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The Returning Bassist Club

#42
Bassyeah, I visualize. I have to read stuff to memorize, so I write everything down. You draw a 5 x 4 grid (or 5 x 5 if you play 5-string) and you place dots on where to put the fingers.

At work I fill books and books of notes. It's not fun because people don't realize I'm handicapped and they get upset when I forget things, like their names, so I even write people's names down.

So I guess I was senile at 5 :) I just had to retrain my brain to learn things and when I realized I could learn numbers and logical structures very easily, that's what I started doing.

Music is secret arithmetical exercise - Leibnitz
 
#43
Finally a group for me! Can I get a number?
I started playing with a group of friends, "Hey Mikey, you are the big, quiet one. You play bass." Played for a couple of years in the early to mid 90's.
So last year, my son gets Guitar Hero. I grab my bass (which had become a wall decoration) and I run to the store and get a small practice amp and play along while he is playing the game. Been hooked ever since.
 
#46
NickInMesa said:
Nice story Hanson. Guess what? I have memory issues since I was a child (brain injury) and with time I developed all sorts of techniques to memorize. Basically I memory the 5x4 structure of each parts of the song, and it works pretty well.

Thou shalt be number 20 :)
Click to expand...

Always interested to hear what memorizing techniques you have. Closed head injury at the age of 15 here.
 
#47
Oh wow, I had no idea this even existed. I'm also a little late, but this fits me as well as the Mediocre club does...

I started playing way back the mid '70's in high school. Mostly self-taught by ear and guesswork, I was lucky enough to have access to a family friend's '69 P and an amp that for the life of me I can't recall the brand and a custom 810 cab. I played that rig for about three years and/but lost it when the owner moved to Japan (kinda a long commute for a high schooler). I sorta became a drummer after that, but that didn't work out too well, mostly from not being able to afford a kit. I alway intended to continue with the bass, but life and stuff...

Anyway, flash forward to last Thanksgiving when I ended up with an UGLY-ass ESP Viper 410 (my daughter's grrl-group never got off the ground) and I started messing around with it, playing through my computer's sound card (not quite as bad as it might sound...I build hot-rod gaming computers as a hobby, and my personal system's sound will rival a multi-thousand dollar home audio system - no lie). I found I was having a lot of fun and traded the EPS to GC towards my Schecter and Acoustic B20; shortly afterwards I began lessons (yes, I'm not ashamed to say that I take lessons). Today, eight or so months later, I'm playing rather better that I expected (my instructor says I'm his best bass student, and I'm proud of that) and having TOO much BIG fun and looking forward to when I can hopefully find a blues band. I'll never be a threat to John Paul Jones or Chris Squier (my original bass idols), but I don't care (much)...I'm playing again and that's enough.

Number, please - I'd be proud to add it to my sig-line.
 
#48
Heh. Started playing bass in the early 1980s while I was at my first USAF duty assignment at FE Warren AFB in Cheyenne, WY. I was taking one of my dulcimers to the missile field with me. One of the sergeants I worked with (SSgt Moore? Don't remember his name) played both guitar and bass. I agreed to teach him dulcimer if he'd start showing me bass. (I'd tried learning guitar back in jr. high and hadn't liked it much - later realized the teacher wasn't too great as a teacher, which is why I hadn't done too good...) Bought a POS fender clone at a pawn shop. Had lessons once a week or so for about 5 months. Then I got transferred to Germany, and the Sergeant ended up going to Japan; my bass got left behind in storage rather than going to Germany (limited amount of stuff you could get moved overseas...) The POS was with me but never used much since I got back stateside, two years ago dragged it out of the attic and discovered it had gotten all rusty (problem with living near the shore). Too bad to get fixed, so found a local music store and bought an Ibby SR400; plus one of the employees gives bass lessons (he's a bass player himself although plays a lot of other instruments.) Spent the first month or so unlearning some of the stuff SSgt Moore had taught me that were not quite correct (mostly technique), but am keeping it up this time, and wish I'd kept it up the first time - I'd have about 25 - 30 years of experience now if I had!
 
#51
Getting back to the bass after being out of it for over 30 years.
Loaded up my ipod with a crap load of classic rock tunes, many of which I played as a performing bassist, and thats all it took!
Marriage, kids, jobs, and other issues got in the way.
Now I have an Ibanez GSR 200 and Acoustic B20 that I picked up yesterday.
I'm back playing (relearning) the bass again!
Can I get a # please?
 
#52
Might as well get a # too. If anybody's still out there to give one. ;)
I quit playing out on NYE 96/97, due to a move to Ontario for work. Sold some smaller stuff to help pay for the move. (Stands, mic stand, lights, other odds and ends)

Fiddled around a few times, but never really got back to that level. Finally sold all my gear a couple of years ago, (after lugging it around Southern ON and back for almost 11 years) to pay bills and buy PC parts. :bawl:

Finally getting the bug again, and have a borrowed Squier Bronco to mess with between jams until I get my own rig. Still trying to get my chops back, plus with 2 little girls in the house, it's a bit tricky picking things back up. ;)

P.S. Thanks for dragging up this old thread, never noticed it before.
 

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