bass lines.
 
#18
I played piano for quite a few years when I was younger, but grew tired of it. After a few years of not playing anything, I picked up the bass and couldn't be happier. I do have a crappy electric guitar, but rarely play it. I find it much better to focus most of your time on one instrument, rather than stretching yourself thin on a few different ones.
 
#19
I was a lead vocalist in a band, and our bass player left. I wasn't playing anything, so I got the opportunity to be the bass player/lead vocalist. I liked being able to harness the thunder. It was my first stringed instrument, but I had played baritone horn and trombone in school. I still don't play guitar.
 
#20
I started on bass. (If you not count the years of clarinet before that, totally different scene.)
Later on I picked up electric guitar,... but just so I can play it, I remained a bassist.

(I did got some gigs playing acoustic guitar for about a year and a half. Backing up a singer. When that was over I went back to being a bassist.)


I think the majority of bassists started on bass.
There might be a few "failed guitarists"... but IMO, bass is not an easier way out.

It all depends in what kinda music you are into before you pick up either guitar or bass.
If you're into jazz and funk, more likely you pick up bass.
A metalhead will more likely start out on guitar.
 

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