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Why Bass?
- Thread starter basshoundx
- Start date
In 1953, I began playing baritone horn in the school band. That got me playing bass lines and reading bass clef. Later (1964), in college I began to play guitar.
Still later(1973), my brother approached me about playing in a band he and a friend were forming with another friend. At the outset, this band would have comprised four guitarists - a bit single minded at best. We began to discuss alternatives. The third guy said he could play the drums, which he did - drums, pedal steel, keys, sax, and anything else he could get his hands on. I said I'd try the bass. It appealed, besides the baritone, I'd played jug in a couple of folk bands in the great folk scare. My brother lent me a "National" bass, a horrid thing. The action was so bad my fingers literally bled, but I could keep up and stay on time. A couple of months later, I bought a used Fender P with all the finish off it and a Bassman with a 2X15 JBL bottom, and I was off to the races.
Raf
Still later(1973), my brother approached me about playing in a band he and a friend were forming with another friend. At the outset, this band would have comprised four guitarists - a bit single minded at best. We began to discuss alternatives. The third guy said he could play the drums, which he did - drums, pedal steel, keys, sax, and anything else he could get his hands on. I said I'd try the bass. It appealed, besides the baritone, I'd played jug in a couple of folk bands in the great folk scare. My brother lent me a "National" bass, a horrid thing. The action was so bad my fingers literally bled, but I could keep up and stay on time. A couple of months later, I bought a used Fender P with all the finish off it and a Bassman with a 2X15 JBL bottom, and I was off to the races.
Raf
When I first started listening to music all I heard/paid attention to was the guitar. So I tried to pick up guitar, but it wasn't really my thing. Then I became infatuated with the drums and rhythm. (Parents wouldn't let me get a drumset anyway) And then my ears turned to the bass. I stared hearing the best of the melody and rhythm. I heard what made the sound full. I started hearing what all you could really do with it. Bassists like Timmy C and Justin Chancellor showed me how bass tone could become your own. Never put the bass down since the day I started playing. It feels like it was the instrument I was meant for
For me it was when I first heard Aerosmith's Sweet Emotion. From then on, my ears were automatically picking out bass lines in every song. Years later when time and money were a bit more accommodating, I finally bought a bass and am still learning to play it.
Drums were my primary instrument for about a dozen years. I'd just mess around with other people's instruments during breaks since I don't smoke. Got my own bass for my 18th birthday just before a serious injury at the right forearm (5 severed tendrils).
I joined a band on bass and songwriting as I was recovering. When the band I was drumming in disbanded a few years later I figured I'd focus on bass (I was also really tired of the gear hauling part).
I still do enjoy playing drums at jam sessions or for home studio recordings, and a bunch of friends keep trying to bring me back behind a kit but for now bass keeps me happy.
I joined a band on bass and songwriting as I was recovering. When the band I was drumming in disbanded a few years later I figured I'd focus on bass (I was also really tired of the gear hauling part).
I still do enjoy playing drums at jam sessions or for home studio recordings, and a bunch of friends keep trying to bring me back behind a kit but for now bass keeps me happy.
When i got my first bass in 6th grade, i was a complete introvert. This may have been the reason i chose the "background instrument", the bass. I never really knew how a bass sat in a mix, just that it kinda existed. I started coming here more and more until i finally bit the bullet and joined in tenth grade. Never turned back, I love it here. I play guitar more than someone that doesn't, and its a great writing tool, but bass is in my soul.
philvanv
Gerbil Turds, Kitsap County Turd Core
- Jul 2, 2012
- 530
- 17
- Disclosures
- and at the bottom it says thank you, and now you can shag off
In the end of 6th grade I was introduced to punk rock. So that was lets say 1979. I couldn't get a hold of any records until 1980. I heard Red Cross now Reds Kross, and the adolescents. Wow I was hooked on the speed of the music. Got my Hondo and took lessons. Lucky enough to get into local successful band and that's it. Thank >_ for punk rock, aggression, parents or older punks that would drive us to play since none of us were old enough to drive....
- Jan 25, 2014
- 84
- 67
- Disclosures
- WARNING: Liable to be weeaboo
Yeah, I don't see why my hands were too chubby. I knew plenty of great violin players with way chubbier hands than mine. although, my first orchestra teacher was himself a professional bass player, so I think he was just trying to pull me to the dark side.
philvanv
Gerbil Turds, Kitsap County Turd Core
- Jul 2, 2012
- 530
- 17
- Disclosures
- and at the bottom it says thank you, and now you can shag off
That's the kind of stuff band and orchestra directors tell kids so that they can steer them where numbers are thin.
I loved the sound that Paul McCartney had but my local music store didn't have a Hofner bass. So, my first purchase was a "beatle bass" shaped Aria 6-string guitar. I played the bass line on every song until one, of the 3 guitarists in my band, said hey if you're gonna play the bass line you might as well get a bass. I bought an Aria Beatle Bass a week later...that was 40 years ago and I haven't stopped playing since!
I love music period...if I had the time and aptitude I would probably play a great number of instruments...but the bass...just something about the groove pocket and the low notes that reach my soul. When I think about my favourite rockers, I rarely consider EVH, Eric Clapton, George Lynch or Slash(SRV and Hendrix are major exceptions for me)first, but always think of Gene Simmons, Geddy Lee, Duff McKagen, Michael Anthony, Nikki Sixx, Les Claypool, heck even Bootsy Collins and Dana Strum before most "flashy guitarists". I play the "six gun" too and sometimes I just need that itch scratched...but the bass has always been where it is at for me.
I saw a baby blue P-bass in the window of a music store when I was 9 or 10, it was displayed next to a strat of the same color. The long neck and fat strings looked so cool... I was hooked just from the looks. I traded a BB gun for bass a few months later. Hey Joe was the first song I learned.
I played cello from 4th grade through high school, but picked up an electric bass to play in the school jazz band. Demand for bassists is mainly what turned me into a bassist.
My brother had started playing guitar. Considering i was always more musically inclined than him, that annoyed me. I could have done guitar too, but i'd just got into The Cure and the bass drove the songs and i was picking the basslines up on my brother's guitar (i'd started messing with it) more than attempting to play guitar lines. Figured we'd be on our way to form a band if i tried bass. I have to say i had never been particularly drawn to it before but the moment i played those fat strings i was immediately into it. I play guitar now (well basically i never really stopped, but for about the first five years of playing bass i didnt touch a guitar much) and some keyboard. I dont like any of those instruments half as much as the bass.
My friend was putting together a band, but he had already taken rhythm guitar/lead vocals, and our other friends were already a lead player and drummer, respectively. So, even though I already played acoustic guitar, bass was what was left.
However I am most certainly a bass player in demeanor and execution: I enjoy being supportive onstage, though as a full-time singer I am fine being a frontman. But laying down a groove and being the pulse of a band feels really natural to me.
I can't remember if I posted about this somewhere else on here, but I consider my being a bass player the same as me being a defenseman on the soccer field: supportive and paying attention to the big picture.
However I am most certainly a bass player in demeanor and execution: I enjoy being supportive onstage, though as a full-time singer I am fine being a frontman. But laying down a groove and being the pulse of a band feels really natural to me.
I can't remember if I posted about this somewhere else on here, but I consider my being a bass player the same as me being a defenseman on the soccer field: supportive and paying attention to the big picture.
I started taking guitar lessons after my buddy started learning. I didn't like playing guitar, and we wanted to start a band so I got a bass. Haven't looked back ever since (though I have dreams of learning how to play the drums). Plus a bass is the manliest instrument ever.
Why bass?
Because I was taking guitar lessons, and wanted to go into the bands they had at the music school.
A prerequisite for guitar players was to take bass lessons, so I took bass lessons s I could play in a band--although I never played bass in any of the bands, I played guitar.
I was a reluctant bass player, but I found out I did like it, and kept playing, sometimes more than others.
Over the years I've gradually played more & more bass to where I'm still primarily a guitar player, but I do more than dabble in bass, and after trying a few fretless basses over the last 5 years I finally decided to get one about a year and a half or so ago, and then finally bought one a month ago.
I'm enjoying it.
Because I was taking guitar lessons, and wanted to go into the bands they had at the music school.
A prerequisite for guitar players was to take bass lessons, so I took bass lessons s I could play in a band--although I never played bass in any of the bands, I played guitar.
I was a reluctant bass player, but I found out I did like it, and kept playing, sometimes more than others.
Over the years I've gradually played more & more bass to where I'm still primarily a guitar player, but I do more than dabble in bass, and after trying a few fretless basses over the last 5 years I finally decided to get one about a year and a half or so ago, and then finally bought one a month ago.
I'm enjoying it.
