Why bass?

[Doctor Intrepid]

Has it been two weeks already?

 

[Akiyama]

You miss the point. The question is understandably a perennial one. We expect it to be asked as long as people play bass. What is not understandable is the proliferation of threads asking the same question that many others did for the past 22 years.

History repeats itself or at least rhymes. Basic human nature, people asking, "why" is why the threads pop up... and why people write haikus.

 

[JimmyM]

A bass player told me good bass players and keyboard players can always find a gig, and guitarists and drummers are a dime a dozen. I started out on drums and had started playing guitar and trumpet when he told me this in 1973. I sucked at keys but was getting decent at guitar, plus I was always fascinated by bass and bass lines, so I put most of my energy into bass.

It was a pretty good racket going into bass in 1973 when it had more stigma about it being for the lamest of two guitarists stuck with it. The stigma is mostly gone now, it was just starting to ease up as I started, and within a few years it was as hard to get decent bass gigs as guitar or drums.

Good thing I could read, sing good harmonies and leads if I’m careful about what I sing lead on, have a good ear, and can cut solid tracks quickly.

 

[otp57]

What drew you to the bass? I’ve noticed that there’s a certain undefinable ‘type’ who plays bass. From Tal to Jaco, to victor to Stanley, from Nigel Olsen, Herbie flowers, John deacon, andy Taylor, Susie Quatro, entwhistle, mccartny and on and on, most bass players are bass players and suit the instrument somehow.
Why are you?

I started playing Bass in church at 7 or 8 and never stopped.
I guess it was love at a low note. I also play multiple instruments but BASS is my love.
Photo of the first real bassamp at the time, remember I was a kid in a small church band.
I may still buy this amp again.

 

[misterCRUSH]

I love being the foundation. And also, Jaco.

 

[neo 7]

I was a drummer. Then one day a friend asked me to start learning bass cuz his band needed a bass player.

 

[TakePride]

For me, I started out playing guitar. My band's bass player dropped out and and was pushed into the position. I really haven't looked back since. I still play guitar but there is something special about bass. Bass is so powerful and ties the band together.

 

[legalbass]

I was first drawn to bass guitar by the "lead bass guitarists," i.e. Entwistle, Lee, et al., but have since matured to have a more expansive and encompassing passion for the instrument's role in various expressions of music.

Still love me some Geddy and some Ox, however. :}

 

[ERIC31]

Man, it’s always been the bass! Even before I knew what a bass was. That sound on the stereo caught my ear. My Dad was a jazz fan foremost but also way into Earth Wind And Fire! Verdine White killing it. That made an impression early on, then the disco years with Bernard Edwards with Chic always on the radio….fast forward to summer of 1982, Steve Harris in Iron Maiden on MTV…Run To The Hills!! That galloping bassline… Wow! Mind blown and I knew I had to be a bass player! 40 years later and it’s still all about the bass!!

 

[Paul New]

I was drawn to bass
Because the sound of the thing
Keeps me regular

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

I was drawn to bass
Because the sound of the thing
Keeps me regular

It is easier to find "The Brown Note" on a bass!

 

[B String]

As Sun Ra said... "Bass is the place". I agree!

 

[wiscoaster]

"Why bass?" Actually, that's a really great question for those inclined to play music. You do best when you play the part that comes most naturally to you. In high school, I played lead guitar in a band of my friends. Mostly because I was the only one who could play guitar worth a damn. (My friend, however, was a pretty mean bass player. I wonder if he still plays?) But in high school concert band I played baritone and in high school choir I sang bass. I just seemed like the it was harmony and bass that I was more attuned to, not melody. When I drive around town listening to the radio it's the bass parts I hum along with, not the melody. So when I decided to get back into playing guitar after some 50 years of not playing guitar, it was bass that was the logical choice. I did also buy a Tele, but that was more for nostalgia, in memory of my first guitar teacher, than for anything else. I don't actually play it, except maybe occasional E, A and C chords to remind me I'm no longer even remotely capable of playing it. But, bass .... that I can still do.

 

[HubbardsFate]

For me, it was largely the mystery of the bass...

There was no real mistaking the guitar, drums, keyboards, etc. But when I started getting more seriously into music as a teenager, and realized there was an instrument that looked like a guitar, but was bigger, with a longer neck, thicker strings, etc., I was like "What the...?! The hell does that thing do??"

And then, when I dug deeper and started getting a grasp on the actual role of the instrument, it intrigued me even further, and I realized it kind of suited my personality...as in, I enjoyed getting attention, but not too much attention...

 

[JRA]

Why are you?

habit, easiest for some genres, no one else was willing.

 

[2thAche]

For me it was Rush: exit stage left. The tone, melodic lines and gritty power. A light came on where ok, wow bass doesn't have to be a background noise.

I also really just like the low range and how it fills music out as if you can physically feel it.

 

[Camarillo]

I used to play guitar for a long time. Then the band splitted, the job absorbed all days and a lot of nights, I stopped playin for a while. Then a friend invited me in a band that needed a bass players. I said “I never did it, but ok”. It was almost 12 years ago.

 

[Bighouse]

I had no real choice.
I heard in music, a voice:
Melodious low.

 

[twhitedc]

When I was 14 my best friend started taking guitar lessons. Shortly after, I got a guitar from a neighborhood kid, and my buddy tried to teach me what he'd been learning. I didn't quite get it, and eventually he said, "You should play bass there's less strings (and more importantly) THEN WE CAN BE IN A BAND TOGETHER!" Unfortunately he died when we were 20, and we never got to do that band together, but I like to think that I keep him alive just a little bit when I play my 4 strings some 25 years later.

 

[BobDeRosa]

In my early 40s I decided I wanted to play an instrument and thought that with only four strings, bass would be a piece of cake to learn and play. What a fool!