Took piano lessons at 6, trumpet in grade school, then in 7th grade got interested in guitar. I was hanging out with guitar players when a respected one said " you should try bass - you've got good rhythm and good bass players always have work". So I did try it and have been playing it now for 43 years. He was right, and I never looked back!
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What made you take up bass?
- Thread starter RonChase
- Start date
Great stories so far!
I was a guitard for about 20 years when I had a snowboarding accident. I tried to jump over a tree with with disastrous results. I had to have a plate and 6 screws placed into my left radius (forearm) and during surgery, they had to manipulate my radial nerve and move it at of the way. This caused numbness to my hand and I wasn't able to feel guitar strings. Well since I wasn't able to work during this, (I'm a paramedic/firefighter) I was very bored at home. I was playing Guitar Hero, playing the bass lines when I had the moment, "Why am I playing a video game about music when I can being doing the real thing!" So I went to Guitar Center and picked up a bass. All though I couldn't really feel the string, I could feel that I was pressing on the fat bass string!
The next day I bought a bass and signed up for lessons. The best part for me is, in the past, I only listened to half the song. I listened to the guitar and lyrics, not really listening to the drum and bass parts. When I picked up the bass, I started to hear the "whole" song verses the catchy parts. Now music so rich for me, I soak it up!
I was a guitard for about 20 years when I had a snowboarding accident. I tried to jump over a tree with with disastrous results. I had to have a plate and 6 screws placed into my left radius (forearm) and during surgery, they had to manipulate my radial nerve and move it at of the way. This caused numbness to my hand and I wasn't able to feel guitar strings. Well since I wasn't able to work during this, (I'm a paramedic/firefighter) I was very bored at home. I was playing Guitar Hero, playing the bass lines when I had the moment, "Why am I playing a video game about music when I can being doing the real thing!" So I went to Guitar Center and picked up a bass. All though I couldn't really feel the string, I could feel that I was pressing on the fat bass string!
The next day I bought a bass and signed up for lessons. The best part for me is, in the past, I only listened to half the song. I listened to the guitar and lyrics, not really listening to the drum and bass parts. When I picked up the bass, I started to hear the "whole" song verses the catchy parts. Now music so rich for me, I soak it up!
My story is a little like those old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies, when they were kids. In 1964, when we were 12 or 13, four of my neighborhood buddies and I said, "Let's start a band." We all picked an instrument and I got bass. My non-musician dad bought me a white bass from a pawn shop (Kent, I think). It was terrible and had serious neck and intonation problems. Dad got mad, returned it, and bought me a great 3-color Fender P-bass from a music store. I wish I still had that bass.
We played our own private parties and started playing school dances. Guys from other schools invited me to play with them, 'cause they didn't have a bass player. Our drummer's father owned a closed pharmacy building. One summer we cleaned it out and opened a hamburger & soda fountain shop. We made a stage out of the raised pharmacist area and played there on Fri & Sat nights.
I'm one of the few bassists I know that started on bass instead of another instrument (mostly guitar). I find that I think in bass now.
Leni
We played our own private parties and started playing school dances. Guys from other schools invited me to play with them, 'cause they didn't have a bass player. Our drummer's father owned a closed pharmacy building. One summer we cleaned it out and opened a hamburger & soda fountain shop. We made a stage out of the raised pharmacist area and played there on Fri & Sat nights.
I'm one of the few bassists I know that started on bass instead of another instrument (mostly guitar). I find that I think in bass now.
Leni
Starting a band with 4 guitarists seemed silly, and i always loved Tom Araya and Jack Bruce as a bassist/singer. This friend of mine was happy to sell me his bass once he realized he had zero talent. Kind of a " somebody has to do it " situation that ended up being a great thing for me.
Black Sabbath and Queen were the two musical influences that made me want to pick it up, but everyone I knew wanted to play guitar and I wanted to be different so I picked up the bass. Tried playing guitar but I was just horrible at it, still am, but I caught on quicker with bass and enjoyed it.
I wanted to play music and a friend of mine convinced me to play the bass for him, even tho I didn't really know what I was doing. It was a Fender Jazz, and it felt great in my hands. I loved the resonance, and I got to play through a nice Sunn combo. It was a great way to start.
Although there were lots of great players whose work I loved, it was listening to David J's work in Bauhaus that made me really appreciate the instrument. My favorite bass is still my fretless P, as well. Must have made an impression.
Although there were lots of great players whose work I loved, it was listening to David J's work in Bauhaus that made me really appreciate the instrument. My favorite bass is still my fretless P, as well. Must have made an impression.
I started out playing the guitar, but after a while all the other kids at school got really good at it, while I lagged behind, so I had the choice between being the eighth best guitarist at school or the best bassist. I chose the latter, and for a while thought I had pulled the short straw, but then I discovered Jaco, Victor Wooten and Stanley Clarke, and haven't looked back since.
Mine was my teacher at music school..Scott Henderson. In a private session, usually improv and BS, and he doesnt beat around the bush. Told me he sees my vision and lines in a more Bass line train of thought, which he was being nice, and not in a dick way. I was/am very into Ernest Ranglin. Was always maybe a bit to much percussive on the guitar. Donned on me I need to feel the funk by the way of Bass. He helped me switch my courses around. I get a little gas for my tele sometimes though lol
I'm gonna be brutally honest here.....I wanted to learn an instrument and I thought bass would be the easiest.....that was 15 years ago and it's still not easy.
Seventh grade band director heard me jacking around with an upright before class one day and switched me from trumpet to tuba in the brass band and put me on upright for jazz band and orchestra. I had just started listening to my mom's Meters and Blues Brothers records so he caught me at a really good time.
I still see him occasionally and we talk shop. He plays tuba in a popular polka band in our region. Great guy to whom I am forever grateful.
I still see him occasionally and we talk shop. He plays tuba in a popular polka band in our region. Great guy to whom I am forever grateful.
I took up bass because it had 4 strings but a guitar had 6!
I thought it'd be much easier.
Man, was I so wrong.
I thought it'd be much easier.
Man, was I so wrong.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
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- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
What made me take up bass?
I was 13, and my older brother was starting a band. He was playing drums, and he had a friend who played guitar. So they needed a bass player. My brother asked me if I wanted to play bass in their band and I jumped at the opportunity. Then I asked "What's bass?"
My first bass was a Japenese 6 string guitar with the high B and E strings removed. It had big honking fat flatwound strings and I pretty much only played the E and A strings. My next bass was a Hofner copy that eventually smashed on stage. My next bass was a real Hofner. The next bass after that was a 60s Gibson EB0. Then in 1973 I got a 1968 Rickenbacker 4001 which was my main bass for 35 years. Now I play frankensteined 5 string basses.
Well years later and I still play and my brother doesn't, and I lost track of that guitar player.
I was 13, and my older brother was starting a band. He was playing drums, and he had a friend who played guitar. So they needed a bass player. My brother asked me if I wanted to play bass in their band and I jumped at the opportunity. Then I asked "What's bass?"
My first bass was a Japenese 6 string guitar with the high B and E strings removed. It had big honking fat flatwound strings and I pretty much only played the E and A strings. My next bass was a Hofner copy that eventually smashed on stage. My next bass was a real Hofner. The next bass after that was a 60s Gibson EB0. Then in 1973 I got a 1968 Rickenbacker 4001 which was my main bass for 35 years. Now I play frankensteined 5 string basses.
Well years later and I still play and my brother doesn't, and I lost track of that guitar player.
i played piano since i was 4 years old but never really had a passion for music. until i started listening to bob marley which made me pickup guitar. i was 11. with 13 i had my first lessons with a great brazilian guitarist so i played latin and bossa which made me learn a lot of theory. when i came back to reggae and started listening to funk guitar became boring. i never liked playing melodies or solos. when i stumbled upon family man barretts "Family man in dub" album i finally decided to play bass (which i tried a couple of times before and really enjoyed it). so with 14 i started playing bass.
Sounds bad, but I started to play guitar when I was 10 or 11. As I started to play, I was about 2 years down the road and I was finding it hard to grasp. My cousin was a bassist and got me hooked on it. When I was 13 I started playing bass, my reason was it had fewer strings. In the last 2 years, I have feel in love with it deeply.
Playing drums. I got bored not doing vocals or being able to move around. I was playing a lot of sports at the time and I felt I needed to be able to move or I'd go nuts... (Still run and play when I get the chance.) I was always better at playing things more spread out than a guitar or keyboard. So, I started rocking the bass.
I was a 2nd chair viola player who hated the violinists that i was forced to sit next to. Then I realized that the tympany section and bass players were getting all the chicks so I moved to to back section of the orchestra and took up bass. Then I got a Hagstrom HIIN ($175 and I had to pay my dad back by stacking firewood) and joined up with the jazz band. Then I realized jazz was boring and rock guys were getting all the chicks. Then I grew my hair long and decided I was going to be the next Gene Simmons. Now I just like playing and sometimes worry that I'm going through a random mid-life crisis by joining a band and gigging again.
