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Why are you a bass player?
- Thread starter vindibona1
- Start date
A few of my friends started playing guitar. I always loved deep bass and loved the basslines of Led Zeppelin. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I held a bass. Dorm mate had a bass. He was very open to me playing it whenever I wanted. Taught myself dazed and confused and the rest is history.
I went and bought a bass and have played on and off to varying degrees for 24 years. Bass playing fits my personality.
I went and bought a bass and have played on and off to varying degrees for 24 years. Bass playing fits my personality.
I was getting ready to assembly my thoughts and type out a post to this thread's question on why do I play bass...................and then I read Matthew 84's comment. He nailed perfectly. I need not say anything else. "What he said!"
For whatever reason I was just drawn to the instrument. I remember listening to Led Zeps first album and hearing the bass line to both dazed and confused and how many more times and thinking that was the coolest sounding thing ever...A few years later when I heard Mayalls blues breakers albums that thinking was reinforced.
Before bass I tried trumpet and piano. Had formal trumpet lessons but they just never took and looking back I just never "got it". We had a piano at home growing up and I messed around with it but never received lessons and never really developed any skill aside from being able to play some chords.
Guitar was the same store...Messed around with that and even have an acoustic here but beyond playing some chords I was never really that keen on putting time into it.
I guess it comes down to the fact that "bass chose me". Now if only i could play it as well as I would like to be able.
I played guitar since I was a kid. In 1979 I bought my first acoustic guitar and started taking lessons. I befriended my guitar teacher and in the 90's, after hearing me play rhythm guitar asked me to play rhythm guitar in an R&B band he was starting. One night after rehearsal he looked me in the eye and said "hey, you oughta play bass". My first reaction was "FU man! If you don't like my rhythm playing then just say so". Ha! But he heard something in my playing that made him say that. So the following week we went to the new Guitar Center and found a bass that played well (I didn't have a feel for bass at the time so he and the bass player from the R&B band made the decision for me).
What he heard was a sense of timing and rhythm in my guitar playing that I felt but didn't understand the value of. I was so into the R&B stuff we were playing and absolutely grooving to James Jamerson without even knowing who he was. I loved the bass - absolutely loved the lines Jamerson was playing. I was enamored with the effect the bass had on the music and how the bass, even though it sometimes sounded awkward on it's own, fit so perfectly with the drums to move the listener. I'm not so much a showman but I know the effect I'm having on the listener and how I'm moving them.
Sometimes I'll turn to a drummer and say "Hey, you know who I am? I'm the guy your wife is dancing to....HA!"
What he heard was a sense of timing and rhythm in my guitar playing that I felt but didn't understand the value of. I was so into the R&B stuff we were playing and absolutely grooving to James Jamerson without even knowing who he was. I loved the bass - absolutely loved the lines Jamerson was playing. I was enamored with the effect the bass had on the music and how the bass, even though it sometimes sounded awkward on it's own, fit so perfectly with the drums to move the listener. I'm not so much a showman but I know the effect I'm having on the listener and how I'm moving them.
Sometimes I'll turn to a drummer and say "Hey, you know who I am? I'm the guy your wife is dancing to....HA!"
Fell in love with the sound at around 14 years old. Never looked back. Over a decade later, and I am still as in love with it as I was then. =]
The year 1978,
It was Bootsy Collins and various Roots Reggae artist who showed me that the Bass was powerful, cool, sexy, that it told a story of its own. I felt its power and saw that it is the driving force to music and i fell in love with it on the spot. Since that year i have been trying to become a competent player, to be able to emote emotion from my Bass, to be able to tell my stories with my Bass.
It was Bootsy Collins and various Roots Reggae artist who showed me that the Bass was powerful, cool, sexy, that it told a story of its own. I felt its power and saw that it is the driving force to music and i fell in love with it on the spot. Since that year i have been trying to become a competent player, to be able to emote emotion from my Bass, to be able to tell my stories with my Bass.
But...you didn't.
I think this is a fascinating question, as someone who's played guitar all his life and recently come to "the dark side"..
Hey hey! Yeah... That's where I got the handle, but spelled it wrong. It's really spelled VindObona, but I never bothered to change it. When I got back into trumpet playing heavily in 1996 that was the first Bb that I bought. I sold it to a buddy, then he sold it to someone in the south, then it came back through my hands, to someone else. I think mine had a 43L bell on it. I know who Adam Rapa is. I think he is now sponsored by Monette. Great player! Currently my main Bb's are a Schilke B1 and a '73 Bach 37. I still have my '69 Getzen Eterna (pre Amado key) that I got as a HS graduation present. I no longer play like I used to. Suffered a torn obicularis oris and a few years later, focal dystonia. But I'm still out there banging away with a few legit groups and have a couple trumpet students.
Bass guitar is so much more a solo instrument now than it was back in the day. So much to say about it.
Think of it this way , what would music be without it? It embraces all the beauty and grace of all the instruments, it provides the foundation for the soaring heights of musical expression, as well the logic of musical progression, properly done without distraction.
To the casual listener, it’s mostly un-noticed, unless it is missing, or done poorly. The true test is when playing in an ensemble and non musicians are commenting about your bass work, odds are you aren’t doing your job well.
My question to you is why would any musician worth their salt not want to be a bassist? Next to the French horn, it’s the headiest instrument out there, and when playing off chart, you are making critical decisions in milliseconds constantly.
So for me it challenging, fun, and a great creative outlet, I do it well, unlike my golf game...
My dad is a bass player. As a little kid I remember sitting in his basement studio listening to him play along with records. He got a Japanese short scale jazz bass copy as part of a trade when I was 8 and I never put that thing down. We would go to Elderly Instruments every weekend and he started letting me tag along to band practice every once in a while. Eventually I saved up enough money to buy my first Gibson Ripper ($400) and a 76 SVT ($600). I started my first band in 1995 at 15 and never stopped. I’m 38 now, I’ve toured the US and Europe and still play in a band. My oldest daughter is 9 and she recently started picking up that Japanese short scale jazz bass. Guess it’s genetic.
- Oct 22, 2015
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Many years back I used to play guitar for a couple of years before one day I got the chance of picking up a bass.
I just immediately connected to it, something about how it felt and sounded, more physical and immediate in a way.
With those deep lush tones you needed to do less to make it sound amazing than with a guitar.
Not long after I answered an add from a band searching for a bass player and got accepted.
I still play guitar on the sideline, but bass remains my main instrument of choice.
I just immediately connected to it, something about how it felt and sounded, more physical and immediate in a way.
With those deep lush tones you needed to do less to make it sound amazing than with a guitar.
Not long after I answered an add from a band searching for a bass player and got accepted.
I still play guitar on the sideline, but bass remains my main instrument of choice.
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I was 11/12 yrs old and loved heavy/thrash metal (this was late 80s/early 90s). A few buddies that I would sit around listening to metallica with decided we would learn guitar and form a band. We'd oogle over the adds of guitars in circus magazine as we saved up. I was a slow saver and 2 buddies had bought guitars before I had saved enough so it was suggested I play bass...and as a Cliff Burton worshiper it was an easy jump to switch my focus to oogling over basses instead of guitars.
Much like Frank Zappa says about guitar, I am a musician and a composer who just so happens to play the bass as my main instrument. Very glad I chose the bass since the instrument and role was a natural fit for my personality and I find it an extremely expressive instrument.
Much like Frank Zappa says about guitar, I am a musician and a composer who just so happens to play the bass as my main instrument. Very glad I chose the bass since the instrument and role was a natural fit for my personality and I find it an extremely expressive instrument.
