Why did you pick bass?

[glocke1]

It picked me.

Pretty much this. At the age of 14 or so I thought the intro to tunes like "Dazed and Confused" and "How many more times" was the coolest thing ever, subsequent recordings like Mayalls blues breakers albums sealed the deal for me.

Other instruments just never really interested me all that much either. I dabbled with guitar from time to time and even have an acoustic here, but i was just way more interested in bass.

 

[RaggaDruida]

Shiah Coore, Aston "Family Man" Barrett & Robbie Shakespeare... As I teenager (and still) I listened to a lot of reggae, wanting to play that, not liking guitar nor drums, it was between bass and keys, and just the melodic syncopated feel of reggae bass got me!

 

[nilorius]

Because, there is no other instrument making the sound and giving the feeling, in the world than a 5 string fretless bass.

 

[sean_on_bass]

My buddy played bass and i thought it was cool. I had also already been playing the baritone horn, so was used to being on the low end of the spectrum. Flea may had also had something to do with it, but honestly can't remember what i was listening to when i got the bass. I think it was Black Sabbath and Metallica...so Cliff Burton was definitely somehow involved.

 

[fdeck]

My middle school band teacher recruited me to play bass for the school jazz band.

 

[Tom Bomb]

Why did you pick bass?

Because, many moons ago, I got punk'd, for real. It was Mission Onbassible: my mission, If I chose to take it, was to espy the ins and outs of Mongoloid, God Save the Queen, and Marseilles (angels): international intrigue, taking on the basstions of paua; five strung out on cool-aid and coffee, and the devil toupée. Swoon, it was PUP-B-love, big-bore bikes, spy verses pie, fish on a Friday. And the BELLS! THE BELLS! But, the bottom line is, back then and now, I be besotted. (Or should that be bass-otted? ).


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[toprekoms]

It's pretty much all that I hear. Been that way since I was 12. Could music exist without bass?

 

[whero]

I remember reading a John Paul Jones interview in Bass Player magazine back in the 1970s and his answer to that question was pretty close to mine.

Some friends were forming a band. There were plenty of people who could sing, play guitar, or play keyboards. They needed a drummer and a bass player. I thought about drums. So much gear to lug around and set up and dismantle. All your arms and legs going at once, all doing different things. I thought about bass. A combo amp and one guitar. Only four strings. One finger on each hand. I chose bass. And that's a true story.

There is another bit to this story though, which is also true. When The Partridge Family was on TV, I was about 9 or 10. I distinctly remember watching it, not knowing at the time that they were just actors (except David Cassidy) and thinking: If that fat obnoxious ginger kid can play bass, so can I. So Danny Bonaduce has to take some credit...

 

[Mike N]

I started out as a drummer in 1978. By the early 90's, the various bands I had been in fizzled out and when I went looking for another band to join, most of the bands I found had a drummer but no Bass player.

So, I bought a Bass and here I am 25 something years later...

 

[Chip Stewart]

I started out as a drummer/percussionist. Some of the songs in the orchestra I played in did not have a drum part and they were short a bassist, so I learned to play bass to cover the third bass part on the songs that didn't have drums.

I started playing in bands as a drummer. It was difficult to be the lead singer and play drums, however, so I switched to bass. I've been a bassist for many years now. I can't imagine going back to drums.