• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Was Bass your first choice?

#101
Well, no.

But I guess music wasn't a top priority at first either. I simply didn't put down the hours to become good. I got my first classic guitar and a guitar evening class at the age of 10 or something. I sang in the school choir for a while. Then I picked up sports (Bandy, Swimming etc). In my later teens I picked up the bass for the first time. We formed a sort of band out of the music class at school, but it lasted only for a year, and the bass was borrowed. Then I was back to playing guitar as a bedroom player. Fast forward about 20 years. My younger brother in law returned my electric guitar after a long time loan. I tried it, found a renewed interest in making music, and started to play in the evenings. Then I changed my job, and at the new job we had a Christmas Party Band. Gig once a year. They needed a bass player, and I decided to try again. This time, being older and at a steady income, I bought a bass. Being able to pick it up whenever I felt like it was a game changer and rehearsing for a goal even more so. I knew I wasn't a great talent, but I figured practice can make up for a lot. That was 5-6 years ago, and now I play in that band and more serious, but still hobbyist cover band. When my playing got better, I felt like coming home. Bringing the groove to the music together with the drummer is a great feeling, and as I get better, I can do some fills and other variations to spice things up. The nice thing for me is that I keep getting better. I am no speed or slap monster, but I've always got a musical ear, and as my skills improve, I just know I contribute more and more to the music total. It is a great feeling.

So even if bass wasn't my first, I can say that bass is the first instrument I can say I feel at home with.
 
Last edited:
#102
Yes and no, simultaneously. Growing up, my mom and I lived with my maternal grandparents. They had the most amazing collection of big band era jazz vinyl. My mom had all this late 60's and early 70's vinyl. And this was about the same time I was discovering contemporary rock on Mtv. The first time actually playing music popped into my head was watching the Moscow Music Peace Festival. I admit, I was taken in by Zakk Wylde. His playing was a spectacled performance and I thought "I want to do THAT!" I got my first pawn shop guitar about a month later. In that month time between the two, I had been turned on to Maiden, Sabbath, Rush, and The Who. So when I got my guitar, I found myself locking in to the groove of the bass, not the guitar parts. So, no, it wasn't my first instrument, but sorta yes, because I was trying to play bass on the wrong instrument. I got a proper bass a few months later and I haven't looked back since.
 
#104
I guess technically I wanted to be a drummer when I was about 13. Everyone told me "Well, you just need to start with a snare. Once you master that, then you can move to a kit". So my parents bought me a single snare drum to play standing up. I got bored with that REALLY fast.

My uncle was really into music, so as my musical awareness developed, I became more and more enthralled with bass. Everyone told me "Oh, you have to learn on guitar first", so I got a cheap acoustic and signed up for lessons. I HATED it. It felt wimpy and powerless.

I finally quit listening to "everyone", saved up my money, and bought a bass. A beam of light shone down from the heavens and I could hear a chorus of angels... This was my calling.
 
#105
BassHappy said:
I flew through the Song Flute course in grade school in record time. My Dad was a big jazz guy and gave me a gentle shove towards alto sax. Played it in school for a year but wasn't really feeling it. Something about that reed vibration that I found unappealing - plus I had a teacher who bullied me. Switched to bass a few months later. My Dad was uber cool. He needed to save the money to help me buy a bass so he said: "Wait two months, save your money for it, and if you still want it I will make up the difference and we will buy one for you."

So two months later - we ordered a new Old Kraftsman bass by Kay from the Spiegel catalog that came with a bass amp in 1964 for a cool $175.

View attachment 738157

And that was that....
Click to expand...

Nice- u still have it?
 
#109
Violin, double bass (briefly), trumpet, guitar, and finally, at age 16, electric bass. Because my friends were starting a band and needed a bass player. Took lessons, learned to read, gigged a lot, reading skills deteriorated ( big mistake), quit everything for 10 years, came back to electric bass, been there ever since.
 
#113
I bought a couple of guitars before I started with bass and I like them and I'll keep them but anyone can learn some chords and play them in order well enough but to really understand music I choose bass. It's the first instrument I took lessons for and that I practice daily and take seriously.
 
#114
" choice " ... not sure about choice being the right word ...

i started on piano at age 6 , then trumpet and various brass instruments at age 8 , and choir , at 12 i got a guitar ( but most of my musical friends had already been playing for years ) ... so at 13 i started on bass ...

it was more of a progression , them on a variation , than a first or last choice ...
 
#118
I started with bass, but only because I could not afford a saxophone, which was what I wanted to start with.
Had to buy myself a bass, learn the bass and then ask for some $$ from my parents for my first horn.
Turned out a lucky partnership, bass and sax are closer related than I thought on the phrasing for the music I like turns out.
For a long time I focused on saxophone and later I picked up the bass again, love them both...
I even played in a band in which the bass player was so not a bass player that I would play bass lines on the sax while he would improvise on top...he could not get the steady groove going...;-)
For a bass player he was a great painter...
Now I alternate at bass on a jam band and sax at the house practice...looking for a horn section to join...
 
#119
It was trumpet, but I don't count that. I got my first real six string...it was a Peavey Patriot. As my family couldn't afford lessons, I picked up what I could from friends, acquaintances and whoever else. I pretty much sucked and couldn't play, even though I was in Jazz Band in high school for two years, my teacher turned me down and I always got a B. Somewhere in my sophomore year I figured bass was cool because Simon Gallup of The Cure was the coolest looking one in the band and Joy Division was basically driven by the bass.

So I sold my guitar to my best friend and bought my first bass. As Ferris Bueller said "not one lesson" but bass was easier because I didn't have to make chords. Now I'm glad I had those rudimentary guitar skills to transfer over to bass and I'm a much better guitar player because of bass playing.
 
#120
Bass and Bass only; always and forever. Started with old Motown - James Jamerson then Jermaine Jackson then onto the Ohio Players and '70's Funk and R&B, then onto Parliament-Funkadelic/Bootsy then ventured into the world of Blues Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk, Thrash, Hardcore, Death Metal, Grindcore, (some) Black Metal; and somewhere in between all of that, I listened to Miles, Trane, Dizzy, Monk, Art Blakey, Billy Holiday, Stan Getz etc. ... bottom line Yes, The Bass has always been my first and only choice.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back