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Why did you pick bass?
- Thread starter TheOriginalName
- Start date
The bass chair was open and nobody else stepped forward to claim it.
Playing in churches on rhythm guitar. My musical circle needed another bassist, and since I never sang I was the most likely choice.
I wanted to be in a band. Noticed lots of guitarists who had to play bass...but didn't want to. The bass has been a great match for my ability and tempermente. It's my only instrument.
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering silmite held aloft a Bass from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Lefty McGee, was to play the Bass. That is why I am a bass player!
I’m better at bass after a year playing it than I am at guitar after twenty.
So that’s why.
So that’s why.
If you haven't figured it out by now, we're a corny bunch. So you'll get as many jokes as real answers to questions like this.
For me, I played low brass in the high school band. My band director told me he wanted me to play tuba in the jazz band. I fired back with something like "No thanks. That ain't cool."
Several days later he called me into his office. In the corner was a brand new Fender Precision and a Peavey TNT amp. He said "Jazz band starts in six weeks. You better be ready"..... or something like that.
That was in '85 or '86. A couple of years ago I managed to get that bass that started my journey. The story is here...
NBD - Welcome home old friend....
For me, I played low brass in the high school band. My band director told me he wanted me to play tuba in the jazz band. I fired back with something like "No thanks. That ain't cool."
Several days later he called me into his office. In the corner was a brand new Fender Precision and a Peavey TNT amp. He said "Jazz band starts in six weeks. You better be ready"..... or something like that.
That was in '85 or '86. A couple of years ago I managed to get that bass that started my journey. The story is here...
NBD - Welcome home old friend....
Similar, only not as many years struggling with guitar.
(and more years trying to play bass)
It as the mid '60s. The Beatles and other British Invasion groups were tearing it up. Young girls loved them.
I was 14 and wanted to join a rock band. I could sing but not play an instrument. There were 3 rock bands in my HS who had formed or were forming and only one bassist plus a guitarist playing bass because no one else could. Let's just say I saw an opportunity and my musical fate before me.
No one wanted me only as a singer so for Christmas I asked my Dad to buy me a bass. He did, a used Silvertone Dolphin bass for $35. I bought a 5w Airline tube guitar amp from a HS chum for $10 and spent the rest of the winter and spring in my room each night teaching myself to play just by listening to the bass line in recordings.
By summer I was invited to join one of those bands as a singer and to replace the bassist who was leaving due to his summer job. I never even learned to play guitar until two years after that. That was the beginning and I'm still playing bass 50+ years later having also added guitar to my repertoire.
It's been a fun ride. I've played in some very good local bands and have met quite a few guys in national recording bands having opened for them and in some cases even jammed with them during gigs. That's been enough for me. I never thought of ever making a living from music as others have.
The interesting side bar is that while I've had my thrills that bassist I replaced eventually went on to become a nationally well know guitarist and a local musician makes good type legend. So he left a HS rock band to take a day job yet he's the one who eventually went on to make a career out of being a pro musician.
Unfortunately he passed away two years ago......RIP brother.
I was 14 and wanted to join a rock band. I could sing but not play an instrument. There were 3 rock bands in my HS who had formed or were forming and only one bassist plus a guitarist playing bass because no one else could. Let's just say I saw an opportunity and my musical fate before me.
No one wanted me only as a singer so for Christmas I asked my Dad to buy me a bass. He did, a used Silvertone Dolphin bass for $35. I bought a 5w Airline tube guitar amp from a HS chum for $10 and spent the rest of the winter and spring in my room each night teaching myself to play just by listening to the bass line in recordings.
By summer I was invited to join one of those bands as a singer and to replace the bassist who was leaving due to his summer job. I never even learned to play guitar until two years after that. That was the beginning and I'm still playing bass 50+ years later having also added guitar to my repertoire.
It's been a fun ride. I've played in some very good local bands and have met quite a few guys in national recording bands having opened for them and in some cases even jammed with them during gigs. That's been enough for me. I never thought of ever making a living from music as others have.
The interesting side bar is that while I've had my thrills that bassist I replaced eventually went on to become a nationally well know guitarist and a local musician makes good type legend. So he left a HS rock band to take a day job yet he's the one who eventually went on to make a career out of being a pro musician.
Unfortunately he passed away two years ago......RIP brother.
I auditioned on bass and guitar, the rest (guitar actually) is history. Same story for drums and sound, they let me do that from time to time.
Sound is actually the only thing where I am way better than most, I guess surprisingly few musicians do sound, like me they'd rather be on stage.
The pool of amazingly awesome better-than-me guitar players seems endless.
And many of them are young guys too so it doesn't seem like I can wait them out.
One of the irksome things (to me anyway) is some of those guitar monsters can pick up a bass and play better than me. I mean really, who do they think they are?
Should I admit that I am dabbling in mandolin these days to see if I can re-enter the world above 400 hz?
None of those monster guitar players I know even own a mandolin, and violin players (a mandolin player's only real competition) are rare too.
Sound is actually the only thing where I am way better than most, I guess surprisingly few musicians do sound, like me they'd rather be on stage.
The pool of amazingly awesome better-than-me guitar players seems endless.
And many of them are young guys too so it doesn't seem like I can wait them out.
One of the irksome things (to me anyway) is some of those guitar monsters can pick up a bass and play better than me. I mean really, who do they think they are?
Should I admit that I am dabbling in mandolin these days to see if I can re-enter the world above 400 hz?
None of those monster guitar players I know even own a mandolin, and violin players (a mandolin player's only real competition) are rare too.
When I started playing, guitar players were a dime a dozen. If you were a bass player or a keyboard player and you had equipment, you could play as often as you wanted. I was both bass and keyboard, so I got to play a lot. The rest is rock and roll history.
