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Why did you start playing bass?

#122
for me it was easy...I was playing Bass Clarinet in the School band so I was already drawn to the Low end side....and when all my buds wanted to play guitars I had no problem playing the bass...

Geezer Butler was my Main influence and still is, we were all big Black Sabbath fans back in the day..
 
#123
Originally the idea was for me to replace the bassist, the bassist become the rhythm guitarist, the "guitarist" become lead guitarist, and the band to get a new keyboardist. That band is now no more, so here I am, a happily orphaned musician.
 
#126
...for some reason, i always seemed to focus in on the bass parts when i listen to music... as my musical tastes progressed to genres such as jazz, i gained a real appreciation for just how creative and unique bass players could be, all while keeping the band together in a subtle, un-assuming way... and this really piqued my interest...

...oh, and it didn't hurt matters that Paul Simonon and Andy Rourke looked and sounded cooler than anything i had ever seen/heard before...
 
#128
I wanted to join the School jazz band cause it seemed like the coolest thing to do,, at that point of my life.
When I was trying to decide between sax and bass, my friend made me listen to Pulling Teeth and I was blown away by it!!! That song was the reason I started bass... Of course, now I listen to that song and laugh at its muddyness and unclear notes, but it sounded like the most amazing thing back then...
 
#129
I was already playing asx in the school band when I was in 7th grade and was kinda thinking of forming a band with a guitarist friend of mine(neither of us were realyl serious about forming) . But one day me and my dad were driving and listening to the Blues Brothers(which i grew up on) and he out of the blues said I should learn bass . So I saved up and bought a bass and now 2 years later me and my guitarist friend have an awesome blues and reggae band and I ive fully induldged myself in the instrumetn since picking it up.
 
#130
Skel said:
I am interested to know why everyone here is playing bass, because I'm curious to see if the person *always* wanted to play bass, or whether they ended up playing bass because nobody else wood, or they didn't feel they were a good enough guitar player, they could only count to 4, (kidding!), their older cousin did - and he got chicks, a bass was given to them, etc.
Click to expand...

None of the above. I began playing tenor sax in the school band at age 10, and soon discovered I had an aptitude for music. By age 12, I was hearing Cream songs on the radio (and by then was already a big Beatles fan anyway), and started really loving rock 'n' roll...

Finally, at age 17, I bought myself an acoustic guitar and started teaching myself chords and simple songs. After some time, I realized that the parts I was improvising on the guitar were sounding more and more like bass lines. At the urging of a friend, I soon invested in a refinished '66 Fender Precision Bass, and started teaching myself rock 'n roll tunes from my albums and from the radio.

To my surprise - and the surprise of a number of my musician friends - I was pretty much a natural on the bass. Apparently listening to Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney, James Jamerson and others had influenced me subconciously in ways that I'd never realized until then. Within a matter of just a couple weeks, I was already competent enough to hold my own playing with guys who'd been playing for several years. I recognized that I'd found my instrumental "voice" - and haven't looked back since...

MM
 
#131
I used to play rhythm guitar in a few bands but my fretting hand got messed up. I used to go to band practice and just listen till one day I picked up the bass and started playing single note lines and everyone liked my playing... It took me awhile to actually get my own bass. After all I was a guitar player, but I was listening to some songs by Tyrone Davis, "Can I change my Mind" and "Turning Point" and couldn't get the bass lines out of my head, it was driving me crazy, so I bought a bass and learned the lines just so I could stop humming the lines in my head. Now I realize that I should have started on bass. As a guitar player I would always learn the bass lines first and then the guitar parts. The bass lines always came easy, it was more natural ...the guitar parts I had to fight for every note. I don't consider my self a bass player yet, I have too much to learn but I'm on my way.

R...
 
#132
I took guitar lessons as a kid, partly because my Dad bought my Mom a guitar for Christmas when I was 5 or 6 and it was laying around when I was old enough to start learning a musical instrument.

I learned to read treble clef pretty quickly but was best at strumming chords alongside Sister Susan during the Folk Mass and later in high school in a band that consisted of drums, keys, sax and drums. Goes to show what I knew then - no bass, that's embarrassing. I think I did the bass line on 25 or 6 to 4 on my guitar, so there were hints back then.

I put the guitar away for about 20 years. Go to college, get married, have kids, change religion. The church we go to starts to introduce some of the upbeat praise music. I pull out the guitar and am OK, but we have a lot of very good guitarists in our little church.

Then, our sometimes bass player (sometimes keyboards - very talented guy) then graduates from college and moves out of town. He left his bass around the church for awhile and encouraged me to give it a try if I wanted.

I did and it was love at first sight. Bought an SX and took some lessons. Fortunately, the money my folks spent for guitar lessons wasn't a total loss as I was pretty comfortable with the bass fairly quickly and am a much better with the bass than I ever was with the guitar. I wish I had started with the bass from day 1; but I am glad that I found it.

I formed a band with one of the guitarists and one of the singers at church together with a drummer, sax, trombone and more recently keyboards from where I worked. We are now a bunch of middle-aged guys (and one thirty-something gal) learning songs and playing a gig here and there for our friends and having a great time.

I seldom, if ever, get the urge to play guitar anymore. I'm not even tempted to try out the great gear many of guitar playing friends have.
 
#133
When I was 15 I got an acoustic guitar for christmas. Five years later I lived with two other (electric) guitar players, and there was a drummer who left his gear set up in the dining room. One night while they're jamming, I was trying to jam along on the old acoustic but they were loud. I played as hard as I could but couldn't even hear myself at all. One of the guys had a little bass rig so I got on that and knew right away that this was "it".

Afterwards I realised that, even when I played guitar, it was always the basslines that I was listening to when I tried to figure out songs.

I still like to play the old acoustic sometimes, but, when it comes to bands, I only play bass.:bassist:
 
#137
I heard "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" for the first time.

That's all there was to it. I bought a bass that week.

edit: I never thought about playing guitar before that. I always wanted to play drums when I was really young, but I was never really serious about it.
 
#139
I apologize if this has been done before and I'm not sure if this is the correct place to put this, but I was wondering why alot of you guys started playing bass?

I started playing bass because I had always wanted to learn an instrument and I liked the way it sounded more than sax, (other instrument I wanted to learn) so I thought about it for a while and then I found an anime...

FURI KURI!!! FOOLY COOLY, OR FLCL!

That pink haired girl carrying around that lefty Rick made me want to start playing bass so here I am, with my new Ashdown MAG 300 410 combo and my Squier with an SX on the way and a soon to be mine Schecter. :bassist:

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