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Why did you take up bass??

bubinga5

bubinga5

Jun 6, 2006
1,113
582
51
cheltenham(UK)
#1
Maybe this has been done before, but can you remember at what point you wanted to take up the bass. Also what was the reason for choosing the bass over other instruments. I was attracted to the funky cool side of the bass, and the depth it gives to music..I cant imagine music without that wholesome bass giving harmonies and backbone!

So what were your first memories. Wanting to look cool, Get girls/boys, A longing for the deep sonic vibrations??
 
#2
The reason I started playing bass was that my two best friends at the time started playing guitar. I figured I would take up bass so I could play with them. I remember my dad not wanting to buy me a starter bass and amp because he didn't think I would follow through with it and it would be forgotten like so many other "toys"... Well, it has been over 10 years now, and I'm loving it more than ever!
 
#3
My friend was all 'me and other friend play guitar, you should learn bass'... That friend doesn't play guitar anymore, other friend still plays a lot, and I with him. My mom initially thought the 300 bucks for the starter bass/amp (yay parents) was gonna be a wasted investment. Now she wishes she'd never bought it because all that comes from my room from 530-1030 is loud loud bass now.
 
#4
I played classical guitar from when I was about age 7 to 15 but got bored with it so dropped guitar for the next 30 years. We got my son a standard electric a couple of years ago and I played a bit on this, so when Christmas came around my wife asked if I wanted my own guitar. It seemed a bit daft having two 6-strings in the house so (as someone I worked with played bass) we thought, why not get a bass?

I played this along to CDs for about 6 months and then got the chance to play bass in a local musical production of Return to the Forbidden Planet and wanted to do more, so I managed to get a place in my current covers band and haven't looked back since. Teenage dreams of being a rock star have, in some small way, been realised 30 years later.

We only play pubs and other small venues, but it's still a great feeling when I see people dancing and having a good time at the music that I am playing.

Stages of learning:

1. Just getting through my first gig with the tabs up on a music stand in front of me.
2. Playing a gig without the need to look at any crib sheets.
3. Playing a gig without the need to look constantly at my left hand.
4. Knowing the tunes so well that I can really enjoy myself up on stage and put on a show for the audience, e.g. devil's horns while the drummer does his solo on American Idiot.

Things I want to learn (I'm sure there are a lot more than this):

1. To be able to listen to a piece of music and work out the bass line without referring to a tab.
2. To interact with the audience without getting embarrassed when someone smiles at me.


Geoff
 
#5
I started playing bass solely because my high school stage band couldn't find a bass player. I'd been playing guitar for a while, but the band already had a good guitar player, who was a friend of mine, so I said I'd take a stab at the bass. Fortunately, the parts were all written out note for note, and equally fortunately, I'd learned bass clef from messing around with my brother's piano music. So I was able to fit in fairly quickly. I soon got addicted to the low end. On top of that, I was hanging out with a bunch of people who were into the singer-songrwiter thing, and they all played guitar and/or piano, but nobody played bass. So I nominated myself to do it, since nobody else could or would. Things just kind of went from there. I still consider myself a guitarist and a bassist, not a guitarist who plays some bass or a bassist who plays some guitar.
 
#7
Well , at age 7-8 or something i started playing on my granfathers upright (when noone was looking :D )
Then it just started , lessons , taking upp the BG and so on ,
Than i started giging at age 11 ..
So its all good , gotta love the bass.
 
#9
Broke college student at the time, I decided that being a guitar player would impress the HOT girl who lived in the aparment directly across from mine, so I went to a pawn shop to trade my seldom used deer rifle (still kinda miss it though) for a guitar.

None of the guitars at this pawn shop were in my price range, but being the impatient guy I was, I took this cool looking bass instead. It was some Korean knock-off of a Gibson SG 3/4 scale bass. Taught myself to play with it and then my dad needed a bass player for his band so on to better things...

Just an accident really, but it proves that impatience does in fact pay off.
 
#10
My older brother played 'cello and my sister played viola, and I didn't want to play violin. So that leaves -- BASS! Started at 10, then picked up the electric bass (for an orchestral piece believe it or not) two years later. Before that I had no idea that there was such an instrument as an electric bass. It definitely put a smile on my face. Picked up the guitar at 16, too.
 
#12
because my church needed a bassist.
I was going to play electric, but when my church said they were short bass players, I decided to sell my kramer and buy a bass. I have soooo been loving it ever since.

dgcalvert -Stages of learning:

1. Just getting through my first gig with the tabs up on a music stand in front of me.
2. Playing a gig without the need to look at any crib sheets.
3. Playing a gig without the need to look constantly at my left hand.
4. Knowing the tunes so well that I can really enjoy myself up on stage and put on a show for the audience, e.g. devil's horns while the drummer does his solo on American Idiot.

Things I want to learn (I'm sure there are a lot more than this):

1. To be able to listen to a piece of music and work out the bass line without referring to a tab.
2. To interact with the audience without getting embarrassed when someone smiles at me.
Click to expand...
I am looking forward to getting to # 2!!!!
 
#13
i was invited to be in a band that wanted a solid bass player. after not playing live for several years the desire to continue being a musician made it a no-brainer. it was either play bass or not be in the band, which happens to have one of my favorite guitarists and vocalists.
 
#15
Watching Dream Theater DVDs and listening to Rush. I think it was Geddy's lines of Xanadu that finally convinced me I needed to play bass.

I just had no idea that bass could be so amazing before; didn't even really know it existed. Especially Dream Theater — John Myung just looks STUPIDLY cool playing finger style.
 
#16
I as many others started out playing guitar both acoustic and then electric...i was ok...but i always thought the electric bass looked so cool...bigger.. massive... long neck... thick strings...they looked so cool and when i saw the cover of london calling (clash) and thought too cool. I always picked out bass lines easy and so i started playing bass and am glad i did.
 

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