Why bass?

[CallMeAl]

I like thankless jobs

 

[Rib 13]

my brother brought home a bass and told me not to touch it
older brother telling younger brother not to do something is a red flag for younger brother to go do it

there ya go

 

[Recover9720]

Started because it looks really easy to play
Keep playing because it is actually not easy to play

 

[ahbradot]

I seriously believe I was drawn to the bass because inside the womb, I would hear the comforting muffled low tones.

The bass frequency vibrations emanating from the outside world.

58 years later, and I still am comforted by bass tones.

For a very long time now I record everything I play, and then I love to listen to it back at bedtime as it puts me to sleep easily.

Nothing relaxes me more than bass.

 

[DrayMiles]

You control everything if you’re the bassist. And… if you learn a little piano, you’ll fully understand what that means.

 

[Matthew_84]

The bassline was always my favourite part of a song.

I didn’t actually know a bass guitar existed until I was 23 (I just thought bass parts were played on electric guitars with the bass knob turned up lol), but the day after I found out, I went to a store and bought my first bass

 

[Khrist92]

Chris Squire's thunderous sound, and my affinity for the more rhythmic elements in music.

 

[jnewmark]

I was always drawn to the rhythm aspect of music, and began to notice how the drummer and bass player worked together. I started out on guitar, way back in the '60's, but, by the early '70's, had switched to bass, as I realized I was not going to be the next Eric Clapton. I also noticed that bands needed bass players way more than they did mediocre guitar players like me. As soon soon as I picked up my first bass and plugged it in, I instantly knew I made the correct decision in making the change. It just felt so natural to me.

 

[bigthemat]

I was a trumpet player all throughout school and college. But I never really fit the whole typical look at me cocky trumpet player attitude so prevalent with other players. I only picked trumpet because we had an old beater horn my dad bought at a yard sale and had to fix the flattened bell haha. Two big influences as to why I started playing. First, in one of my college music ed classes I got to sit in whit a beginner orchestra and I picked upright because I didn't want another instrument to lug around (with my several trumpets, and then all the other instruments I was learning...). Oh boy, upright was COOL, and I realized bass was pretty neat. Second, I was playing in the pep band for the basketball games, and I became friends with the bass player in the band. He was pretty much the coolest guy ever, and I figured... if he's so cool it's because of bass, so I want to be cool too. I went out and bought a cheapo bass/amp/strap kit at a pawn shop and the rest is history.

 

[Fynn]

I saw Robert Trujillo make funny faces while playing a bass solo that went right into For Whom The Bell Tolls...

Also some of the high pitched notes on a guitar don't sound very pleasant to me, while the bass guitar (and upright for that matter) has only pleasant sounding tones.

 

[brianrost]

most bass players are bass players and suit the instrument somehow. Why are you?

I couldn't count to 6, so guitar was out of the question

 

[Nev375]

Because guitar goes weeedleweeedlieweeedlieweeeeee
Banjo goes plink plonk plinkety plonk
And bass goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I like things that go BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

 

[ctmullins]

Sometimes I wonder
If people post in wrong place
Just to get haiku

I cannot deny
Haiku makes my day brighter.
I am most grateful!

 

[swink]

I'm too timid to carry a guitarist's ego.

 

[mrjim123]

I was about 22 and had never even thought about playing an instrument. My best friend played guitar, and one day I started playing bass lines on his electric while he played his acoustic. The first song I really learned was the Stones' Paint It Black. After a few sessions I was hooked and bought a Fender Bassman and cab, and a Gibson EB-0.

 

[fdeck]

Bass picked me. Actually the middle school band teacher picked me to play bass in the school jazz band. I was already playing cello, so I could read bass clef and manage an instrument with strings. He had actually paid his way through music school by playing gigs on upright bass while studying classical violin. I thought that was cool.

The school basses were all wrecked and unplayable, so I got a used Fender Mustang Bass and took a few weeks to learn it during summer vacation by playing through my cello etudes.

I continued to double on cello and bass through high school, before focusing full time on bass when I started college.

I don't think I have a "bass personality" if such a thing even exists.

 

[Old gold]

A 1970 Led Zeppelin concert in Honolulu. I can still feel the bass. Festival seating and lots of folks where crowding the stage, but when JPJ started playing the shock wave pushed everyone back.

 

[eriky4003]

...because Mom said I wouldn't be able practice my drums at home (I've cracked this one before). My brother wanted to be the singer/guitarist so I moved to bass and loved it!

 

[ctmullins]

For me, it’s this: Bass is the intersection of the visceral and the cerebral. My rational brain loves the way a good bass line can steer a harmonic progression in creative ways. My jungle brain loves the way that BOOM BOOM BOOM CHUGGA CHUGGA BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

 

[Egg250]

The groove. I enjoy hearing blistering guitar solos and I like to play guitar. When I listen to music, it's always been that groove that I hear. The bass line. It fits my personality, I think.