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Was Bass your first choice?

jubl

jubl

Guest
May 26, 2015
150
274
#1
If there are other threads on this I apologize. My searches kept turning up "Stoner Bass" threads.

Did you start on bass or another instrument and drifted to bass? I've read/heard about guitarist switching because there were already guitars in the band so they took the bass or the bass player quit and jumped into the role.

My path was direct. Any music I listened to, the ear always jumped to the low end so I was either destined to play bass or drums. No matter what type of music....rock, funk, country, big band, jazz, you name it, I always caught the bass or drums. Guitar was cool and stood out, it just didn't carry the soul of the bass. The walking bass lines on Johnny Cash albums, the groove on Isley Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire, Geddy or Chris Squire were wonderful. Even liked Duane Eddy and Billy Zoom's rockabilly licks, bass in a guitar disguise.
 
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#2
I kind of knew I wanted to play bass from the start - didn't matter much bass what, either. Started on clarinet in 5th grade, wasn't too long before I was playing bass and contrabass clarinet. Had a flirtation with the bass oon as well. I did start on acoustic guitar before electric bass, but that was more a question of what was available when.
 
#3
bholder said:
I kind of knew I wanted to play bass from the start - didn't matter much bass what, either. Started on clarinet in 5th grade, wasn't too long before I was playing bass and contrabass clarinet. Had a flirtation with the bass oon as well. I did start on acoustic guitar before electric bass, but that was more a question of what was available when.
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Wow, you bought back a forgotten memory. I love the bassoon and oboe, outside of high school band couldn't picture what to do with them.
 
#5
I received my first guitar on my 11th birthday. Some cheap acoustic. I don't remember the brand. I played around with it off and on for several years. Never really had the knack for lead, but managed to play some. Mainly I played rhythm while I sang. Never in any gigging bands though. Bought a few solid body electrics and a couple of cheap amps. I did mess around with a bass whenever around friends who happened to own one.
When I was 25 I was sitting in at jam sessions once and awhile. One particular band's bass player didn't show one night. The band leader asked if I would set in on bass, which I did and was hired that night. Now I wasn't any good, but I could manage the basics. I guess you could say it was on the job training from there on.
That was 36 years ago.
I've played bass ever since. Finally music came together for me. It all started making sense. I could never be half the guitar player as I am a bass player.
 
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#6
jubl said:
Wow, you bought back a forgotten memory. I love the bassoon and oboe, outside of high school band couldn't picture what to do with them.
Click to expand...
Harass wildfowl at the local park? Yeah, if you're not good enough to go pro in the classical scene, hard to find much oon work. ;)
 
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#10
Piano as a kid/teen. Never really motivated me. Alto sax in junior high, which I loved. Years of trying to learn guitar and mostly failing. Then tried bass on a whim a year ago and realized "I'M FINALLY HOME!!!"

Too bad it didn't happen 30 years ago. :bawl:
 
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#13
When I was real young, I was really attracted to drums. But, I never ended up with a kit...
A few years later, I began realizing that I was now listening to the bass, on top of the drums.
At that point I began playing bass, then ended up studying South American and African percussion and hand drumming with many very good musicians…it kept feeling like I was studying rhythm in a broad sense.
Only bass these days, but they do seem to go hand in hand for me.
 
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#14
Always loved bass, started out on bass and always played bass. Bought an acoustic guitar a few months back
and learned the cowboy chorde, barre chords, scales etc... Just not me! I pick it up every week or so to fiddle around on a bit. It has helped when playing with other guitar players to figure out what they are playing I can look at the hands.
 
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#15
Yep. I went to see Megadeth in 1988 when I was 14. They extended the bass intro for their cover of These Boots... over a couple of minutes and that was it. It was an amazing moment I still recall so clearly. Over the years I learned to play and have gigged on guitar and drums too but bass is always where I feel at home.
 
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#16
Nope. Wanted to be a drummer but what did I know besides I liked sitting on the arm of the couch playing air drums to records. it's okay though, I just didn't know I was born for bass. I really don't mind being the guy people will hit the pause button on the video just to get a glimpse of me a generation from now.
 
#17
RED J said:
Nope. Wanted to be a drummer but what did I know besides I liked sitting on the arm of the couch playing air drums to records. it's okay though, I just didn't know I was born for bass. I really don't mind being the guy people will hit the pause button on the video just to get a glimpse of me a generation from now.
Click to expand...
Way back them I thought long and hard where my mom would let me put the beast. Bass took up so much less space.
 
#18
jubl said:
If there are other threads on this I apologize. My searches kept turning up "Stoner Bass" threads.

Did you start on bass or another instrument and drifted to bass? I've read/heard about guitarist switching because there were already guitars in the band so they took the bass or the bass player quit and jumped into the role.

My path was direct. Any music I listened to, the ear always jumped to the low end so I was either destined to play bass or drums. No matter what type of music....rock, funk, country, big band, jazz, you name it, I always caught the bass or drums. Guitar was cool and stood out, it just didn't carry the soul of the bass. The walking bass lines on Johnny Cash albums, the groove on Isley Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire, Geddy or Chris Squire were wonderful. Even liked Duane Eddy and Billy Zoom's rockabilly licks, bass in a guitar disguise.
Click to expand...

I took up saxophone in Junior High, because my eldest brother gave me his. But Bass Guitar was my first choice and I took up playing it about a year later; I even remember the exact date: July 18, 1976. Yes, I'm pretty damn old.
 
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#20
My first choice was violin actually, when I was only about 4, but my parents could never afford the private tuition or the instrument... so I ended up playing flute in school, getting classical vocal lessons, I got given a friends crappy acoustic guitar and drum kit, also had a keyboard, but found myself playing the guitar the most. So I'd say I was always mostly drawn to string instruments.

I played guitar on/off for years purely because all the basses I had ever picked up were so big they hurt my back to play, having had chronic back pain for years. My first ever favorite band has some of the coolest bass lines IMO and I always loved and noticed the bass, but it never really crossed my mind that bass was an option for me due to the size of the instrument.

Then I got offered to join a band who needed a bassist, the typical "convert the worst guitarist you can find to a bassist" scenario haha. It was a nope, until I was told there was such a thing as a short scale bass. That was the game changer for me. Bought a Mikro that weekend and found I could play the smaller bass long enough to actually get a feel for what a bass player does, without back pain setting in. Now I don't see myself playing any other instrument :D
 
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