how did you end up as a bass player?

[Bass_Guardian]

Very strange how i started playing bass. I had pretty much no music background and in my church i was supposed to sing for the youth club there but i asked if there was anything else i could do instead and the leader said that i could play bass so i automatically said yes just to get out singing. The first time i played it i never knew any note at all on the bass whatsoever as noone told me how so i had to practise for ages learning each note needed for the song by ear...took ages but i never complained ( much ). Played the song with me playing the intro alone. I used my thumb and the video is still somewhere in the house i think. When i think back on it i think how stupid i was not to know anything and playin with my thumb. I fell in love though with playing bass and here i am today

* Breath out *

[Wally]

The big town nearest me had a pub which once a month put on punk/hardcore bands. I went all the time. One time another regular says to me 'can you play bass'. I say 'no' and he then says 'do you want to we need a player'. He's the guitar player and gives me a lesson, a bass and tabs 'of sorts' to his bands songs.

I learn em turn up for the rehearsals, have a cracking laff and we do a support slot a couple months later in the above pub.
My Dad was Army and we've moved around a lot (I went through seven schools between 5 and 16). Being bass in a band made me feel I'd actually arrived and belonged somewhere.

[3below]

We decided to start a band at school and sort of chose what we would play. None of us had music lessons or tuition (and have never done so on 1st instruments to my knowledge - now I advise the kids I teach to do so - great time saver). Sax and bass were my call. Slade, Deep Purple, Mott the Hoople, Wizard, Hendrix and Steppenwolf have a lot to answer for. 38 ! years later, none of us are in same bands however all of us except one are still playing same instruments. I have played trumpet, sax and clarinet to a point, would be happy to do guitar in a band but simply prefer bass playing - and I'm much better now than I used to be (IMO), strangely a long period of not playing improved my playing - work that one out. So why am I a bass player - it just comes (super)naturally.

[icastle]

It wasn't me, it was the others, they made me do it...

I actually started out as a woodwind player in a folk band but as time went on we drifted more into electric music.
So, the harsh reality was "evolve or leave".

I evolved

[DarkHorse]

Couldn't afford drums.



Seriously though, I just loved the sound of the electric bass.

[howdoesitgoagain]

I started off as a rhythm guitarist in a space rock band...... then much later started playing music with a couple of young guys who despite their youth were brilliant guitarists so bought a bass and got a band together... that lasted about 4 years with local success and an album.

Now playing in a band with some excellent musicians, standing with the bass at the back not only can I keep an eye on them I can enjoy the noise they make. I also play in a dub band where the bass is king and I also only have to play sparsely and not full on rock style. close my eyes and chill.

Oh yeah I got sacked [ as guitarist ] from a monster space rock outfit a few years ago, better not say who, as my best mate is the bass player in that one..

[daz]

I became a bass player because of many great records from my youth, but i think these 4 guys were mostly responsible for me taking up the bass.


Geezer Butler - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbxfe7DMxVo"]Black Sabbath[/url] - The [i]Vol 4. [/i]LP and [i]We sold our Soul for Rock n Roll. [/i]LP Bought for Xmas 1975 by my Nan

JJ Burnell - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aI9k06dGpg&feature=related"]The Stranglers[/url]. - The Peaches single heard on radio Summer 1977, whilst digging a mates Grans garden one hot summers afternoon.

Youth - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBm56qSS58Q"]Killing Joke[/url] - The Wardance Single and debut LP, bought in 1980, after my mate Sven Harding (Bass player in The Jiving Daleks. Where are you now Sven?) said he'd heard it and it was excellent.

Dave Allen - Gang of four - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7sNfbprnKU&feature=related"] Entertainment[/url] LP. one of the greatest and influential albums of all time.
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[indent]Click on the underlined names for Youtube links in case any of that lot are unfamilliar to any of you straighter flyers out there..[/indent]

Edited November 7, 2010 by daz

[Mog]

[quote name='blind pilot' post='1013540' date='Nov 5 2010, 05:45 PM']ERM 5:52 long and not once did i sex Rex Brown! Shocking camera work![/quote]
So the fact that you cant see the bass player takes away from the excellent bass line and tone? I'll get on to MTV right away.......................

[TJAS92]

I was 13 jamming with my mate and dad (we eventually became a band) i was on guitar at the time, friend was guitar and my dad was on bass, my dad put down the bass and let me have a go! and played it and played the song i was trying to play on guitar on bass and nailed it and now 18 my love of bass has grown to into passion and cant get enough of it

[mikebass84]

I initially wanted to be a drummer but my mom shot that idea down! I never really wanted to play guitar as EVERYONE plays guitar so I took up bass and quickly realised that this is what I've been missing in life and I've stuck with it since. I do now play drums and guitar but bass is my baby

[EdwardHimself]

Because no-one wanted a guitar player . LOL jk. The real story goes as follows. Having owned a crappy acoustic guitar (that me and a mate eventually filled with water and dropped on the back patio when the neck started coming away at the heel) since about 2002, I had decided to get an electric and start learning properly at the end of 2004. Then about 6 months later in the summer of 2005, my mates decided we would start a symphonic rock type band with a couple of the local goths (don't make me mention the "E" word, but it was like that). Well since we didn't really know any bass players I eventually took it upon myself to take up low end duties and with some of the money I'd got from my birthday (having got a Peavey Ultra X as my main present) I bought a £65 jazz copy off thomann (and unfortunately a crappy cheap bass amp too which i ended up selling but could have got a better bass if i'd not bought it in the first place). The band pretty much fell apart after a bit, they didn't want me any more (we got it back together for a bit a year later but that's a different story.) but of course by then the seeds had already been planted and the bass playing stayed. I reckon I would have picked it up anyway since I play the guitar and drums now so really you have to play bass as well to "complete the circle" as it were.

Edited November 10, 2010 by EdwardHimself

[BassMunkee]

Because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and it had fewer strings and looked chunkier.

[mrtcat]

Saw someone wearing a "Bass Players Are Sexy" t-shirt so thought I'd better give that a whirl as nothing else was working for me as a teeneager. 19yrs later I'm still not sure it's worked but love playing bass too much to give it up and start something else that may or may not make me sexy.

[dbass]

I was around 14 and saw my best friends play on stage in a school assembly and I just thought to myself " I have to play on stage " and then the guitarist asked if I wanted to play bass and I said " Yeh, why not ". 10 years later it's taken over my life and is the most singular important thing to me. It's opened up doors, opportunities, friends, girls, travel, and much more.

I always used to tap rhythms on my desk in school and at home so maybe should of been a drummer ;-)

[mep]

I was 14 and had been playing a few instruments for a while, but was seriously thinking of guitar. I saw a poster at school offering hire of a Bass. I had a lightbulb moment and knew that was for me. I brought it home that day and showed my family and anounced that I was going to play Bass. Took lessons and soon got my own.

I've never looked back.

[urb]

It was the classic 'let's start a band' thing at school - I played piano when I was 7, which meant I got lumped into playing percussion in the school orchestra ('cos i could read music) and that got me interested in drums which I started playing when I was 11 - then my two pals got a guitar then drums so that left me the bass. My first bass was a Kay which I got with an amp for £75 for my 12th birthday... that was 25 years ago, gulp!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

When I was a baby I was dropped on my head.

[Raslee]

I wanted to hump the daughter of a husband and wife guitar duo, so we got a crap band together where i played bass....by which point the daughter had found someone else - i then changed bands

[benh]

Ended up playing bass after seeing my uncle play in a band when I was about 12, guess I started getting bored of classical instruments (been playing violin and piano since age 6 and dabbled in viola and believe it or not the church organ!) Plus seeing as though all my mates played guitar it was the only way I got to play any of the music I liked at the time - Iron Maiden and Metallica don't really suit the violin....

[Edited for typos!]

Edited November 12, 2010 by benh

[EdwardHimself]

[quote name='benh' post='1021571' date='Nov 12 2010, 03:26 PM']Iron Maiden and Metallica don't really suit the violin....[/quote]

But they seem to go rather well on the cello

[OldG]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1011612' date='Nov 4 2010, 07:44 AM']Bruce Foxton in The Jam, and JJ Burnell in The Stranglers bringing the bass up front in the music inspired me.[/quote]


Hearing the Beatles and Motown as a kid got me noticing basslines, the above got me playing.

[lowdown]

[quote name='Rasta' post='1021486' date='Nov 12 2010, 02:36 PM']I wanted to hump the daughter of a husband and wife guitar duo, so we got a crap band together where i played bass....by which point the daughter had found someone else - i then changed bands [/quote]


Why did you not just try and hump her mum?
Then that would have been a great introduction to rock & roll.

My mum and dad got me an upright when i was fourteen, they were getting pi##ed of when i kept dropping my oily trombone slide
on their new carpet.That was a bad move, i was then making holes in it with the DB spike.



Garry

[the_skezz]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1021390' date='Nov 12 2010, 01:36 PM']When I was a baby I was dropped on my head.[/quote]

Yet you're not a drummer?

[Gust0o]

Is the correct answer: because half my mates were guitarists already, and it was the one way of being assured of having someone to play with?

A lot of people ran to the guitars when I a kid. It left the bass nice and open for someone ambling along a couple of months later - and, besides, with my rugby frame it felt about the right size. I look ridiculous with a guitar.

[Clarky]

Going to give an answer that will not please all (!) - I ended up a bass player as I was too sh*t on guitar for my teen band and 4 strings seemed easier than six