Why are you a bass player?

[Sav'nBass]

I just love the sound of the instrument. I always liked strings of any kind.. Archie Bell & The Drell's "Tighten Up" ... Rare Earth's "Get Ready" .. Sly and the family Stone's "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and "There's a Riot Going On" .. and all the Motown stuff... made me fall in love with the instrument..

 

[michla]

it's my Dad's fault
when we were tiny tots, we were supposed to be asleep by 9pm for school the next morning and after we were tucked in, my Dad would crank up the Heathkit stereo and Advent speakers to a supersonic level and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, cannons and all. He loved military marching music with the big bass drums too. When we'd finally show up in the living room at 11pm all bleary-eyed and unable to sleep, we were told promptly to get back to bed and go to sleep. Moving walls became an obsession.

The result of all this is I'm a party animal wanting to shake it up all night long !

 

[Patrick Sweeney]

I heard Jack Bruce & that was it! I needed to play the Bass Guitar. I have NEVER regretted it.

 

[wilmo]

All my life when I listened to music, I zoned in on the bass line. It's just a natural thing with me. The day I was handed a bass (45) I just naturally took off with it. No lessons just a quick 'these are the names of the strings, this is the scale, go.' I went straight for a 5 string since the learning curve was the same. Play weekly with friends and have occasionally gigged, but that's not a driving force.

 

[Sputter]

Have simply always found myself listening to rhythm sections of songs – to the point of seldom hearing the actual words.

 

[NZBassman]

well when I was 10 my parents suggested I learn the cello (don't know why) so I did - I learnt music at school and played the cello until I left school.
But when I was 13 I sat at the schools drum-kit and had a bash - and was hooked... I wanted to be a drummer. So when I went home I announced to my parents that I was going to play the drums my dad replied "not on this house you're not" and that was the end of that!
I picked up the schools only bass - it was right handed and I'm a lefty and proceed to give it a go

bought my first bass at 17 (cheap Fender P copy) and a 10w amp a few months later and have been playing bass (right handed) ever since....

 

[JZQuantum]

Because bass picked me, not the other way around.

 

[Anthony curtis]

Love that sound that beat it makes it talks

 

[The Hansenator]

Because it's fun and it seems a good fit for my personality.

I spent years on drums. Never played with a band. My technique and stuff is good but never got the hang of soloing or improvisation and stuff. It's also less convenient and loud. Tried guitar a few times over the years but it just wasn't clicking.

 

[Kenneth E.]

Because I can't play a real instrument.

 

[ELS011]

I've been playing guitar pretty much forever. I've played trumpet semi-professionally off and on since a young man. But only in the last 6 months or so have I been bitten by the bass bug where I feel like I've really connected with it, perhaps more than the other instruments. I'm not as proficient yet as with the other instruments, but working to be. I can feel the connection, but can't tell you why.

So why are you a bass player? Why bass? Why not guitar (or other)? I want to understand how others connect to it so that maybe I can figure out what's going on inside my head with this thing.

I have played guitar for almost 50 years, however, all the work I did with bands was as a bass player. When I was young I was influenced by Jack Bruce, Larry Taylor, John Paul Jones, & Willie Dixon. I learned the fretboard by playing bass and writing bass lines that were chordal and matched the chords played. When starting out I used to just ride the root note. I began playing bass when Tower of Power came out across the Bay in Oakland. Their bass lines were new then.

 

[JIO]

Truth of the matter is - I saw a wall at Woolworths dept store with mostly (cheap Japanese) guitars and one bass hanging on it in '66 and was visually drawn to the bass because it was bigger and only had 4 strings. Little did I know then that I was a bass player through-and-through. Life can be funny like that.

 

[aureliab20gt]

Early 1975, I was 15 years old.
Initially, I wanted to play sax.....A guy at school put his arm around my shoulders one day and took me to one side shaking his head...…." what you need mate is a bass guitar and I just happen to have one for sale...£15".
It was a Jedson short scale thing...….looked like a Telecaster guitar. A month later he took me aside again and asked how was I getting on with it, as he had a better one for sale if I'd like it!
This one was a CSL EBO copy...……….£25
met him again a year or so ago...……..career wise, he had become a top salesman in his field!!

 

[Hypercaffium]

I studied music extensively when I was a little kid and practiced mainly on a piano. I picked up guitar when I was a teenager probably because of its popularity and I still play guitar (I'm 40 years old), so I can say without a doubt that guitar is the instrument that defined my musical journey the most.
During the years I moved from classical guitar to rock, punk, jazz, country and many other genres. I would say that the musical genres I played the most during these years are Gypsy Jazz (Django Reinhardt) and fingerpicking (Chet Atkins/Merle Travis).
You can realize from the musical generes I like that I'm into percussive rhythm a lot, I never thought about that but it's really clear now.
I started to play bass because a group of friends decided to start a band and they needed a bassist. I've always beeen attracted by the bass so I bought a Precision and started this new adventure less than a year ago.
It's so fun! I completely changed my approach, I discovered new genres, new techniques, a complete new world.

 

[aomu]

As a teen in the 70's, I transformed my musical likings from the Partridge Family, Monkees and the Archies in the early 70's to Golden Earring, Edgar Winter Group and Joe Walsh in the Mid 70's when I started playing guitar. By the late 70's, I started getting into ELP, Rush and Yes, and was amazed by the bassist. I was hooked and played the bass from then on. Thank you Greg Lake, Geddy Lee & Chris Squire.

 

[Hypercaffium]

I just wanted to add that despite the fact that the guitar is the lead instrument in most of the more popular music genres, it doesn't "fit" everywhere. The bass does. It's really hard to think of a music genre in which the bass isn't involved. With "bass" I mean whatever instrument is doing the bass part, but it's usually a bass or a synth (which is a great thing to do on bass). With guitar is easier to be a little bit "out of context" especially if you are into electronic stuff, soundtracks, even R&B, hip-hop etc. Even with pedals.
We all have our tastes in music of course, I just wanted to point out what I experienced myself playing both instruments in many different contexts.
Bass also expanded my musical tastes a lot, I'm playing stuff that I didn't find very attractive before, just because I didn't know how to approach it and explore the possibilities.
Like I said I play both instruments, but the bass is helping me a lot recently.

 

[Mastermold]

So why are you a bass player? Why bass? Why not guitar (or other)? I want to understand how others connect to it so that maybe I can figure out what's going on inside my head with this thing.

I started on piano. Liked the bass clef. So it felt natural to play bass when I started playing rock. And I like controlling the groove and feel of our songs in the band. It's fun.

 

[redwingxix]

because I ran out of guitar gear to buy.

 

[GuiTuber]

Another guitar player here.

I started playing guitar back in the mid-70's. My two oldest brothers played so I wanted to learn. My dad played drums and I played a little when I was maybe 10 or so (big Buddy Rich fan). I had the rhythm so for learning guitar I was like, just show me the chord diagrams.

Fast forward to 2015. I was invited to join an acoustic band. I would be the second guitarist and we had a percussionist and harmonica (who also played guitar here and there). We were playing every other Friday night at a taco bar, getting paid food and drink.

I bought an acoustic bass, around that time, to mess around with and record some bass tracks for some music I had already recorded. I brought it one time to a jam party that our band leader hosted.

Out of those jam parties, we all became good friends with a pretty good guitar player and our BL decided to ask him to join our band. We didn't need two rhythm guitars and since I was known to have a bass, I was asked if I'd like to give it a try. I have never looked back.

I have learned more about music since I started playing bass than in the 40+ years of playing guitar. I absolutely love it. The music part is probably my favorite part of learning the bass. As I like to tell people, music really isn't that hard, it's just a lot of crap to have to remember.

 

[sissy kathy]

Trout don't have strings, and whales are too heavy.