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When did you become a bassist?

#21
I was encouraged to play bass. I played guitar only back then and we needed a bass player. Best thing I ever did. Not only did it make guitar easier to play and understand, I found bass to be a lot more fun. I was never one who craved the limelight so bass fit me real well. I play the instrument that most people don't realize is there until it is not there. Since picking it up over 10 years ago, it helped me pick up a few other instruments like banjo and mandolin.

But back to the point, I think I could venture to call myself a bass player when people asked me to play bass for them in their bands. When someone hears you and likes what you are doing, and not looking to just fill a slot, that feels pretty good. Also, when I started gigging with my upright. That was when I felt like I was on the right road to being a bassist.
 
#22
From the minute I bought my first bass, I was a bass player and announced it to anyone that would listen.
It wasn't until 10 years later that I realized I didn't know anything about playing bass and set out to learn and improve.
Thank God for that decade of ignorant bliss. Had I been critical of my talent and skill, I might have quit and missed all the fun, parties, stories to tell my grandkids and all the incredible musicians I met during that time.
If you have a bass and you play it regularly, you're a bass player.
Just keep playing and you'll be better than most but not as good as some. That's the way it works.
There's always someone bigger, badder and more ferocious on the bass and that's what keeps me striving to improve.
Bass cat.jpg
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#23
T Bay said:
I know we all keep learning as long as we live, but when did you consider yourself as being able to play as opposed to just learning? I am still well in the learning phase but wondered what others thought? So was it when you could play most/ anything put in front of you? When you could hear a track and play it back? When you wrote your first song? When you joined your first band? When you played your first gig?
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1966
 
#24
Okay, this is really politically incorrect, but I became a bassist when it became obvious that nobody would pay me to play guitar. This is a fact. As it turns out, people do pay me to play bass. And they're right! I'm a much better bassist than guitar player.
 
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#25
I grew up in a pretty musical neighborhood. There were always guys to jam with and we had many incarnations of our various garage bands. It was fun and comfortable playing with friends and we all kind of progressed together (and all played the same songs). Over time, my taste in music was getting heavier than what we were all doing and I felt like maybe I needed to fly the coop. Up until then, I'd always been on bass because I happened to be the guy that owned a bass and an amp.

I heard through the grapevine that a couple of front page news musicians in the area were putting a band together and were auditioning bass players. I decided to take a chance and contacted them. I was so green, I didn't really know what to ask, but somehow it was determined that I'd show up at their place and be ready to do Tom Sawyer by Rush with the drummer and guitar player. Two days later I loaded my gear and stepped way out of my league to go audition for this group. I was 18 and pretty nervous, but when I pulled that lefty Jetglo 4001 out of the case, I could sense they were feeling some kind of a connection. Long story short, me and my Rickenbacker didn't exactly channel Geddy's greatness, but we didn't play scared and gave it everything we had. A couple days later the phone rang and they asked when I could get to work as their bassist. At least for the moment...I had arrived.
 
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#26
I started playing when I was 19, 18 years ago. So I've been playing for that long. Now don't get me wrong, I've always loved bass. I was listening to Rage against the machines debut album one day in my apt and I decided to buy a bass. So I got up off the couch at that moment, went to GC and came home with a Squier P bass. Still have, play and love that bass a lot. It's totally different now though. Mod city.

Anyway, over those years I played in a few bands for years at a time. A few projects. And again, I always liked playing. Took leasons for about 6 months when I was about 22 or so. Then stopped after about 6 months. And over all those years I played a lot here, a little there. There was even a couple years there where I played guitar more than bass. But then something happened. I got sober when I was 27. I started playing more and more. Met a couple dudes on MySpace and jammed off and on with them for a few years trying to get a band off the ground with it never quite happening. So about 4 or so years ago I met this dude. He said he wanted to be a singer in a band. Told him I played bass And knew of a coupe dudes that I played with and we were wanting to find a singer. So we all met up and started the band im in today.

So, to the point of my post. I don't think I REALLY became a serious bassist until I joined this band. I started getting into gear and tone, I cared about what I sounded like and how efficiently I could play. I started writing and composing. Started learning about EQ and room acoustics, the mix and how it changes from place to place. The role I play in a band. The music business. The whole shebang. So in other words, I've been playing bass for 18 years. But I don't think I really became a bassist until up about 4 or 5 years ago when I pstarted developing my sound/tone and making music and caring about what I was doing as a bassist in the grand scheme of things. I hope to learn bass for the rest of my life though. I'll never ever consider myself a master at it or even great at it. But I'm confident to say I'm efficient enough to play with other musicians.
 
#29
T Bay said:
I know we all keep learning as long as we live, but when did you consider yourself as being able to play as opposed to just learning? I am still well in the learning phase but wondered what others thought? So was it when you could play most/ anything put in front of you? When you could hear a track and play it back? When you wrote your first song? When you joined your first band? When you played your first gig?
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Started when I was 13 or 14. I'd say by the end of high school I was pretty confident in learning basslines by ear. Bass was my second instrument. Started playing Trumpet at 9 years old. Most expensive piece of gear I own to this day is one of my Trumpets. By that time not only was in a rock band, and spent a lot of time jamming along to rock and metal albums, but I also played bass in jazz band my senior year at school.
 
#32
When I could play everything by my favorite bands back in 1987 I felt pretty good. The Cure, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, Echo and the Bunnymen, I learned it all. I was in a band and we were good because all we did was practice.

Now my favorite band is Rush and I can barely hack my way through three or four of their tunes. I'm not in a band now, and I think that would improve my playing and push me more to practice rather than noodling. I can still play all of the old stuff but I really want to reach the next level where I can play the hard stuff.
 
#33
Hmm, since I was a reluctant bass player (I always wanted to play guitar & I took lessons where there was a band program, but you also had to learn bass-so I learned bass, but played guitar in all the bands I was in.)
So I was a guitar player who dabbled on bass/doubled on simple bass parts/etc.
Then I started playing bass in church on & off (probably average 24-30 times a year)
And then I found myself paying more attention to bass parts & bass players & started looking at getting a fretless--so somewhere in there, I guess.
Although I am certainly no virtuoso.
 
#35
T Bay said:
I know we all keep learning as long as we live, but when did you consider yourself as being able to play as opposed to just learning? I am still well in the learning phase but wondered what others thought? So was it when you could play most/ anything put in front of you? When you could hear a track and play it back? When you wrote your first song? When you joined your first band? When you played your first gig?
Click to expand...
I grew up in the 80's when guitar was "it". I convinced myself that I too was a guitarist. Remember it wasn't like today when bass players can be open about their musical preferences. We really have come along way. Anyhow, after years of "6 stringing it" I came to terms with myself and am not looking back.
 
#36
T Bay said:
I know we all keep learning as long as we live, but when did you consider yourself as being able to play as opposed to just learning? I am still well in the learning phase but wondered what others thought? So was it when you could play most/ anything put in front of you? When you could hear a track and play it back? When you wrote your first song? When you joined your first band? When you played your first gig?
Click to expand...
I'd say when I was able to actually keep up with a group. I was about 14. It was my church youth group leader who gave me the opportunity to learn on his old Washburn. It was all downhill from there... :woot:
 
#38
After hearing the bass intro to Metallica's - My Friend Of Misery. Got a job in order to get me my first bass and never looked back.

Tried dabbling on guitar for a while, but I couldn't get used to the small neck and flimsy strings.
 

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