When did you become a bassist?

[DWBass]

About a year after I started playing. I began to get recruited in bands. I also played bass for my HS gospel choir.

 

[Matt Dean]

I started playing bass in my high school jazz band in 1973. I had been taking guitar lessons since about age 8, but when I started playing bass, I knew it was for me and never looked back. Started my first band in 1974.

 

[npbassman]

I played guitar for 10 years before I became a bass player. As a guitarist I completed the Berklee Modern Method course with a local jazz guitarist so I had my theory and ear training off to a good start but I mostly played 80's guitar wanker stuff when I wasn't doing my studies so here's my reply to the OP's post...

• I became a bassist when ours didn't show up to rehearsal one night and I decided to fill in. The drummer, whom I respected, says that I should seriously consider becoming a bassist so I did but I had a lot to learn because I was a guitar player playing bass.
• At that point I could already play almost anything put in front of me outside of jazz/fusion because I has spent the previous 10 years learning Vai, Dokken, etc solos the old fashion way, with a tape recorder at full speed . I'd rewind and repeat solo passages until I word the motor out. So, picking out bass lines after copping shredder solos is no problem but again, I still had to discover my inner groove.
• I didn't have enough confidence to hit the cover scene as a bassist until after my instructor at the time (Steve Buslowe of Meatloaf fame) told me that I was good enough to be one and it was time to get out there.
• I realized that I was good enough to keep up with the musicians that I considered really good when I started getting calls from them. The fact that i was young and single and therefore had time to gig 6-8 times a month year after year certainly boosted my experience and self confidence as well.

I am still learning and have a long way to go but I still have a blast every time I pickup that bass.

Good luck with your journey!

 

[silvertone]

Three times:
1) in HS (circa '82) I took a course in improvisation. There were already 2 guitar players so played bass and learned to improvise in every key and without fear (or much skill)).
2) about 10 years ago when a friend left an upright bass at my house. I applied what I knew from electric bass playing but significantly dumbed it down to be a root-5 and walking line playing bluegrasser. I never gave that double bass back. I wound up playing lots of bluegrass gigs with it - but I eventually obtained a great Vintage Kay C1('1954) and sold the one that was left at my house.
3) I decided to approach electric bass playing full on about 5 years ago - just to try a different musical hat.
My initial buy-in was the purchase, via Craiglsist, of a Deluxe American J bass from a guy who was in a pending divorce.
The price was more than reasonable and bass is killer. Then I obtained a great sounding GenzBenz head from a TB'er and went back to CL for an Eden 210 XLT and after a while, a D115 to obtain deeper bottom.

Then I joined a band and concentrated my efforts on supporting original song with bouncy grooves. I think it's so much fun to lock in with a solid drummer with a good sense of time and both drive a band and provide that essential layer of music on which guitars and keys can build melodies....

No regrets.....

 

[FingerDub]

When I started really practicing regularly.

 

[morgansterne]

at my first paying bass gig of course (probably 2002?). Not that I was any good but I could sing so my bandmates were patient with me.

 

[Gaolee]

1. When I picked up a bass guitar for the very first time and said, aaaahh, this is what I should play.
2. It hasn't happened yet. Being a real bass player is a goal that may always be one step away from reality because the definition keeps getting more exacting.

 

[jamro217]

I never gave it much thought, but it must have been around the time I was able to play the bass line and not be so absorbed in doing so that I couldn't multitask. At that point, you realize that you have learned and really know the part, and are a proficient enough bassist to perform it. That puts it about the same time I was writing more music with specific, melodic, meaningful bass lines as opposed to "plucking along in the same key and at the same tempo as everybody else". As far as learning goes, it's endless. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.

 

[sanwin17]

1969. Thought I was cool until I realized I didn't know anything. Still so much to learn. I gave up the cigarettes in '79 but sure wish I had that bass back.

 

[Bare Bass]

When I started listening to the bass line in songs, around the time of "Roundabout."

 

[LordRyan]

I have played Keys and Guitar for many years. In the early 90's the Bass player left our full-time working band that had been together for eight years. At first I did left-hand Key Bass or sequencing to cover it. Then I bought a Kawai Bass that looked kind of like an Alembic. Just as I was getting started on the Bass the band folded. Several years later I found another opportunity, started practicing again, got a sunburst Fender Jazz Bass, and covered Bass and Keys a la John Paul Jones for nearly ten years. Have recently been playing Bass as a sub with a band while playing Keys in other bands. So I would say I became a Bass player about 1997.

 

[Rezdog]

Greetings from the North,

Xmas 1969

Rezdog

 

[d-dave]

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?

From the time I picked up a bass, I've always been a bassist... in the sense that I never wanted to play guitar or drums or anything except bass. But that's not at all what you meant or what you were asking. So, I'll answer your question.

I played bass in several bands growing up. Played in the county high school jazz ensemble. Played in my high school pep band during basketball season (played tuba and sousaphone the rest of the time). About five years in, when I was 17, I started playing with a group of guys and we dove in headlong. It's all we did. 5-6 days a week we played from 4 until midnight or so. We had money backing us, great equipment, an industrial space dedicated to only us and our music and no day jobs. The woodshedding, the dedication and the experience made me a "bassist".

 

[non]

i new i wanted to play bass when i saw mike watt in the minutemen in 1984. and david sims of scratch acid. that was the kind of bass playing i wanted to learn.
i became a bassist when i got in my first band. at the time no one wanted to play bass. it was all about eddie van halen and trying to be him.
kind of gives my age away.

 

[Sin Nis]

in my early 20s when I got a hold of a band mate that just was able to explain things in a way i could get it I told him he should teach he was vary good at it. wish I could find some one like him now to advance my self quicker

 

[sanwin17]

in my early 20s when I got a hold of a band mate that just was able to explain things in a way i could get it I told him he should teach he was vary good at it. wish I could find some one like him now to advance my self quicker

There are some great player/teachers online that offer Skype lessons. Anthony Wellington, Victor Wooten Band, maybe the best. All levels, beginners to advance pros. Invalid Link Removed

 

[T Bay]

Things are moving rapidly for me at the moment, started playing a couple of months ago, started practising with a couple of mates at work a few weeks back and now have pur first (mini) gig booked for a works social. Only playing a few Christmas numbers but very exciting all the same!