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Why do you play bass ??

#461
Played guitar poorly, off and on, since high school. After being out of college for a few years, I had a dream that I was slapping a white Spector and sounding awesome. The next weekend I bought my first bass. Been here since. I still play guitar as a lark occasionally (still poorly.), but the bass is my instrument. Feels right.
 
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#463
I’d always ended up gravitating towards the low end, it seems. Played bass clarinet and baritone sax. When I started playing guitar in my first group, we didn’t have a bass player, so I decided right then to do it. I enjoyed it right from the start and looked back.

An added bonus was the scarcity of bassists in my neck of the woods, so I was in multiple bands and jams from early on. Way helped my learning curve.
 
#464
Started on 6-string guitar and as a teen kept gravitating towards the lower notes on songs I would hear. Once I realized what bass was, I searched for solo sounds of it. I have played guitar ad bass in ensembles but there is just something about how the bass fills a room like 20,000 gallons of warm water, completely surrounding everything in the room. Never lost the love for electric, upright and hell, even bass synth sounds.
 
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#465
Chip Vickio said:
There's just something about this instrument -- the bass guitar. What attracted you to it in the first place? Was it the low sound? Did someone who already played inspire you? Or was it just that a band needed a bass guitar player? It seems that musicians have affinity to a certain instruments -- so for you, why bass? For me....the sound!
Click to expand...
The sound.:thumbsup:
It is tunable
and has frets.
 
#466
I like it for the exact opposite reason most of you do.
The trouble is that making it sound the way I like is difficult.

If you want a taste of how I wish I sounded, Year of the Cobra.
 
#467
My bass playing style and natural instinct/rythymn is completely different from my six string style. Never knew this until several months ago when I bought my first bass after playing six string for 30 years. Now I play much more bass than six.
 
#468
Like a lot of us, I was born to play bass. That doesn't mean that I have exceptional ability; quite mediocre, actually. I just always have had the ear for bass lines above all other elements in music. Growing up I was fascinated in Geddy, Entwistle and Chris Squire's playing. When I was little, Dee Murray (Elton John's band) opened my ears to the way bass should be played powerfully as a counter melody and it stuck. He's my earliest influence and who's style I naturally gravitate toward. I've never had a desire to play other instruments except occasionally percussion and keys.
 
#469
I played in Jr High and High School orchestra. I do enjoy performing in public, but I've never been a good enough instrumentalist to take first chair in orchestra or guitar in a rock band. Bass is something that fits my skill set, and I don't need to be the "front" player in a band. I do really enjoy setting the rhythm (with the drummer) and the ability to move the music along with the bass line.
 
#471
Chip Vickio said:
There's just something about this instrument -- the bass guitar. What attracted you to it in the first place? Was it the low sound? Did someone who already played inspire you? Or was it just that a band needed a bass guitar player? It seems that musicians have affinity to a certain instruments -- so for you, why bass? For me....the sound![/
I heard Wishbone Ash 1st album then Fleetwood Mac and the Alice Cooper's Killer and I thought to myself " I wanna do that". The tone really resonated with me and I loved making that sound when I finally picked one up.
Click to expand...
 
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#472
I posted earlier something about how when played pressed against one's abdomen, the bass guitar shakes out the nasty stuff. That's one good reason for sure.

But there's also the charm of the instrument being just about exactly as old as I am. Other modern instruments took longer to get up to being essential. The saxophone at age 73 was still largely being used to make flatulent barnyard effects (not to offend any sax players out there... it really did catch fire about then when Bechet, Bean, & Frankie Trumbauer got hold of it).

Then there's the very satisfying irony that while today our instrument is totally sine qua non, when I started on bass (1964), it wasn't in any way taken seriously as an instrument (certainly not in the public school music programs). And in R&R, extra, perhaps less adept (or perhaps less egocentric) guitarists back in '65 were encouraged to play bass because, well, someone had to do it. So that's some satisfying irony for sure.
 
#476
I played rhythm guitar for almost 50 years and was often told I should play bass because I had good feel and temp, but didn't want to be encumbered by a large electric bass, forget a standup double bass. In mid 2013 I joined a 40 member uke group and a year later the leader asked if anyone would like to take up the bass to fill in our sound. I discovered bass ukes and mini bass guitars and went for it. I accumulated 31, but just a few weeks ago culled them down to 6. Bass uke is now my main instrument, with tenor uke and blues harmonica close behind.
 
#479
I started playing bass in 1975
for 1 reason.
I was surrounded by Guitar players and didn't want to be another guitar player .
I've been playing Bass ever since , the first time I saw and bought my first bass for 40 dollars ,
A Kay SG shaped Bass , no amp , I started practicing with my ear against the body .
45 yrs. I'm still, and I'm going to be a Bass player
until my last days .
 
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