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Who started it all for you?
- Thread starter trayner1
- Start date
Dee Murray, Elton John
As a poster said above, I was handed a bass in the music room one day and told to play along, and that was my crash course in bass playing. I had the ear, intuition, and determination, so it was a good match and I learned fast. But when I went to sit down by the record player and imitate stylistic elements of an established bassist, Dee Murray stood way out from the crowd to my ear. I think I learned all his lines from at least the first seven or eight Elton John albums. It was an invaluable education.
I have since gone on to intensely study and imitate the styles of several other big league players, but Dee was my first mentor.
As a poster said above, I was handed a bass in the music room one day and told to play along, and that was my crash course in bass playing. I had the ear, intuition, and determination, so it was a good match and I learned fast. But when I went to sit down by the record player and imitate stylistic elements of an established bassist, Dee Murray stood way out from the crowd to my ear. I think I learned all his lines from at least the first seven or eight Elton John albums. It was an invaluable education.
I have since gone on to intensely study and imitate the styles of several other big league players, but Dee was my first mentor.
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In all seriousness, I don't actually remember why I started paying bass. As a musician, I started out on vocals and piano, starting around age 5. My father was a guitarist and pianist, but guitar never really appealed to me. I picked up guitar at about age 20, because I was poor and living in a house my my brother and four guys, and someone had left behind a crappy guitar. Although over the years, I'd tried to teach myself to play a little bit, so I knew how to play a C chord, G chord, F chord, D chord and A chord, it wasn't until that winter that I actually figured out how to change chords fast enough to play a song. I could of months later, I joined a band, at first on vocals, then vocals and keys, then vocals, keys, and rhythm guitar, and then we eventually dropped all the songs with keys.
A couple of years later, after we'd recorded two albums, our guitarist quit, but we lucked out and found a replacement quickly. The next year, after recording our fourth album (third with me), the bassist quit. At that point, we auditioned several bassists, and while they were all competent, none of them understood us musically, so I decided to take the credit I was saving to buy mountain bikes for my girlfriend and I, and buy a bass.
But the thing is, I cannot for the life of me remember what it was that made me think I could play bass, or what made me think I wanted to play bass. I was just so frustrated with the situation, I made this drastic move to an instrument I'd barely really touched before in my life. One of my roommates in college had had a Fender P or J (can't remember) stashed under his bed that he never played, and I know a fooled around with it a few times, but nothing serious.
In any case, I went to the music store, bought on my music store charge account Fender's top of the line Jazz Bass Plus V Natural Ash (coming from guitar, the five-string neck felt better to me than a four-string neck, and I liked the smaller Jazz Plus body shape, which would later become the Jazz Deluxe body shape), and that was that. We stayed a three-piece, with me on bass and vocals, for the next 15 years, until I left the band.
So, there was never really any bassist that inspired me to say, "I want to be like that", but I would definitely say that I admired, in roughly chronological order: Suzi Quatro (from Happy Days), Gene Simmons (KISS), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), Aimee Mann ('Til Tuesday), and Eugene Wright (Dave Brubeck Quartet), as bassists. I just didn't ever think I wanted to be like any of them until I actually bought a bass guitar. Now, of course, there are a whole slew of bassists whose work I admire.
But I do remember that it wasn't a spur of the moment decision to blow $811 on a top of the line bass guitar that I didn't even know how to play at a time when I was making maybe $18K/yr. I mean sure, I'd been performing in public at that point for nearly 20 years, had recorded three albums with my band, gone to college for Music Theatre, but it was definitely a process that took place over the course of a few months. I kept going back to the music store, seeing that bass hanging on the wall, and admiring it, and something put the thought in my mind that maybe I could just move to bass. Until one day, I pulled the trigger. And now, 25 years later, I think it's safe to say I'm a bass guitarist, but still not as good a bassist as I'd like to become.
A couple of years later, after we'd recorded two albums, our guitarist quit, but we lucked out and found a replacement quickly. The next year, after recording our fourth album (third with me), the bassist quit. At that point, we auditioned several bassists, and while they were all competent, none of them understood us musically, so I decided to take the credit I was saving to buy mountain bikes for my girlfriend and I, and buy a bass.
But the thing is, I cannot for the life of me remember what it was that made me think I could play bass, or what made me think I wanted to play bass. I was just so frustrated with the situation, I made this drastic move to an instrument I'd barely really touched before in my life. One of my roommates in college had had a Fender P or J (can't remember) stashed under his bed that he never played, and I know a fooled around with it a few times, but nothing serious.
In any case, I went to the music store, bought on my music store charge account Fender's top of the line Jazz Bass Plus V Natural Ash (coming from guitar, the five-string neck felt better to me than a four-string neck, and I liked the smaller Jazz Plus body shape, which would later become the Jazz Deluxe body shape), and that was that. We stayed a three-piece, with me on bass and vocals, for the next 15 years, until I left the band.
So, there was never really any bassist that inspired me to say, "I want to be like that", but I would definitely say that I admired, in roughly chronological order: Suzi Quatro (from Happy Days), Gene Simmons (KISS), Michael Anthony (Van Halen), Aimee Mann ('Til Tuesday), and Eugene Wright (Dave Brubeck Quartet), as bassists. I just didn't ever think I wanted to be like any of them until I actually bought a bass guitar. Now, of course, there are a whole slew of bassists whose work I admire.
But I do remember that it wasn't a spur of the moment decision to blow $811 on a top of the line bass guitar that I didn't even know how to play at a time when I was making maybe $18K/yr. I mean sure, I'd been performing in public at that point for nearly 20 years, had recorded three albums with my band, gone to college for Music Theatre, but it was definitely a process that took place over the course of a few months. I kept going back to the music store, seeing that bass hanging on the wall, and admiring it, and something put the thought in my mind that maybe I could just move to bass. Until one day, I pulled the trigger. And now, 25 years later, I think it's safe to say I'm a bass guitarist, but still not as good a bassist as I'd like to become.
Listening to Tool and System of a Down.. hmm I think I like music..
Listening to Jaco and Clarke..
Hmm I think I'm going to buy a bass..
Listening to Jaco and Clarke..
Hmm I think I'm going to buy a bass..
