Marc S Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 [quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1424257047' post='2694363'] all the cool instruments were taken... [/quote] .... what, you mean the double bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) Christmas 1987, I was 12. I wasn't interested in learning to play an instrument, I desperately wanted a radio controlled monster truck (Vanessa's Lunchbox), but my dad had decided that he was going to make his four sons learn to play instruments, put them together as a band that he would manage and get himself rich... He had decided that I was going to play the drums. I was a huge Iron Maiden and Motörhead fan, so, in a fit of rebellion, I told my dad that I would learn to play the bass. This was an instrument he hadn't considered and he thought it was a good idea. It was definitely the right choice for me. The two youngest brothers, the drummer, and a guitarist who was left handed but was being made to play right handed, both gave up quite quickly. The other brother played for a few years and was quite naturally talented, until his mental health and drug and alcohol addictions sapped his interest in anything else. He never played in any bands, except the ones that I put together early on. Edited February 18, 2015 by KingBollock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebassist Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 My mates bassist left his band and he wanted a replacement. He said bass was easy to pick up so I went out and bought one. He was right, the basics were easy enough to pick up. I played roots to start with, then introduced thirds and fifths and away I went... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lojo Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Have always instinctively honed into the bass lines in music from a young age, didn't get a bass until I left school, but did not even consider any other instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddy Le Cragg Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 2 Guitar, Bass and Vox in a band, Bassist leaves. We think" sh*t...we need a bassist.But gig in a fortnight.." I had an old Aria Pro bass kicking about. Guitard/Singer says "You are bassist" and have been ever since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Showy players like Cliff Burton got me into it... then the more I learnt about the role of the instrument, and discovering incredible bass tones, the more I knew I had made the only choice for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrig Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Learn't a few chords about 1961 aged ten, but was never really that good on guitar, and then I started listening to a lot of the early ska/blue beat, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke etc.. plus early Mowtown, and would just listen to the bass lines and think wow! then came the great rock bands with bassists like John Entwhistle, Jack Bruce, Ronnie Lane playing music I really loved, and that was it for me, I borrowed £15 off my older sister and bought a 2nd hand Burns Sonic bass at the age of 15, formed a band with a few mates, but we never ever gigged, I swapped the bass for some fishing tackle, and that was that until about eight years ago aged 55 when I was talked into playing bass for a make-shift band, I've been playing my bass ever since, and trying to make up for wasting about 45 years of my life.. I have played in bands ever since, but I just wish I had carried on from the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJE Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I wanted to be in a band when I was 15 because I thought I would get more attention from girls. I also thought that bass would be so easy after a very lame attempt at playing guitar. Turns out I was wrong on both counts..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) [quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1424270931' post='2694567'] Having given this one quite a bit of thought over the years - and discussed it with BlueJay, who of course does left-handedness 'properly' - I almost wonder whether it makes more sense: by playing a right-handed bass, my (dominant) left hand is in charge of the fingerboard, where I'd argue most of the complicated stuff takes place! The catch - and there's always one, isn't there? - is that you might well want your dominant hand fingering/picking the strings, for its greater sensitivity. I suspect learning keys for a couple of years before I started the bass was probably crucial in building up the dexterity in my right hand. [/quote] I've said pretty much the same thing in a number of other threads over the years about this subject. I may be not so left handed as a number of others though so maybe it was easier for me. I still do many two-handed things right handed but the single handed 'dexterity jobs' are always using my left. To the extent where I use a knife and fork right handed but a spoon left handed. At cricket I bowled lefty but batted righty. I'm right footed as well. Edited February 18, 2015 by KevB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Mine goes back to hearing a sound that I knew I wanted to be able to make, but had no idea what it was, cos at the time I was 6 or 7. Fast forward a good few years to when I could then understand what instruments made what noises, and when punk was around, and image-wise, Sid Vicious took some beating, playing wise it was always Bruce Foxton and JJ Burnell. But where did it start, well with the bass in Seasons In The Sun by Terry Jacks. How very punk rock of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazed Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 The fantastic pay.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger2611 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Embarassingly it was Sid Vicious that made me want to play bass and he wasn't even the third best bass player in the Pistols! I thought he looked cool so that was that.....I wish I could say it was Norman Watt Roy or JJ Bunel but no sadly it was Sid, in my defence I was only 14 at the time m'lud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LayDownThaFunk Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 By The Way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leschirons Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Bigger boys made me do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprocketflup Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 In my case it was a suicidal guitarist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywalker Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 In mine a suicidal keyboard player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdowner Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I used to walk down Denmark Street everyday on the way to my office and there was a bass in the window of one of the shops and I just stood and stared. It was a Warwick Thumb in green (!) I just wanted to play it and it took another 10 years before I bought a bass and so the pain and joy began... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andytoad Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) my best mate took up guitar at 14, i decided to join him thinking two less strings would be easier, best decision i ever made!!! 😃 i doubt i would have stayed interested in guitar this long.... in fact, bass playing, although im nothing special, is one of the things that has been a constant for the last 22 years, i cant see id quit now! Edited February 18, 2015 by andytoad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) My older brother and me (12 and 15 at the time) discovered the local record library in Swansea in about 1986 and from it borrowed Iron Maiden Live After Death, Kiss Alive II and the Scorpions Worldwide Live over the space of a few weeks, along with some other crap that never made any impact. It changed both our lives totally. He'd decided to learn guitar because some of his mates already did, and i didn't want to be outdone so decided I'd go for bass (after quickly realising my first preference of drums was totally impractical) He really hated me nicking his idea but now nearly 30 years later, we've both done an awful lot of gigs with a great many bands, tho only once or twice ever together, and grown a lot musically along the way (tho I've still got a soft spot for those albums on really loud once in a while). Playing bass has totally defined my life through the considerable ups and downs since teenage years to now, and given me something to identify with when things have been really bad. And I've still never got round to learning the drums.... Edited February 18, 2015 by bassbiscuits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jezzaboy Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Pete Way lying on the floor, playing a Tbird. Still love his playing but not the Tbird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Cliff Burton! That's probably deeply uncool. But I was in my early teens, had a long hair, wore ripped denim and didn't give a fudge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alembic63 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) My two older brothers .....one a drummer, the other a guitarist...before I knew it I was in a band Edited February 18, 2015 by alembic63 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadofsix Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I was probably around twelve the first time I heard Paul McCartney play and realized that a bass guitar could do more that just "thunk" "thunk" "thunk!" I was hooked. I got to where I thought I was pretty good. Then, I heard Entwistle play. Oh my! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulbass Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Pino did it for me. I was amazed with his bass work with Gary Numan...i'm not a fan of Gary Numan but the basslines Pino played on his music took bass playing to another level.I was only 14 at the time and it still inspires me to this day...30 years on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Hearing The Four Tops [i]Reach Out (I'll Be There)[/i] in 1966. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.