3 Things That Inspired You To Play Bass?

[tallmanmax]

Always been drawn to the bass line in 'any' music.

Initially inspired to play by the likes of Dennis Dunaway(alice cooper), Trevor Bolder(the spiders)and Jim Lea(slade).

I like the sounds it makes more than the sckreechy sckreechy widdly widdly thing.

[BassTractor]

- Bach bass lines
- bass sounds
- Steve's bloody awesome answer with the three Yes covers goes for me too


best,
bert

[Painy]

1 - For me it was mainly down to my best mate. He got a drum kit for christmas, decided he wanted to start a band and asked me to join. Being a 'classicaly trained' pianist I thought he meant keyboards but as he was really into Nirvana at the time keys weren't really what he was looking for. He suggested I take up bass as I wouldn't have to learn chords and kindly lent me a beat up old acoustic guitar with only 2 strings which was enough for me to find that following and picking up the bassline was natural to me.
2 - Jason Newstead 'windmilling' in the Sad But True video.
3 - John Entwhistle's playing on the Quadrophenia album.

[Lozz196]

1. The sound, once I realised what it was. Seasons in The Sun by Terry Jacks has a lot to answer for.

2. As a 12 year old, I thought Sid Vicious looked incredibly cool. At that point I didn`t realise he wasn`t exactly the best bassist around. From there, it seemed all the bassists in the punk bands looked the coolest - Simenon, Burnell, Foxton etc.

3. Bruce Foxtons bass playing in The Jam. Probably the player whose actual playing most influenced me. Was lucky enough to meet him last year, really nice guy.

[Ziphoblat]

1. I'd been to see a guitarist friend play with his group at a school concert and the whole thing looked like fun. I needed another hobby so decided I'd take up an instrument. I was never drawn to the idea of guitar or vocals, even then I shy'd away from them because I just associated them with being an attention grabbing c*ck. Plus, playing in a band was the main appeal for me, and everyone I knew was a guitarist, so I figured they weren't really in demand. I initially wanted to play drums, but had no space for them and our neighbour situation wasn't appropriate for it really.

2. My dad (a guitarist) wanted a bass to mess about on, but my mum was never happy about new gear acquisitions (the usual story) so my dad offered to buy me my first instrument if I took up bass, on the provision that he could use it too.

3. My mate (the guitarist I went to watch at school) had a bass knocking about, and offered for me to go round to his so he could show me the ropes. I just remember the feeling of a bass note being quite empowering the first time I played it, the depth and power behind was something I was just drawn to.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Ziphoblat

[ML94]

Marcus
Pino
Groove

[steve-bbb]

[quote name='iceonaboy' timestamp='1371295614' post='2112228']
Did anyone mention gettin' the burds?
[/quote]

except the ones who come up to you afterwards and ask if you drum in any other bands!!

gig last saturday night got asked again if i was the drummer

[sofa#666]

1. Angry neighbours!! (used to play the drums)

2. Chris Squire.

3. Ive always been more attracted to the rhythmic side of music. Cannae be annoyed with all that twiddly widdly nonsence that guitarists get up to!!!

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1371281590' post='2111993']
Ok, Gents....what made you play the bass?
[/quote]

BOO!!

I can't answer 'cause I'm a girlie and not a gent














I'm also a rebel, so I'll answer anyway:

1. Always had a love of basslines
2. I always preferred watching bassists and seeing the groove with the drums than watching guitarists (final push was watching Brit Floyd)
3. I really missed playing music (I was a classical musician when I was younger)

[Chiliwailer]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1371315869' post='2112554']
BOO!!

I can't answer 'cause I'm a girlie and not a gent
[/quote]

I take my hat off to apologise. Original post will be edited right away, consider me told!

[Thunderthumbs]

1. My sister fancied Alan Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers - so it made me notice "the guitar with only 4 knobs"
2. Bruce Foxton - his sound blew me away. Still does.
3. My first band didn't have a bass player, so I bought myself one and taught myself to play it.

[AndyBob09]

1) I wasn't allowed a drum kit (like OP)
2) All my friends played guitar. I figured I'd be more likely to be in a band with a bass.
3) Flea. (Not any more, thankfully.)

[discreet]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq7wSIDjAes"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq7wSIDjAes[/url]

[discreet]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGQo6zpVzt8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGQo6zpVzt8[/url]

[discreet]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QLL2j8ZtxE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QLL2j8ZtxE[/url]

[andydye]

1) the band needed a bass player;
2) my best mate was the drummer;
3) I didn't play but was better than the guy auditioning.

[spacey]

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' timestamp='1371316493' post='2112565']
1. My sister fancied Alan Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers - so it made me notice "the guitar with only 4 knobs"
2. Bruce Foxton - his sound blew me away. Still does.
3. My first band didn't have a bass player, so I bought myself one and taught myself to play it.
[/quote]

Agree, I was a guitar player, then on TV came the jam and played When your young and eton Rifles, this dull warm fuzzy flatwound bass that every song had was been replaced by this nasty aggressive clanking tone of foxtons bass, sh*t I thought replaying the vhs, I want to do that.
He may seem old hat now, but at the time he turned the bass from part of the percussion section in to an instrument along with several other players at the time.

[MiltyG565]

Red Hot Chili Peppers and their heavily bass guitar driven songs
A love of music, and a desire to be creative
Seeing how many guitar players/wasters there were around, and not wanting to deafen myself with drums

That's how I decided to learn bass

[martin8708]

1) Watching an old VHS video of Duran Duran live in Rio , John Taylor was just so cool .

2) My best mate was a much better guitarist than me

3) Picked up a really cool Yamaha BB1200 from Yamaha Musicland for peanuts , I think they were just trying to get rid of it , ( that was 30 years ago )

Edited June 15, 2013 by martin8708

[brucew]

Echo and the bunnymen
The Stranglers
The Jam
. . . nuff said for me, l play covers and function stuff now but their influence sticks with me

[steve-bbb]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1371315869' post='2112554']
BOO!!

I can't answer 'cause I'm a girlie and not a gent
[/quote]

it's short for gentleperson

now quit whining like a girlie

[xzodar]

1. Realisation that I was never going to be an amazing saxophonist. (I'm ok playing in a horn section though but leave all the twiddly diddly stuff to our 1st sax).

2. Fed up waiting for our then bassist to turn up to gigs on time and missing rehearsals without any explanation. He was an ace player but far too laid back for my liking so I decided to learn to play so that I could cover for him if needed.

3. Found myself listening more to the low end in music and really enjoying it.

[WarrenD]

1- Watching Jason Newsted's bass solo on the Live sh*t Binge & Purge San Diego show. The look of his bass is what impressed me (Spector). 2- Rage Against The Machine's first album. 3- Paradise Lost's 'Shades of God' album.

[lowdowner]

1) I used to walk past a guitar shop on Denmark street as a kid and look in the window and thought the bass guitars were the coolest thing I'd ever seen

2) I learnt 'normal' guitar and always wanted it to 'groove' but all I got was a fiddly melody! It took me a while to work out that the bass gave all the groove and put 2 and 2 together

3) I like that I can be the 'quiet' member of a group ego-wise, but without the bass you don't have jack

Actually I have many more than 3 points, but those are probably the top reasons for taking it up...

[Clarebear68]

1. My Dad was a drummer so I wanted to be one but when he stopped playing he sold his kit. Bass seemed the next best thing rhythmically.
2. Everybody I knew was playing guitar and I wanted to be different.
3. I heard Friends of Mine by Duran and it blew me away - it's not particularly busy or complicated but it has such great rhythm and was different to pretty much anything else I'd heard. Plus John Taylor seemed to be getting all the girls!