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People who started on a bass?

#21
In my head I was a bass player before I started playing guitar, but after trying a friend's Strat I couldn't resist and bought one myself. A year after I received my Marcus Miller sig, and I'm of course a much better bassist. I still play some guitar though, I need it for recordings + it's really fun.
 
#23
Shmone said:
I started on trumpet for 7 years and now i've started on the Bass, still playing on the trumpet and I think it really helped having background knowledge in theory and in music in general.
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Man, kudos for playing trumpet.

A friend of mine plays it. I tried it, that is a really hard instrument to play.
My friend is still just a novice to advanced on it, but he must practice a lot to be able to play it.
 
#27
I started out playing bass on a guitar. I've always loved the bass, but when I was 15 I got an offer from a friend to buy his old guitar and amp for $10. So I bought it and started learing bass while saving up to buy a real 4-stringer. :)
 
#28
I started on bass. I learned to play guitar a few years later. Eventually I switched to strictly guitar for about 12 years. Last year I saw the "Rising Low" documentary and that was it. I switched back to bass just this year, its funny though, it seems to me that all of those years on guitar made me a way better bass player.
 
#29
i started on bass, i didn't like my A level maths lessons so me and my mate skived off and he taught me the bass. first ever bassline was this is the place by the red hot chili peppers. needless to say i failed A level maths but i learnt a fantastic instrument.
 
#30
The way it worked at my school system, you couldnt play in band until 6th grade, but you could play in orchestra in 5th grade, so I did just that. I played violin for one year in 5th grade then moved up to alto sax in 6th. I was a good little bugger too. I played in numerous jazz and big bands in my area outside of school, and I was first chair in my district and 2nd chair at states all the way up through high school. I picked up bass in 6th grade as well to start playing in a "band" with buddies and it was always a side project until I got to high school, when I got there, it became my heart and soul. I had a deviation for a bit in college to play guitar to fill a void, but that was short and sweet.

I am a bassist through and through
 
#32
Cz93 said:
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!
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Started on bass at 9.

I'm not sure why it "wouldn't" help. When you start on bass you are "thinking" like a bass player and developing your ear as a bass player, so it seems like that's an advantage. It seems that I can tell about 90% of the time when a bass player "started" out as a guitar player, because most (not all) of them approach the instrument differently than a good bass player would.

Personally, I think drummers that switch to bass are usually better than guitar players that switch.

YMMV
 
#34
I originally started on piano in 2nd grade, but didn't like the homework (which I later found out to be practice, essential to learning) so I quit that. Then I picked up trumpet in 5th grade, then in 7th grade when they expanded the band I switched to tuba (and yes, I was/am a fat guy) and also picked up drums cause my friend who played guitar was looking for a drummer and a bassist. When I got to high school, I really wanted to learn bass. I just figured there were enough guitarists, but bass really stuck out to me, but 6 months after getting my first bass and learning to play, I got a guitar and started on that. Oddly enough, I think learning bass first helped me with learning guitar if only for the simply fact that playing chords on bass first and getting my hands used to that made it incredibly easy to play them on guitar.
 
#35
I started playing alto sax when I was 8. Between that and bass, I picked up tenor and soprano sax. My brother got a guitar and I dabbled with that, taught myself to play a bit and taught him to play by staying one page ahead of him in the book. Then I got the instrument I really wanted... a bass. I've picked up other instruments since but I consider bass to be my primary.

Learning other instruments really helped me learn bass easier. Didn't have to learn the theory, just the technique.
 
#38
started on bass, did not even consider anything else-----was simply in love with bass for its tone and power, for its ability to seem like the river current under all the rest floating on top. Hmmm, am I getting too deep (pun intended)?:bassist:
 
#39
I started on bass. My sister had a cheap guitar that I noodled around on first, but that was only because I didnt have a bass. I played bass lines on it anyway.

Soon after, on Dec. 25 1989, I got my first bass. A Kingston. It looked like a great big fiddle... the ugliest guitar that I had (at that point) laid my eyes on. But it was a bass, and it was mine. So that nullified the ugliness.
 
#40
Violin, trumpet, piano as a kid - none of it stuck, of course - b/c why would you do what your parents told you to?

In HS, I started out singing, whoever left their instruments around, I'd fake it. It wasn't until later that I decided to pick up an instrument. And there wasn't even a thought to it - it was bass. First official insutrment. I play guitar as well now, but more when I decide I want to sit down and do some writing.
 

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