What made you pick up Bass?

[vanderbe]

This statement by Jack Casady is very relatable for many bassists.

Yggdrasil Bass per Jack Casady:

The Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology, is the tree of life; to play the Yggdrasil bass is to play the low notes of existence. And the low notes are the sweetest. When I hit a good low-bottom string A and shake the ground and force wind from the speakers, I’m playing the planet through my bass. No one’s cheering or writing me checks, but it doesn’t really matter. In these moments I’m wired into deity.

 

[bassdude51]

4 strings instead of 6

 

[Hypocrite]

MTV in the early 2000's. Watching music videos by Alien Ant Farm, Korn, Limp Bizkit, P.O.D et al. I always thought the bass players looked coolest

 

[DWBass]

I played a bunch of different instruments prior to picking up the bass. Bass is the only instrument that spoke to me though.

 

[coy garcia]

I was a trumpet player(orchestra, marching band, dixie etc..) and then a friend played me Rush moving pictures...I was captivated by rock energy and bass on the lower end of the sonic spectrum. Then a moment of indecision at a local music store in 1986...a new trumpet or a used rick 4003....

 

[SunByrne]

Ever have a decision you made work out much, much better than you could possibly have hoped for? This is one of those.

I have always been a big music fan (I own probably in the ballpark of a 1,000 CDs, which for you younger TBers is a physical medium and was how music was distributed before the internet). I wanted to learn an instrument when I was a kid, but was always told there wasn't money for lessons, so I let go of the idea. There's probably a hint buried in there, though, since the instrument I wanted to learn was viola. So I never played any instrument at all growing up.

Thought about picking up bass in college because a couple friends wanted to form a band, but was just too busy and didn't think those friends would really follow through (which was almost certainly correct). Being "too busy" continued well into adulthood, but eventually the planets aligned.

It was early 2019, and my older son was getting ready to graduate from high school and go off to college. I had always been closer to him than to my younger son, and I decided I needed to do something to bond more with my younger son. He had started piano around kindergarten/1st grade (my wife and I decided early that there would always be money for lessons), and switched to guitar a couple years later. That and video games were really his two main hobbies, and I suck at video games, so it wasn't going to be that.

So I decided to learn to play bass.

I'm not a particularly patient person and I had some idea of how slowly I would learn, and so I wasn't sure I'd really stick with it but I felt like it was important to try.

Worked absolutely brilliantly. My son and I absolutely did bond over it—I may now actually be closer to the younger one, even though he too is now off to college—and it turns out my fears about sticking with it were completely unfounded. I absolutely love it, no matter how slowly I'm advancing. I've even started to learn piano, mostly to force me to learn some theory and because I want to do some composing and that's the easiest way to interact with a DAW.

 

[backin82]

As a trumpet player (at the time), I only listened to jazz and classical. Then I heard Sell Out by Reel Big Fish. It blew me away, and got me interested in stuff outside my normal routine. I picked up an acoustic to start learning guitar. Eventually I got hooked on the bass lines in ska music from Reel Big Fish, OC Supertones, and Less Than Jake, and I gravitated towards that.

Once I got an actual bass in my hands, it was all over. I put down the trumpet and the acoustic, and only wanted to play bass. Been that way since about 2007!

For me, its the physicality of the instrument (feeling the notes) and the role it plays in a typical ensemble (bridge between rhythm and tone). I have no interest in playing anything else these days.

 

[richntiff]

Well, I dropped it, so I kind of HAD to….

 

[L0stfact]

Now you know what made me pick up Bass...
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I found a hand me down first us vinyl. So pumped.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Chris Squire

 

[MegaSwing]

Necessity, pure and simple. But it was destined to happen.

 

[JRT64]

Paul McCartney, James Jamerson, Gene Simmons, John McVie, Jack Bruce. I later learned to play some guitar, but I learned bass first.

 

[edervjo]

We always had music around the house, though my folks were never players. Mom was in to classical, Dad was a country man. Grew up watching Top o' Pops, mesmerized by the glam bands, having a blast playing music for cute girls in crazy costumes. I wanted that!
Always had a knack for picking out the bass lines in music, so when my high school friends were playing guitar, I went for the bass. John deacon of Queen was who i emulated, though the stoic Entwistle and jazzy Geezer were there influencing me as well. 4 strings, four fingers, I was learning at a fast rate.
43 years later I have only played 3 different basses, through the same speaker cabs i built myself in '83.
3 albums, couple of EP's, hundreds of gigs. Still doing it.

 

[Siggy]

My band mates. In 1962 I started to learn guitar. School mates ask me to join their band. I said OK two practices and a gig (3 songs) and they said we need you to play bass.

 

[MegaSwing]

This statement by Jack Casady is very relatable for many bassists.

Yggdrasil Bass per Jack Casady:

The Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology, is the tree of life; to play the Yggdrasil bass is to play the low notes of existence. And the low notes are the sweetest. When I hit a good low-bottom string A and shake the ground and force wind from the speakers, I’m playing the planet through my bass. No one’s cheering or writing me checks, but it doesn’t really matter. In these moments I’m wired into deity.

I can totally relate.

It feels like power.

 

[drumvsbass]

This guy...

 

[eldorado2001]

Mel Schacher, especially his playing on Grand Funk’s Live Album. My brother got the album at the same time we got our first decent stereo system, and Mel’s bass playing and tone were the first that really grabbed my attention.

 

[ryco]

Because the grade school orchestra teacher said "I don't need any more Ringos!!"
She said "However I do need someone to play this" holding up a double bass viol.
No one else raised thier hand so after a bit I did. Figured McCartney played bass, and I played a little guitar, I could meld the two.
Played for about 5 years and then dropped string bass in 8th grade. BIGGEST MISTAKE of my life!! but by then had a bass guitar and was gigging and jamming. Tried "getting it back" in college, but to no avail.
The 55+ years have been fun!! Still going! peace

 

[STRMan]

When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, in a suburban town called Massapequa, I lived 5 houses down the block from a kid 4 years older than me. He played guitar, and he was really good. His name is Brian Setzer. I was friends with his younger brother Gary and I was over there all the time, and I heard Brian playing guitar. I loved it! I wanted to play guitar too, like him.

In the public school, I had to choose an instrument. Everybody told me String bass was the closest to guitar, so I took that.

I simultaneously began studying both guitar and string bass, and became decent at both instruments. I started forming bands with other young kids, playing guitar, and became principle bass in my school orchestras.

I then joined a church folk group as their electric bassist. Now I was working on 3 instruments.

After High school, I fronted a couple of original bands on guitar, while going to college and working.

Some friends of mine, who were not quite musically up to my level, asked me if I would sit in on bass while they tried to form a band to play a couple of tunes during their other friend's professional band during one of the bands breaks between sets. I said sure, why not.

We played during the break, and we had a lot of fun. They asked me to keep jamming with them. I had nothing going on, so I agreed. Quickly, I took over as the musical director.

We fumbled around, and one day 2 of the guys pulled me aside after a jam and asked how we could get better. I said they didn't want to hear what I had to say. They pressed me, and I said (wait for it...), fire the drummer. He sucked. Really sucked.

They took my advise and let him go. We started audtioning drummers. One day, I walk in, ans the drummer sitting there is probably the best drummer I had ever played with before. He was between gigs and looking for something.

It was awesome! I had played guitar in a band with this drummer before, but never bass. I finally knew what it meant to be "locked in".

We ended up becoming a pretty good band playing the Long Island club circuit.

I don't think of myself as a guitarist or a bassist. I think of myself as both. And when I write music, I'm constantly considering how the 2 instruments work with each other.

 

[Tommy Sparks]

Played guitar for 7 years or so before bass and bass was like going home. Started electrical school in 79’ and a guy in class was a bass player. When we jammed with some friends he said why don’t you play bass. I tried his and the rest is history.
Still play guitar a bit but, bass is definitely my thing.