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Why did you pick bass?

Why did you pick bass?

Great Question!!

Well I was 13 years old and my older brother was putting a band together with a guitar player and they needed a bass player. And he asked me if I would be the bass player. I said yes … but what is a bass?

Well I stuck with it and he didn't

I got a lot better than either of the other 2 in that band after years of practicing and playing
 
I've played guitar since 84 but never got too good because I don't have guitarist's hands. I have practiced quite a bit, but still find myself muting strings I don't want muted when playing some chords. I thought "down to 4 strings would put more space between them." That was true. It definitely mitigated the 'fat finger' effect. As a poster said above, after less than a year I'm better on bass than (almost) after more than 30 years with the guitar. It's the most wonderful instrument I've picked up.
 
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Long story as short as possible, I started playing drums at age 5, then piano at age 7 (went on to take piano lessons through 8th grade). In the 8th grade (1978) I joined my first band playing drums and I remember the bass player really sucked - played all the parts wrong etc, and I had a great ear - played a lot of tunes by ear on piano and I remember playing bass lines to songs on the piano until it occurred to me later that year - I want to learn bass! Some of my earliest influences were Chris Squire, Doug Stegmeyer (Billy Joel), Charles Meeks (Chuck Mangione)....then I soon discovered the obvious - Jaco, Geddy, Jimmy Johnson etc.
 
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Neighborhood kid band thing where we started a band without anybody actually really playing yet, nobody wanted to be a bass player so I said sure. There were other friends that already played and they helped immensely lending gear and mentoring us, good times!
 
I started to play guitar at about 14. I started high school in 1965 and one of my new friends was a guitar player in a popular local band. In about 1967 he decided to reform his group and needed a bass player. Talked me into picking up bass. Boy, am I glad he did!
This friend of mine (stage name Tom Wild) later became a session musician in Nashville and has played with numerous national names. The dude has a Grammy!
 
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