Why Did You Start Playing?

[-Stingray]

I'll add to the stereotype.

Spent most of my 20's thru 40's playing guitar in various original bands and a cover band or two. In my early 50's a buddy needed me to cover on bass for a gig. He lent me his Kramer P-Bass. I had no other projects going at the time and had the music learned in a couple of weeks. At that point I was hopelessly hooked, and never went back to guitar.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Saw Chris Squire of Yes playing this:


I was torn between bass and guitar, this tone seemed to bridge the gap, plus I always seemed to notice the bass lines for songs I heard on the radio. Of course, that meant my first bass HAD to be a Rickenbacker.........

 

[klokker]

Played music all my life in this and that, piano, guitar, dabbled with a performance major on keyboard that didn't work out. But my kids were heavy into music, one played guitar, the other drums and I thought we might play a few songs together, so took up bass at about 52 years old. Actually played a few gigs with my kids, but after they moved away ended up in various bands. Played about 40 gigs last year at 67, still going.

 

[Holdsg]

piano lessons from age 8 to 18.
I played anything with keys on it from age 8 to about 40, but I always loved the lower register (as mentioned, organ pedals that shook the rafters of the church...yeah), and I sang bass in choirs.
So as my "mid-life crisis", in about 2003I went out and bought a cheap import bass and started trying to teach myself.
After about a year of that, I got more serious, bought a better bass and took 3 months of lessons at a local music store, and started playing in a band. That's all it took. 2009 I joined TB and the GAS train left the station. Been playing bass in bands now for roughly 20 years (I'm 62) and still play piano/organ/synths in bands, at church, and for home enjoyment.

 

[TheReceder]

Simple.... Girls

I was a geeky upright bassist in the Orchestra. Pretty introverted.
The band instructor needed a bassist for the jazz band. I didn't have a bass, so he let learn on his pristine white Pbass.
The amp... two shure vocalmasters with the old school vocalmaster head... kept in the main band room.

I'd go in and practice and would have 5-10 girls watching me play Count Basies Jumpin at the woodside and other classic pieces.
I may have been a geeky seventh grade kid, but I saw where this was going.

 

[SDC1-ClickClack]

Why Did You Start Playing?

Aw, phooey, did someone start complaining?

 

[RGerhart]

A girl, of course.

 

[AG42]

I fell in love with bass after buying Rush's album Hold Your Fire and Level 42' A Physical Presence... And couldn't believe how skillful the basslines were, how great the players were, and the sonic possibilities...and now 30 years and 25 basses later, I'm still hooked...

 

[Tj smith]

B/c music was cheaper then drugs and alcohol but now I'm starting to think that I'd be money ahead if I would have stuck with drugs.

 

[Fuzzbass]

The reason I wanted to play bass was Paul McCartney's bass lines on Beatle records. Even from a young-ish age, I was fascinated by the low notes on the records. My Mom played Beatle records a lot and I have a fuzzy memory of hearing Sgt. Pepper and a very clear memory of my Mom bringing home the just released white album. I didn't know about bass guitars or anything. I just knew I liked it.

I got my my first bass and amp for Christmas 1974.

You're my brother from another mother. Mid-60's I loved the sound of rock'n'roll, and that included the Beatles. My mom was also a fan, we watched 'em on Ed Sullivan together. Same as with you, those low melodies were an epiphany, and I learned that they were created by Paul's funny-looking four string guitar. My best friend in grade school had a teenage sister who was a huge Beatles fan, so I heard all their records over at his place.

I didn't start playing until I was a teen. My brother picked up guitar, so I immediately went to bass. By that time I was a hard rocker and cut my teeth on Sunshine of Your Love and Paranoid, but Sir Paul was my inspiration for sure.

 

[SunByrne]

Because of my son, a guitarist from a young age. When his older brother was headed off to college, I thought I should find something I could do with my younger son. He was 15 at the time, and really the two things he was most into outside of school and his sport were video games and playing guitar. I'm hopeless at video games, so at the tender age of 49 I picked up a bass for the first time (first time for any instrument, in fact) so I could learn to play along with him. Honestly wasn't sure it would take.

It took.

Now, what that doesn't really answer is why bass instead of say keyboard or drums. That's was less clear to me at the time but more clear to me now. Been a huge music fan my whole life, and it turns out that, without really realizing it, a lot of the music I most enjoy is bass-oriented in some way. Maybe the bass plays a unique role (New Order), the bass is particularly well-executed (Peter Gabriel, Tool, Duran Duran, Yes, The Fixx), or something else (e.g., Michael Manring's work with Michael Hedges). My teacher asked me first lesson to generate a list of songs that had bass lines that I liked and wanted to learn and I came back the next week with like 150 songs.

 

[jerry]

There were neighborhood bands on every block, me and childhood best bud figured we would start one too and we had nothing, I didn't even have a bass yet. We were street kids, music saved us both.

 

[pholli00]

A comment in another thread got me to thinking this may be fun..... I had been playing around with guitars as a teen. Never really got serious but had picked up a few chords..... I was a hard rocker by nature. Nugent, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple were my cup-o-tea.... Then I remember like it was yesterday. A buddy invited me to go see Conway Twitty with him. I cringed at the thought but didn't want to be rude, so I went. The house lights went down, and the PA announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen. CONWAY TWITTY!!!".... Every woman in that place screamed and ran down to the front of the stage. I thought that was a wholly Elvis related phenomenon (he was still alive then).... I was smitten. I looked at this average looking dude with a poofed up perm and a guitar and thought to myself.... I am a pretty average dude... If I can get serious about this guitar playing, I just might have a chance with the ladies..... Shortly thereafter I changed my focus to bass and that clicked for me. So yeah, the fuel that lit my engine initially was attracting the opposite sex. It morphed into a lifelong love affair with the bottom end, but I cannot deny that my initial motivation was entirely chick related....... What fueled your love of the bottom end?

I started at 24, when I formed a band with a guitarist and drummer I knew. It was fun and not fun at the same time. It's not easy trying to play when everyone else is a whiz. It was all I could do to play roots. Other bass players were slapping and popping the hell out of their axes, or fingering the strings with a smooth hand. I picked hard, but I didn't pick fast and triplets were a nightmare for me. It didn't get much easier - back in the band days -, but I did learn to nail the roots and octaves. Every once in a while I'd add a fifth, but that was scary as hell.

I had the bass for a few years before forming that band, but I never really knew how to play it. It just seemed so mystifying - all those dots. The band broke up after a few years, but I kept banging away at the bass, now and then, God knows why. I have no real skill set, and I'm too busy to play with other musicians. But I love the damned thing so much. And I know what a minor third is now.

 

[Peteyboy]

My uncle was a bass player and he was cool. When my older brother got a drum kit he always had musicians coming over to play in the basement. No one wanted to play bass, so they let me use the Ibanez someone had left behind. I was 14 - and now I got to hang with guys who were 4 years older meaning access to beer & cigarettes and weed & girls. I wasn't "tagging along", I was in demand. I sold some stuff to buy my own Kent Jazz Bass copy. I accidentally got good at this thing at a young age.

 

[Thunderthumbs73]

A comment in another thread got me to thinking this may be fun..... I had been playing around with guitars as a teen. Never really got serious but had picked up a few chords..... I was a hard rocker by nature. Nugent, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple were my cup-o-tea.... Then I remember like it was yesterday. A buddy invited me to go see Conway Twitty with him. I cringed at the thought but didn't want to be rude, so I went. The house lights went down, and the PA announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen. CONWAY TWITTY!!!".... Every woman in that place screamed and ran down to the front of the stage. I thought that was a wholly Elvis related phenomenon (he was still alive then).... I was smitten. I looked at this average looking dude with a poofed up perm and a guitar and thought to myself.... I am a pretty average dude... If I can get serious about this guitar playing, I just might have a chance with the ladies..... Shortly thereafter I changed my focus to bass and that clicked for me. So yeah, the fuel that lit my engine initially was attracting the opposite sex. It morphed into a lifelong love affair with the bottom end, but I cannot deny that my initial motivation was entirely chick related....... What fueled your love of the bottom end?

A lot of things. As a singer, I liked The Police and Sting, in particular. Also as a formal and self-taught musician, I felt it was something I could certainly play if I spend time with it. At the time I was getting a degree on French Horn which was something I taught myself (largely in basics) in high school over one summer since I was already a trumpet player. I guess having become the ascendent French Horn player who sang, played trumpet and guitar, why not add bass? I went from dabbling into French Horn to being first chair in High School in under two years. I went into college and was first chair in two years, and so why not play bass? I went further. I said why not play in a rock band at night and play in Jazz combos and learn the upright and read big band charts too? Why I can't I do this?

Rather than the path of least resistance, it was a path of rewarded success. And really that's never stopped 30 years onward.

It's not really about touting my own successes (there have been failures too in this musical life), but like in other musical lives, when I worked on the bass, I was rewarded, and kept going.

I WISH I'd found the bass or popular music in high school. I might have been "cooler" and gotten better shots with the girls I REALLY liked, but whatever. It was never about them. It was never about popularity. It was simply voracious musical appetite.

 

[pfschim]

Both my parents were musicians; my Dad was a working pro bass and tuba player, and my Mom was a symphonic flue player. Both were excellent pianists as well. So, theres that, and the long line of pro/semi-pro musicians on both sides of the family going back several generations.

So, it was pretty much a given that I would at least play some instrument.

Started on piano at age 6, got to "pick" an instrument at age 8. I picked upright Bass and played in school orchestra's (grade school, middle school). I also stuck with piano lessons thru highschool. In middle school I got my first electric bass and hooked up with a band and did my first paying gig on electric when I was 12 and never looked back.

All kinds of influences. Rock of the 60's, but also jazz and classical from my folks and their musician friends.

been lots of fun and rewarding, and I am still learning news stuff even today

 

[Dave Leighton]

I heard John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, Rodger Glover, John Deacon…

 

[Smith357]

Grew up in a musical household, there were always all manner of instruments around. It was just a given that I would play something. Started on piano, moved to horns, then finally settled on strings.

 

[BargeOn]

Because I was getting old (mid 50s) and running out of time.

 

[mambo4]

Paraphrasing
"Dad, I want to be a rock star but I'm not sure if I should learn guitar or bass"
"Son, I've been a guitarist all my life , and I can tell you:
guitarists are a dime a dozen. But, if you can play bass well, you will get work"