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What Did You Start With?

What Did You Start With?

  • Upright

    Votes: 39 10.4%

  • Bass Guitar

    Votes: 335 89.6%
  • Total voters
    374
#141
lessons .? started on piano at age 6 , trumpet around age 10 , acoustic guitar - 12 , electric - 13 , elec-bass 14 ...

plus many more , including vocals - very early / theory - early teen

does trying to figure out early synths/electronic keys count ..? still working on that ..!
 
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#143
thabassmon said:
If I recall correctly
I first played guitar, then bass guitar, then drums,

Started to study music at university. So added piano, then Double Bass, then trumpet, then sax, then flute, then violin
Somehow I also managed to fit in trombone, cello.
All of which helped me compose and arrange better for Big Band. And also allowed me to take on different gigs that I would never of otherwise had the chance to play.
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first started to play a classical guitar ( my brothers) it was the 80's and i wanted to play VH, my friends all had the jump on me by a couple of years,, but iwas hungry to learn anything. luckily, on saturday mornings on pbs there was a program "Guitar with Frederick Noad" I loved it! I ate up every episode! he was a big influence on me! I switched to bass shortly after my brother convinced me to switch his pitch was everyone plays guitar(dime a dozen). play bass and you'll always have a gig. which turned out to be fairly true.
 
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#144
dramatwist said:
I began playing bass in HS, on an upright.

What about you?

Would love to hear the stories.
Click to expand...

I'm very new to playing bass.This past May I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing baseball and ended up having surgery to repair it. I was in a cast and a walking boot, unable to put weight on my leg for about two months. I went onto Facebook marketplace and bought a used Fender Squier jaguar bass and as a Christmas present to myself I bought an Ibanez AEB5E acoustic-electric bass.
 
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#145
I'm from a tiny North Texas town, and there was no one to tell me there was such a thing as a bass guitar. Here around 1965 and listening on my pitiful portable picnic player, I was always focusing on what I thought was a guitar playing one note at a time in patterns that I saw as defining the song, so I started out on a like 2/3 scale acoustic guitar I earned selling garden and flower seeds door-to-door, picking out bass lines by the Hollies, Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Beatles etc. etc. Went to the big city of Wichita Falls with my parents, anxious to get to Gibson's Department Store for some new hot wax, when walking by a pawn shop window I see this big guitar with only four strings. My little head spun around about four times. My dad fronted me a Kingston bass with a Supro amp. The rest is bass history.
 
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#148
Started off with piano lessons in the 50's when I was 8 or 9, so that's where I learned to read music. Picked up guitar in 1965 and then bought a crap bass. In 1966 I bought both a 1965 Jazz Bass and a 1966 Fender Bassman. Played my first gig in '66 with my crappy green Japanese bass and a couple of weeks after that got my '65 Jazz. Also sang in the high school glee club '66/'67 and the A Capella choir and the Madrigals group in '67/'68.

Was a voice major in college but there was no "electric bass" in my university in 1969/1970, just stand up, so I didn't study bass. Had to take more piano lessons as part of that voice curriculum.

Then in 1971 I started touring playing bass for a nightclub group. Played 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year for 3 years. We played a wide variety of songs. Would play either piano or organ on the Country Western songs we played because the bass was so boring on the songs back then and our conga player would jump at the chance to play bass.

So I sing, play bass, guitar, and keys in about that order of competence. I can handle rhythm on guitar or keys but don't ask me to play any leads. Most of all, I enjoy playing bass.
 
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#150
I started on piano at age 6. Took up upright in the elementary school orchestra at age 9. My Dad was a professional bass player into his early 60's, and while he never gave me any formal lessons per se, he always had good advice and guidance to offer about playing as well as how to navigate the working musicians world. Our styles on upright were very different. He was a Slam Stewart kind of player and I was influenced by younger players. I started taking my Dads 2nd calls (primarily casuals work) when I was in high-school ... quite an education.

I took piano lessons until I was 15, and can and do still play keys (modestly ok) as needed for various things.
I picked up my first electric bass in my first working band in middle school (1968) and have been primarily playing electric since then (52 years).

I played in a very high quality H.S jazz band in suburban Chicago, but that was entirely on electric.

I have had a long and (mostly) happy relationship with music.
 
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#151
I was about 12 years old and I had downloaded a video from Limewire of the band The Used playing on a late night show. Their bass player was rocking out, and actually picked up his bass by the strings only and was flailing it around. I thought, "damn thats cool, what instrument is that". Next month Bought a fender squier p bass starter kit and starting picking it by the strings at the pickup (I would advise not to do this) while I was practicing.

They didn't need a bass player in HS, so I took up the drums until my school inherited an upright bass where I learned to play upright.

Went to university for performance/jazz studies in electric bass. Mainly play electric now!
 
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#152
Bunk McNulty said:
1. Violin, age 9. I was terrible.
2. Trumpet, age 11. I was terrible.
3. No-name acoustic guitar, age 12. I was less terrible.
4. Hagstrom II electric bass, age 16. Finally, I was getting somewhere.:roflmao:
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IMHO: Can I just say?:

1/ Being "terrible" on a violin, aged nine, is pretty impressive. Usually, it's excruciatingly painful on the ears, thus requiring immediate termination.

2/ You might be undervaluing your "less terrible" acoustic years, which preceded you "getting somewhere".

My personal experience tells me that understanding the basics of guitar playing is almost mandatory for a bass player; if they are going to be playing in a guitar oriented band, that is. This was certainly the case for myself.

In fact, a number of talented guitarists just didn't seem understand this at all e.g., they would say, "How come I never have to tell you what to play?; you just do it." Hmm! I wonder. Why would that be? ... okay, it's hardly rocket science, but it matters.
 
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#153
RJI777 said:
IMHO: Can I just say?:

1/ Being "terrible" on a violin, aged nine, is pretty impressive. Usually, it's excruciatingly painful on the ears, thus requiring immediate termination.

2/ You might be undervaluing your "less terrible" acoustic years, which preceded you "getting somewhere".

My personal experience tells me that understanding the basics of guitar playing is almost mandatory for a bass player; if they are going to be playing in a guitar oriented band, that is. This was certainly the case for myself.

In fact, a number of talented guitarists just didn't seem understand this at all e.g., they would say, "How come I never have to tell you what to play?; you just do it." Hmm! I wonder. Why would that be? ... okay, it's hardly rocket science, but it matters.
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Completely correct about the guitar stuff. I left out the part about getting back into guitar when I was 18. By the time I was in my mid-30s, I was known for a credible imitation of Freddie King. And playing the "Tonight Show Theme" at the end of sets. But I made a lot more money playing bass, and being the mercenary creep that I am, that's where I really started working on the craft. Today, I'm a much better bassist that guitarist.:D
 
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#159
mongo2 said:
Same here. I'm always surprised that guitarists are taken aback by that. I just tell them to play and I'll get what I need from them. Some even look a little panic stricken.
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Agreed: panic stricken, shocked; they just don't get it. But there's one thing I didn't mention. I'm sure you know this, but for the fledgling bass players who might not, there's something else you should know: How to really piss off your guitarist(s) (and induce a seriously dehabilitating insecurity complex) ~ simples, just start playing one of their solos on your bass and, well, you won't have to wait long for the reaction, trust me. I do concede that this is often quite cruel, but it's so f**king funny watching them react.
 
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#160
jaysbass2002 said:
I Live just across the border in NY. I used to go up there all the time! I also enjoy the variety of instruments and the people that work there were always top notch. I was just up there for the car show, and wished I had time to drop in.
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They did move from their original location on St. Antoine Street where they had different units for drums, guitars, keys etc. They now moved the main downtown artery ( St. Catherine St) where everything is in one large store 2 floor store.

https://stevesmusic.com/en/our-stores/

Check out the virtual visit feature. Its pretty cool.
 
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