The first time I met Steve Bailey and heard him play some stuff in a master class I was intrigued by the possibilities of the bass, and the second time I saw him a year later I was sold. I got a bass for Christmas, practiced hours a day for about a solid year, and now I've got a gig with a local big band.
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Why did you start playing bass?
- Thread starter HamOnTheCob
- Start date
One day I saw this guy with a classical orchestra take out an electric bass, and play it awesomely... At this day I still can't find his name anywhere.
I though, that its plain beautiful, and the man has guts!
I was just like 10 years old, but I started at 14 playing those funky B-lines that Mr. Stuart Zender created with Jamiroquai!
I though, that its plain beautiful, and the man has guts!
I was just like 10 years old, but I started at 14 playing those funky B-lines that Mr. Stuart Zender created with Jamiroquai!
My girlfriend at the time (I was 16 in 1985) bought me a used Ibanez 4 string from a friend. I was a guitar guy at the time and unfortunately my best friends were shred masters on guitar and I couldn't keep up. I could play Crossroads, but everyone wanted Eruption and other fast crap.
They both stayed with the guitar (turned out to be smart moves!) and I switched to bass.
I can still play a mean 6-string, but my bass playing is JUST getting tight (just picked it up after 12 years)
They both stayed with the guitar (turned out to be smart moves!) and I switched to bass.
I can still play a mean 6-string, but my bass playing is JUST getting tight (just picked it up after 12 years)
why... probably because of my oldest brother and his Elton John/Disco Duck/Queen/ and most importantly KISS records (GENE!! 
)
how... kept sneaking into my second oldest brother's room and thumpin' around on his BC Rich NJ series
back to why... girls in band class dug me more after the switch from Tenor sax(which was already cool
) and also the discovery of Living Colour, U2, and Jane's Addiction!
) how... kept sneaking into my second oldest brother's room and thumpin' around on his BC Rich NJ series
back to why... girls in band class dug me more after the switch from Tenor sax(which was already cool
) and also the discovery of Living Colour, U2, and Jane's Addiction! 
My older brother.plays guitar.
I keep trying his guitar.
To keep me fom playing his guitar.
He bought me my first bass. (Gibson EBO)
Rakie
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to...
Why ? I've always wanted to play, but I guess when I first heard Stanley Clarke, and Tower of Power i really went for it.
This doesn't belong in the Bass forum however, bad noob.
This doesn't belong in the Bass forum however, bad noob.
The year was 1989. I was a drummer in various punk bands. A friend gave me a cassette, "SinDisease" of this band called Scaterd Few. The entire band blew my mind, but listening to the bass player is what switched me over from drums. I 'd never heard anything like it before. I never looked back. Thanks Omar!
was in a music course at college, singer.....chicks dug the bassists so i started playing bass, loved it never looked back.
but even before i was into music properly (like when i was a snotty kid) i was always being told off for thumping the tables/walls/heads of classmates with my thumb, even when i was a singer i always kept time thumbing my thigh.....so guess i was destined to be a bassist.
but even before i was into music properly (like when i was a snotty kid) i was always being told off for thumping the tables/walls/heads of classmates with my thumb, even when i was a singer i always kept time thumbing my thigh.....so guess i was destined to be a bassist.
I started out playing the classical guitar for a few years and naturally moved to the electric. I found being lead wasn't my thing, and my sister played bass for a short time. So experimenting I stole her bass and started to teach myself. I've been playing for roughly 2.5 years, and I think I'm hooked. lol
Played drums when I was little, wasn't enough melody for me. Played a few other instruments, wasn't enough rhythm for me. Guitar and bass were the two options I settled into, and I played them both but I thought I did better on bass so I concentrated more on it. I still play a decent rock guitar but bass is my instrument.
When I was in elementary school I used to take guitarlessons for the musicteacher. I never really got interested in it (they should have made us watch crossroads ), but since I knew a little about it I played guitar during the musiclessons (we had one or two lessons per week when the whole class, approx. 20 kids, played pop and rock music together): One time during 5th grade the guy who normally played the bass (electric guitar, bass and drums where ususally played by those kids who knew what they where doing and who stood up for themselves) was away on holiday or something so the rest of the class told me to try it out. I thought that why not, it's fewer stings and more space between them, that ought to suit me fine. Did it, loved it, and when I started 6th grade in a diffrent town, my uncle got me my pink yamaha rbx250, since he had promissed buying it from a guy who at the time wasn't willingly to sell, so my uncle got a 3000 € custom, and when the guy wanted to sell it, my uncle bought it and gave it to me.
), but since I knew a little about it I played guitar during the musiclessons (we had one or two lessons per week when the whole class, approx. 20 kids, played pop and rock music together): One time during 5th grade the guy who normally played the bass (electric guitar, bass and drums where ususally played by those kids who knew what they where doing and who stood up for themselves) was away on holiday or something so the rest of the class told me to try it out. I thought that why not, it's fewer stings and more space between them, that ought to suit me fine. Did it, loved it, and when I started 6th grade in a diffrent town, my uncle got me my pink yamaha rbx250, since he had promissed buying it from a guy who at the time wasn't willingly to sell, so my uncle got a 3000 € custom, and when the guy wanted to sell it, my uncle bought it and gave it to me.Iron Maiden has been my favorite band ever since Metallica released 'Load', which shot down all hope that they were ever going to repent for the Black Album with whatever came next.
Yes, I was part of that crowd. Down with SellOutIca!!! I mean, hell, by the late 80s weren't they already millionaires filling up arenas on more than one continent? Wasn't that part of what made them special, that they could do all that and still be too extreme to ever see the light of radio or MTV? Chaps my hide to this day. :scowl:
So anyways, I reckon Cliff Burton, Lemmy, and GZR Butler were also major reasons... but Steve Harris was A-1 above all.
He would play the thing like a lead guitar, but he wasn't doing ostentatious solo wankery the whole time like you see in the crappier fusion bands. He played basslines that did the job of basslines... but it was just so much more. I couldn't tell Smith apart from Murray unless I memorized the liner notes to see who did what solo when, but Harris couldn't possibly have been more front-and-center and distinctive.
Then there's Flea. "John Fruski-fanta-who/what? Is that his name?" But then there's Flea.
It sounds counterintuitive to the ethos of bass...
...but I saw bass as the way to stand out in a way that was closed to the vast majority of guitards.
Does not Lemmy Kilminster - who is to Motorhead what Jimi Hendrix was to the Hendrix Experience - epitomize that? Lemmy and other bassists that I perceived as conspicuously atypical, such as Steve Harris, Cliff Burton, and Flea... those guys are the reason.
Well, also... uhhhhhhhh... I saw it in terms of... uhhhhh...
Guitar = Sword. Bass = Axe.
Guitar = Spear. Bass = War Hammer.
Guitar = Mustang. Bass = Peterbilt.
Guitar = Rifle. Bass = Grenade Launcher.
Guitar = HumVee. Bass = Tank.
Guitar = Han Solo. Bass = Chewbacca.
Guitar = Chimpanzee. Bass = Gorilla (or Sasquatch).
Guitar = Horse. Bass = Rhinoceras.
Guitar = Statue of David. Bass = Ron Jeremy.
I rest my case.
Yes, I was part of that crowd. Down with SellOutIca!!! I mean, hell, by the late 80s weren't they already millionaires filling up arenas on more than one continent? Wasn't that part of what made them special, that they could do all that and still be too extreme to ever see the light of radio or MTV? Chaps my hide to this day. :scowl:
So anyways, I reckon Cliff Burton, Lemmy, and GZR Butler were also major reasons... but Steve Harris was A-1 above all.
He would play the thing like a lead guitar, but he wasn't doing ostentatious solo wankery the whole time like you see in the crappier fusion bands. He played basslines that did the job of basslines... but it was just so much more. I couldn't tell Smith apart from Murray unless I memorized the liner notes to see who did what solo when, but Harris couldn't possibly have been more front-and-center and distinctive.
Then there's Flea. "John Fruski-fanta-who/what? Is that his name?" But then there's Flea.
It sounds counterintuitive to the ethos of bass...
...but I saw bass as the way to stand out in a way that was closed to the vast majority of guitards.
Does not Lemmy Kilminster - who is to Motorhead what Jimi Hendrix was to the Hendrix Experience - epitomize that? Lemmy and other bassists that I perceived as conspicuously atypical, such as Steve Harris, Cliff Burton, and Flea... those guys are the reason.
Well, also... uhhhhhhhh... I saw it in terms of... uhhhhh...
Guitar = Sword. Bass = Axe.
Guitar = Spear. Bass = War Hammer.
Guitar = Mustang. Bass = Peterbilt.
Guitar = Rifle. Bass = Grenade Launcher.
Guitar = HumVee. Bass = Tank.
Guitar = Han Solo. Bass = Chewbacca.
Guitar = Chimpanzee. Bass = Gorilla (or Sasquatch).
Guitar = Horse. Bass = Rhinoceras.
Guitar = Statue of David. Bass = Ron Jeremy.
I rest my case.
I wanted to play an intrument. Neither Guitar nor Drums attracted me. Mostly, I picked it up becouse it wasnt a guitar.
But I was always drawn to the low end. I loved that Feeling you get when you stand in front of a huge PA sistem. When I was told that was the bass, that was it.
But I was always drawn to the low end. I loved that Feeling you get when you stand in front of a huge PA sistem. When I was told that was the bass, that was it.
In my 30+ years of playing bass professionally, this is the most compelling reason to play bass that I've ever seen.
my mates and I started a punk band in 1977. I drew the short straw... I just plunked hard at what notes I was told to plunk...
I then had an extremely large gap and took the Bass back up last year
I then had an extremely large gap and took the Bass back up last year
I originally wanted to play guitar but then I saw a bass. I noticed it was bigger, the big strings were more attractive to me, the instrument in a whole just appealed to me more, so I bought a bass instead and never looked back.
