Why bass?

[sylvanbass]

My best friends and next door neighbors both started taking guitar lessons. This was in 1990 when I was 12 and the Nintendo era was kind of wearing off with my generation and we wanted more social things. Anywho, I was at their house hanging and wanted to be in the band, but thought the three of us all playing guitar was a bit much. Looked through one of the Ibanez catalogs they had and saw this bigger looking guitar with only four strings. Asked what it was, and they said "That's a bass guitar, you should play that". Two weeks later, for my 12th birthday, my mom took me to Mountain Music and bought me a Washburn B2 bass, a Crate 110 amp (It was literally in a wood crate), and 2 lessons from their in house teacher. Rest is history, or lack there of.

 

[ebo]

Why bass? Why NOT bass?

 

[ADHD librarian]

I had a group of friends who played guitar, keys & drums
so there was an obvious gap
and...
I knew someone who would lend me a bass

and, you only need one note to be able to jam on bass

 

[MarshallAC50Stack]

I think that instruments pick their players!

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

Most bass players are bass players? Okay.

 

[Hunter34]

I played trombone for a year, then french horn for 4 years in middle and high school. I loved the emotion of the french horn and it was right in the middle of the mix.

At some point in time, our youth church choir needed an electric guitar and electric bass for a trio of songs we were working on. My best friend at the time was already noodling around with acoustic guitar, so he got the guitar part and I wanted to play electric something, so I volunteered for the bass part. I wanted to play guitar, but all those chords and fingerings looked too complicated for my laid-back high-school brain at the time. Funny thing is, my friend on the guitar kept making fun of me for not following the drummer. I didn't know at the time that the bass and drum were supposed to be locked in. I was trying to stay locked in with the piano, since she had 20 years playing experience, while the rest of us had... months.

I've been working on my skills on and off for 30 years. I'm just now getting barely proficient at knowing where the notes are and being able to read music. It's such a nice break from the technology world that normally fills my schedule.

I'm also learning blues guitar. I think the pattern here is single, expressive notes. I'm not much of a chord guy, but it took learning chords while I learned guitar to understand the harmony that bass provides. As Sting said, "The chord isn't finished until the bass player adds the right note." (Or something to that effect.)

Which, in a round-about way, describes my personality in general. I've never been the flashy out-front type. The one who demands all of the attention. (I'm talking about professional settings, but the same applies if I had ever joined a band.) Instead, I'm the one who adds in that extra bit of glue that keeps everyone heading in the right direction. I'm the behind the scenes type who asks the right question after everyone has been going on and on that redirects the tone to a new and positive direction. (Well, most of the time, anyway.)

I like being that glue that holds everyone together while shunning the immediate spotlight. I'm a bass player.

(Postscript: I forgot to mention that there were 4 really pretty girls that liked to sit on my bass cab. They never sat on the guitar amp! )

 

[wysiwyg248]

Why not? Motown and Stax drove me to listen carefully about that boom boom in the background of songs that when played, I could not stand still.

 

[Core Creek]

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’d argue most bassists are “less-is-more”, hold the groove, stay out of the spotlight. I also play and gig on drums and guitar and those are completely different roles….

 

[bigdaddybass12]

Played tuba in high school band! Bass part beat into my head!

 

[Bassman Spiff]

First, I love the voicing and register of bass.
Second, I greatly enjoy the fun interplay of melody and rhythm that makes bass unique.
Third, I find it much easier to physically play than tight spaced dinky stringed guitars.
Fourth, I much prefer single notes cool bass lines to endless chords (although we need to know them and occasionally play them too).
Fifth, I don't need a pick!
And finally, bass is the most visceral of the non-drum instruments - meaning it is felt as much (or sometimes even more) as it is heard.

I love playing bass!

 

[Jxff]

It started with my folks Zenith stereo > drum kit > acoustic > piano > bass > electric guitar > synth > sampler > back to bass.

 

[Marko 1]

I'm a “Support Character”, meaning I like doing something of value, something important, but don't need to be leading or out-front.

Two things in music that qualify for that character are doing Sound, and playing Bass (I was the lyricist for an originals project, and not bad)

I'm blessed now to be both a half-ass bass player AND a half-ass PA guy.

 

[Dlew919]

I'm a “Support Character”, meaning I like doing something of value, something important, but don't need to be leading or out-front.

Two things in music that qualify for that character are doing Sound, and playing Bass (I was the lyricist for an originals project, and not bad)

I'm blessed now to be both a half-ass bass player AND a half-ass PA guy.

so you’re a full-@ss support guy? Wait…

 

[Snarf]

I picked bass because it pays more and gets the chicks.

Sounds like I need to relocate, cause it's the singers here that get all the big money.

Oh and the second part I guess.

(True story, btw. The other day I was talking to a singer friend of mine who was recommending me as a sub for a group, and she said "The pay is kinda crap, you'll be taking a hit, it's usually around X." And "X" was above my base rate for my main group, lol.)

 

[Matt Dean]

Parents sent me to guitar lessons from 8-12. Then played baritone horn into HS... the HS music teacher was starting a jazz band and asked if anyone wanted to play bass, and I said I would. Haven't looked back in 50 years.

 

[wiscoaster]

.....(Postscript: I forgot to mention that there were 4 really pretty girls that liked to sit on my bass cab. They never sat on the guitar amp! )

You can't beat that for the best reason "why"!!

 

[swink]

I think that instruments pick their players!

I pity the instrument that chose me.

 

[MarshallAC50Stack]

You can't beat that for the best reason "why"!!

Probably the "good vibrations!"

 

[scott sinner]

Most directly, I was brought in as a singer for a junior high hardcore band. We had a bass player that didnt show up too many times and I borrowed his bass and eventually replaced him.

I might still have taken a different route early on then though. I had some synths and really liked them and had other chances to be just the singer with other groups.

But almost primally, I liked the low sounds of the bass. That thrill of wielding that power through the puffy Kustom amp never got old. Ive gigged and recorded on keys, guitar, drums, since but Ive always come back to bass.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

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

I dare you to write a sonnet