Why did you start playing bass?

[verbass]

I looked for the instrument that would really upset my father. The man taught me how to play the violin and classical guitar and thought the bass was a "toy for idiots" . I thought "that's the instrument for me " then I got hooked on Jazz basses and to undo this addiction I need a 12 step program.
By the way Dad and I patched things up the first time he heard me gig 15 years after I started playing bass.

 

[agreatheight]

Because when I was 15 the guy at the music store told me I had bass player hands! For real! I was a scrawny teen with huge, dare I say ginormous, hands. Sadly, I have been growing into them as I get older, lol!!

 

[QORC]

it was when I bought Rush "2112" and listened to it over and over. I was hooked

 

[tlwaps]

Me and some of my friends decided to start a band 9 years ago and I got stuck on bass. Needless to say I was the only one who actually bought an instrument and learned to play. So here I am today.

 

[decipher_bass]

well i started playing bass cus all my friends were in a band and needed a bass player...and everyone knows how middleschool kids love to fit in(i used to sing in the band till that magical time in a young boys life came along and could no longer sing haha)...but i got a cheapo squier pack and never looked back..the squier is still my favorite bass..although its more of a frankenbass because about the only original part is the wood that makes up the body haha

 

[Bloodfist]

Becuase I fell in love with the sound of it, and the look of it. My dad tried to push me into playing guitar since he is a guitarist, but I wanted to play bass. From the moment I got my first bass (1973 P bass) it just felt natural. I was about 10 years old at that time, so you can kinda imagine how HUGE this bass was on me! After I learned the bass, I learned to play the guitar just to better understand the bass and songwriting. I played my heart out and practiced like hell, and the next thing I know, every band in the Charlotte area was calling me. After a succesful run in a band called Undertow, I guit playing all together after the band imploded after about 4 years. Basically I got burned out because I couldn't find any really good musicians to play with. I sold my entire rig, moved to Charleston SC, and now 6 years later I decided to get back in the game. After auditioning for some horrible bands, I decided to just audition other people to play with me. Now I have my "dream" band, and were gearing up to hit the Charleston scene soon. So why did I start playing bass (again)? Because I live and love it.

 

[barthanatos]

A guitarist that I knew wanted me to play bass with him to lead the church youth group. I had picked up guitar not long before that, because it seemed that all the men in my life that I looked up to played.

 

[bassfacekevin]

Well, I started out on guitar, but I got burned out really quickly on that; I didn't like the sounds, and I was never happy with my tone. Also, I just didn't think like that. So one day, I picked up a bass, and holy crap, everything clicked! The notes were full, and everything felt like it fit so much better. That was 2.5 years ago, and I've never looked back.

~K

 

[Bluez Dawg]

For the ladies.

 

[wtf_is_a_bass]

I started guitar when i was an early teen and just wanted to be like blink 182 and be cool cuz i had an "electric" guitar (so naive). I had 10 years experience of piano so i self taught and i had learnt 30 songs in 4 days. But after i started getting into real music and playing in real bands, i came to realise that guitar didnt sound pleasing to me, it didnt feel right in my hands and i constantly ached after playing but i loved playing an electric instrument with frets. I asked my piano teacher and he suggested bass telling me it was the most imporant instrument in many bands and that i had good bass fingers. Thats was it, i never turned back

 

[Erick Lam]

Drum was taken. Looking back, I'm glad it was.

The funny thing is I never had one hint of interest in guitar. *shudder*

 

[onewebfoot]

Having started with bass fairly recently (I'm still brand new, in this crowd), this question is easy to answer for self. The void left by leaving trumpet/flugelhorn was too big to ignore. I can't play brass anymore, given an ear "buzzing" condition I have, and a bass with good controls allows me to practice for hours with absolutely no ear buzz or ringing. It's not just tinnitus in my case. There's more. Otherwise, however, I have tested excellent hearing. Quite the dilemma for an instrumentalist.

Doesn't hurt that I've been worshipping the work of countless bass players for years. Finally, in January this year, I got talking with an upright bassist (Simon Planting), he cited how many horn players he knows who moved to bass, he took one look at my hands (large but not fat-fingered - I can palm a basketball), and that was that. No looking back, though I went horizontal rather than vertical, thus far. This forum certainly helps in ramping up bass playing also, for hands/fingers of any size or shape. The collective and collected knowledge is quite mind-blowing. I'd also cite bass players, generally, as being the most widely knowledgeable, generally, about music of all genres. Bass players tend to see much more than countless lead instrumentalists often do. Thanks.

 

[Komakino]

I tried to play guitar, but I wasn't very good so I thought "What instrument could any idiot..."

Nah, not really - my mate Simon had one and I thought it just sounded really cool, plus I was always picking the bass lines out of songs, rather than whistling the melody, so I figured bass was my sort of thing.

 

[mohamby]

My older brother is a trombone player. I was under the impression that I was to be trumpet player for my vocation. My brother told me to pick up the electric bass as a double because everyone needed a bass and I would be sure to work. needless to say I havn't touched a trumpet since I was 14 and I have worked ever since.

 

[ogrossman]

I was the #2 guitar in my high school jazz band. In the last month of my senior year the bass player had to leave school. I had about two weeks to learn the bass cleff and get familiar with the parts... It was the start of a life long love affair.

 

[Spencer!]

I started playing bass because there were too many guitarists and I wanted to do something different. I had no idea it would turn into my obsession!

 

[Lazylion]

I started playing bass to back up my bass player.
I was in a 4-pc band in high school. We played Hendrix, the Dead, Jethro Tull, etc. Dave was the bass player, I was attempting guitar. We were, as I recall, quite bad. (This was before "bad" meant good)
Dave had a Hofner Beatle bass, righty, luckily for me. But he also had a few originals, on which he played guitar. For those tunes I would switch to bass. Those turned out to be our best songs, mostly due to the facts that 1. Nobody had heard them before and 2. There were no recorded versions to compare our live versions to. I found that the 3 licks I could play on guitar worked much better as bass parts! A light bulb went on!
I wound up selling my Les Paul Recording guitar and buying the wildest bass I could find, a Mosrite Ventures model, for $50. Last I heard (20 years ago), Dave was managing a bagel place in the Los Angeles area.
Thanks, Dave. You didn't know it then, but you set me on the right path. If I had any idea where you are now, I'd buy you a beer!

 

[MAJOR METAL]

I wanted to rock !

 

[blipndub]

The guy down the street was having a yard sale and he had a 77 musicmaster for sale. my dad bought me the bass and my pal's dad got him the Hondo LP. A band was formed. Then I heard Jaco and knew I was a bass player for life.

 

[thadg]

Why and how did you start playing bass?