What Made You Play The Bass?

[Heket]

At first it was a decision between guitar and bass. I thought my hands would have an easier time with guitar so I started with guitar. After a while realised that I was only ever interested in rhythm and driving the song, I had no interest whatsoever in solos and melodies. At this same time I went to a blues gig and was mesmerised by the bass player. This was near my birthday and for some reason my mum was dying to buy me a bass, so that's how it all started.

[MarkW]

Spending the long drives to our summer holidays in the mid-80s listening to Elvis and the TCB band is what made me want to pick up the bass. I was 12 or 13 at the time. Finally got to meet Jerry at a gig a couple of years ago and told him his playing is what got me started all those years ago. Top bloke.

[chriswareham]

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1424255560' post='2694329']
Nice to hear Moose being mentioned. I'm a big NMA fan and I think he's a top player.
[/quote]

Moose and his predecessor Stuart Morrow, both inventive bassists. One thing about New Model Army is that they've always had great bass players!

[ellie]

Digging back into the depths here.
I started playing guitar around the age of 9, while at school (they didn't like any of that modern stuff), so taught myself.
I've always 'felt' the Bass in music, so started fiddling around with my guitars to get the low end.
I was fascinated by John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, & Chris Squire I remember. It's was an easy choice in the end though. There were so many wannabe guitar heroes, & no one wanted to play bass. I worked out I'd get more work playing Bass, the rest as they say is history.
I turned pro in 1974, bought my first Rickenbacker 4001 in 75, new and still doing it now. ;-))

[Allons-y!]

Two friends (guitarist and drummer) of mine encouraged me to play one with them. I told our band director that I was better than his current bass player, so I could use the school bass instead of buying one. Turns out after watching Victor Wooten on a DVD for a couple days, I really was better than him. I'm just glad he sucked.

[Leonard Smalls]

I started off playing piano - my mother was a piano teacher and she pushed me as far as grade 7.
But funnily enough, I always preferred pieces with groovy left hand stuff, like Bach or Schubert Impromptus.
Then I heard "Hit me with your rhythm stick", which got me into the idea of bass guitar.
Then we got a school band together as a pet project for our RE teacher (me on keys) - a mate had just started playing bass in his own band and he let me have a go on the Worst Bass In The World Ever (i.e. a Hofner violin bass with rubber strings), and I was hooked.
And bizarrely, my mate had borrowed That Bass from his brother - our very own Lurksalot!
I'll bet he's still got it...

[Dan Dare]

My main instrument was the fiddle. Back in the late 60s/70s, wasn't considered cool so picked up the bass s I could play in bands with my mates.

[Si600]

My friend found Melvin Hiscock's build a guitar book in the school library. He built a guitar and as we have another friend who already sort of played guitar I built a bass. It was horrible really, but got me started.

The second friend who after not really being in touch with for years is now the guitarist in my band, got me into sensible music and then I just wanted to be Steve Harris, Dave Ellefson, Jason Newsted and Frank Bello all rolled into on!

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1424701547' post='2699305']
I started off playing piano - my mother was a piano teacher and she pushed me as far as grade 7.
But funnily enough, I always preferred pieces with groovy left hand stuff, like Bach or Schubert Impromptus.
Then I heard "Hit me with your rhythm stick", which got me into the idea of bass guitar.
Then we got a school band together as a pet project for our RE teacher (me on keys) - a mate had just started playing bass in his own band and he let me have a go on the Worst Bass In The World Ever (i.e. a Hofner violin bass with rubber strings), and I was hooked.
And bizarrely, my mate had borrowed That Bass from his brother - our very own Lurksalot!
I'll bet he's still got it...
[/quote]

Brilliant story!

[anaxcrosswords]

Like many, I joined a few mates in setting up what we imagined to be a band when we were in our teens. We just had drums, acoustic guitar and me on vocals despite having no singing ability at all. I think it slowly dawned on us that bands tended to have something called a bass guitarist, so I was encouraged to be one (or leave).
It happened at precisely the right time. My brother had just bought the Level 42 single Love Games; bass guitar went from something I was completely unaware of to something with glamorous up-front capabilities, so I went for it.

[Billy Apple]

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1424647541' post='2698836']
Moose and his predecessor Stuart Morrow, both inventive bassists. One thing about New Model Army is that they've always had great bass players!
[/quote]

I was lucky enough to do a bit of gear lugging for Stuart when he was in 'Loud'. He's a proper nice guy and an extremely talented player. He really leads from the front. A handful of BC'ers auditioned for NMA , me included!

[No lust in Jazz]

Jah Wobble and the Bass heavy megastomp of PIL - circa Metal Box

[MikanHannille]

Learned to play guitar early teens. Introduced to the band world. I took interest on bass because I love the sound.

[Paul Galbraith]

I feel really lucky to have had an amazing & unique experience that introduced me to bass

I was having tuba & guitar lessons at school - but I wasn't practising much & a bit frustrated with my lessons... I knew I wanted to play music - but something wasn't right, hence I wasn't practising much...

Then when I was 13 there was a school concert. A guy two years older than me walks on stage & does an arrangement of 'Killing me softly + Portrait of Tracy' on his Aria Pro II bass with a Trace Elliot cab... the sound was awesome & I felt like I was struck by lightning... at that moment I quit playing guitar / tuba & when I got home I told my Mum I wanted to be a bass player.

I got a bass about 7 months afterwards for my 14th birthday & that was it, I was obsessed... the anticipation of waiting to get my own bass was torture, all I could think about was that incredible sound that caused the snare drum to rattle - teachers were telling me off because I'd lost focus & I was telling them it was because I had a sound in my head that I needed to explore... I used to skip classes & sneak off to the music room to spend some time with the double bass.

My persuit of bass took me to Leeds College of Music to study Jazz at degree level and introduced me to wonderful network of musical people

... & the guy I heard when I was a kid - his name was Phil Donkin... he's turned out to be a 'world class' jazz double bassist Check him out on Google. I didn't know this until a few years ago when I stumbled across him by chance while researching new listening material.

On Friday 13th March he was finishing his new album release ( [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQsEQAAvjO4"]https://www.youtube....h?v=EQsEQAAvjO4[/url] ) tour in Wakefield & I thought I would pop along to check it out... it had been 20 years since I'd seen him play live & I made the decision to become a bassist myself, pivoting my life in a new direction - the cool thing was I could understand his music & appreciate it as a jazz musician. I also thought to myself - damn I made the right choice !!

Two days ago I had the chance to re-visit that magical childhood moment with the guy who introduced bass to me, which sent me down the path to becoming a jazz musician. Not many people get a second chance to re-visit such an influencing turning point in their own personal destiny which shapes such a major part of their life.

Here's a great solo of Phil's I found : [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaGlRefjjcM&index=2&list=PLto0sYfMbtvKExMWTJAJCMpBPIMIazupr"]https://www.youtube....AJCMpBPIMIazupr[/url]

* Unfortunately life threw me a curve ball (tendonitis) which completely knocked my bass / music career off track with a very long time out & it ruined my chances of becoming a full time pro jazz musician - however 'the day job' (self-employed business) gives me a lot more financial stability than the majority of my full time musician friends... so I suppose I'm lucky this accident happened while I was still young enough to have the time to re-think & re-adapt my career path.

These days I'm back in the game playing playing in a jazz big band & making life bassy when I get the opportunity.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Paul Galbraith

[Wonky2]

I managed to get my hands in a cheap strat copy when I was about 13.... A mate showed me a few chords to some basic creadance Clearwater revival songs like fortunate son etc and we began "jamming" (making a racket) in his dads garage....
Soon after an even better guitarist came along and there was three of us twiddling away merrily ......
A short time after, You'd never believe a 4th Even better Guitarist came along as we were kids and all just begining to form what would be our first band....
I very quickly realised there was now 4 guitarist and I was the worst of all of them ! ( having only played for a short amount of time....)

So i instantly knew the tactical move I would have to make to remain in the band And help it to progress into a band in the traditional concept.... So off i went and traded my strat copy on a marlin p bass copy....
It payed off , I was now not the hindrance of the group but a VITAL member who was last on the list for the boot .... two guitar players where ditched and a drummer and Hammond player brought in......... I was still in !

I was happy with myself for the foresight but more so, I quickly gained a better understanding of what I was doing with the bass, I felt instantly at home.
With the guitar, I always had difficulty with any type of note progression switching onto the top b and e string, it just didn't feel comfortable ..... PROBLEM SOLVED! Who needs a b and another e string !

I soon started listening more intently to bass parts in songs and yearning to be able to replicate these sweet sweet grooves. I had found an all new respect for my instrument and saw the light of not being a guitarist playing a bass, but really dedicating my efforts to being a bass player and understanding that they are completely different.

I did a gcse and a level in music and for my practicle exam i studied two books :
Tony openhiems slap bass studies and a book on James Jameson standing in the shadows of mowtown....

I play all sorts of stringed instruments but have only ever played bass in a band.


Great reading everyone's story's....

Edited March 15, 2015 by Wonky2

[Spoombung]

4 strings
Chris Squire

[Spoombung]

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1424465529' post='2696741']

[/quote]

Yep.

[Dr.Dave]

I wasn't t all interested in music until I saw Slade on the telly. Ugly blokes dressed up like clowns making a big noise and I thought 'that'll do me' and got my Dad to buy me an acoustic guitar for Xmas to learn on. Then I went off to a much larger school where some other kids could play the guitar. They were all better than me so I thought bass looked easier , at least to get to a standard where I could play with others. I was right. By my early 20s I'd been in several bands as a bass player but sort of re-learned bass as I wanted to be good at it rather than just get by. I'd figured there was little value in being able to recreate what other players did and wanted to roll my own - it's a decision I should have taken much earlier. My playing improved 10 fold. At 53 I'm not as technically good as I was because I can't be arsed practising and think of myself as a singer/entertainer first and bass player second. My ambitions were always to play/make music and have people like it rather than the self satisfaction of being excellent on a particular instrument. I know many folk who are hugely interested in the instrument they play and play in bands as an extension of that , which is fine but I do it the other way round.

[Jenny_Innie]

I was left in my Dad's rehearsal room when I was about 12, had a play of everything and thought the bass sounded cool. I woulda chosen keys, as they made a great weird sound - but the keys player went nuts about me changing her settings, and it put me off.

[planer]

I just love the sound of it - I wasn't inspired by one player in particular. I liked that big, warm sound that I could feel as well as hear.

My folks bought me an acoustic guitar when I was probably too young to play it properly and that really put me off guitars altogether. I've still got one but it doesn't get a look in when there's BASS to play!

[thebigyin]

Hearing Dennis Dunnaway.....Alice Cooper band.....yet I didn't pick up the Bass till I was 39 I'm 53 now and still consider myself a begginer lol...but without doubt the Bass is the Coolest instrument. Love it.

[Der JD]

When I was 12 I wanted to learn how to play electric guitar (because it was just "the thing" to do, of course). My dad helped me with buying my first guitar and I began lessons. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that when I listened to songs I enjoyed and concentrated more on the bass. When I went in for lessons I spent a lot of time looking at the basses hanging on the wall and listening to people try basses out. So, I ended up getting a bass and loved it. Probably the bands that got me the most interested back then (late 80s) were Iron Maiden and Dio.

I've been back and forth between bass and guitar ever since but bass always feels like "home" to me. In fact, I've decided to concentrate just about all my efforts on bass from this point on. I just don't have the time to try to get really good at 2 instruments.

[Bronner]

1. I like the bass.
2. I play other instruments and nice to play bass also to compliment the other stuff.
3. A lot of the good bass players passed on (came up in the blues scene with older musicians)
4. When good bass players weren't around, it was better to do one's own bass lines than have someone play bass that wasn't attentive to tone, volume, timing and sometimes even chord changes .

[12stringbassist]

I blame this man pretty much entirely.

[Tuco]

I was talked into it by my best mate.
He was starting a band and because I was tall he asked me to be the bass player.
He had loan of a jazz bass copy and all I had to do was get an amp.
He promised me plenty of beer and guaranteed me I'd pull women.
He lied.