Who/What started you on your journey and why?

[Stub Mandrel]

Loved music as a kid.
Had a cheap  classical guitar, never got far but kept trying. Put steel strings on it and tried to play punk. It died.

My mate got a cheap as chips Kay 'Strat-a-like' from a secondhand shop. I got the (even) less cool 'SG-a-like' (still got it!).

Made lots of bad noises.

Wet to uni. Played (badly) songs from 'The Beatles Complete' for sing alongs after the pub. Eventually got a decent used acoustic (1976, Epiphone, still got it). I could probably have been a rhythm/folk type guitarist if I had consistently tried and could have remembered more songs.

My mate Steve let me noodle on his bass, and I enjoyed it far more. In the end, he lent it to me for a month on the condition I played 1FPF.

Ended up with a Hohner copy of a Jazz.

Did an audition. Learned a whole tape of songs badly. Two guys didn't actually want to play any of the songs on the tape...

Did another audition... got into a band. In bands for next 9 years. Got much better.

 

Got married.

 

Over the years, I forgot how music had been the core of my life since I was about 11.

 

Eventually started playing again as that fell apart twenty-plus years later. Got the hang again.

 

Went through covid and got lots of practice and got much better.

 

Divorce finally went through as covid restrictions started to ease a bit. Moved.

 

Got into playing seriously. Joined two bands. One going strong, the other going nowhere, so left it and started a second band. Discovered jam nights and even depping.

 

Met my amazing new partner when she came to see us play and decide if we were worth booking.

 

Bass has helped me repair my life. If it wasn't for my wonderful daughter, most of the 22/23 years in the middle of my life would feel completely wasted.

[Geek99]

When I saw adam Clayton at live aid being uber cool with a green jazz bass. That led me to “under a blood red sky” 

 

I was asked to play a guitar at an online music night. They had sniffed at bass, I told them I played guitar less well than horses do.  Click “leave”… 

[BigRedX]

Up to just before the age of 11 I had pretty much zero interest in music. My parents were both quite musical (my mum has sung in several well known choirs and even now in her 90s plays in a Ukulele orchestra that probably does more gigs a year than I do) although at the time I'd never have known it as there was rarely music on in the house. However in 1971 I went on a Scout summer camp where Radio 1 was on all day every day and I came home obsessed with pop music, in particular the emerging Glam Rock movement. Like @NancyJohnson the band that I favoured was The Sweet who had the right combination of pop catchiness with their A-sides and heavy rock on the B-sides of the singles. The first record I bought was Hellraiser.

 

My parents were not at all keen on my new-found interest and it took me another 2 years to actually start learning how to play the guitar, and I didn't get seriously involved with bass playing until I bought my first bass using my student grant money at the beginning of 1981. It wasn't until the bass guitar became more prominent in Post-Punk music, in particular Joy Division and The Comsat Angels that I took more of an interest in playing it. I've always been interested in playing in order to be able to write/compose so I've never felt any particular affiliation to a single instrument. The more instruments I can play the better I can understand how they work together in a band. I bought my first synth in 1982 again with grant money, and have spent significant times in bands playing guitar and/or synth as well as bass.

[LowB_FTW]

It seems fitting for me to put this here today, as it's his birthday, it was Rick Savage and more specifically his white Hamer Scarab bass that set me on my bass journey.

I was watching the news (I think it was BBC six o'clock news) and Def Leppard had just released a new single and it was getting some news coverage, I suspect because the album it came from was doing stellar sales at that time, and I just recall seeing him playing that bass, and hearing that sound (which I later found out wasn't actually a bass guitar sound but a sequenced synth bass sorta sound) but I thought I'd be having me some of that.

It was some time afterwards I picked up a guitar and tried playing that because I wanted to play rhythm guitar specifically - all the guitar soloing never appealed to me.

I very quickly discovered that whilst I was doing great playing all the open chords, I just couldn't get my fretting fingers to work properly with barre chords, so after becoming deeply frustrated with my inability to progress as a rhythm guitar player, a friend suggested I try lessons, which I had absolutely no money to pay for, but luckily the place I was doing my YTS (remember that?!?) course at had someone coming in and giving lessons for free, so I made use of their availability, and after a few lessons I think he was fed up with my inability to play anything other than open chords too and suggested I try bass.

Cue my memory flying back to the time I saw that TV news report and I went straight to one of the local instrument shops that weekend to try stuff out.

It took me ages to save up for my first bass, I was only getting paid something like £35 every fortnight, but after placing a small small deposit and paying some off each month, I managed to get me a 4-string Squire.

 

I detailed what happened to that original bass in my introduction post, so I'll not repeat here, but I still have the second (first 5-string) bass I ever bought.

 

Mark

[Tandro]

I'm a Caribbean boy. As a young kid in pre-teen years, Dancehall became an integral part of music listening. And that repetitive bassline, of just a few notes, was hypnotic, like a Siren call. And while this will sound cheesy (and miles away from Dancehall), I by accident heard Victor Wooten. I could not believe that was a bass, and that sealed it, I want to learn bass 'some day'.

 

Mid-teen years, I had an opportunity to learn guitar (on acoustic) with friends. While not a bass, it was my start! I used to 'play' the bass lines on a guitar because we could not afford a bass and had no access to one, not even electric guitars. We eventually got a 'deal' on an Ibanez bass and electric guitar. With our other friend, we had a 'band', though we just played for ourselves and friends. It was glorious years. We played music badly, and surfed/partied weekends.

 

I'll leave out all the numerous years in between where friends moved away and I fell away from it. It was actually coming to London years ago that got me back to playing when I saw and briefly met my idol Victor Wooten, and I picked up a cheap bass at a CashConverters to 'see if I still had an interest' in this. I may play badly, but I love music, its my escape.

 

And as fortune would have it, one of my friends in that little band so many years ago, studied Law at Oxford and is some Exec in a bank now, but we still get together every so often, and it takes us back decades. Just wonderful.

[Dad3353]

[Tandro]

LOL, true dat. Now I can't help but notice it. I was gonna clean it up, but then that awesome car picture will be out of context. Maybe I'll leave it as a reminder for all to avoid Babylon next time.

[Barking Spiders]

I count myself lucky to've been born in 1970 and so was  a yoot during the heyday of music (IMO)...the 1980s!!.  Two tracks where the basslines blasted my soft and unformed auditory cortex were 

 

 and this featuring one Mark King!

 

[Rodders]

So originally I wanted to play guitar, left handed, but for a couple of reasons (large hands, neurological disability causing issues with my right hand), I ended up playing bass, right handed. 

This was down to my Dad and he has supported me with my music ever since. 

 

Obviously once I got hold of the bass and managed to get a sound out of it, my earliest influences, were my Uncle's cover band playing classic rock, Jack Bruce and John Entwistle being the bass players that first inspired me.

[JapanAxe]

oops wrong thread

Edited December 4, 2023 by JapanAxe

[SH73]

When we started a band, they wanted me to play drums as I had always been tapping  my fingers to the beat of whatever metal we listened to. In fact I was mimicking the galloping bass finger style. My inspiration was and and to this day is:

 

[bass_dinger]

In a church band with a pianist and three guitarists on a rota.  I decided to move to bass, because I fancied it. 

 

No particular reason  - it just felt like a gap that needed filling.   I was offered a 5 string bass, which I preferred as I wanted to learn a new instrument from scratch, rather than think of it as a guitar with the highest two strings missing. 

 

For me, the tipping point was realising that slash chords (C/E) and bass runs were easier to play on the bass than the guitar.

 

Add to that the fact that I could download midi files for songs, and print and follow the written music for songs,  and bass began to feel like home...

 

Oh, and the revelation that basslines were not just the root note- thanks to Come up and See me, make me smile. 

 

Bass - more rewarding than guitar, and easier to play.....sometimes 

[Owen]

Dad sang the bass lines in our chapel. It was Welsh so 4 part harmony for everything. Not everyone wants to be like their dad. I did. So I picked up the lines and sang them an octave higher. There was also a full pipe organ there. All the low notes were magnificent. Who would want to make any other type of sound?

[snorkie635]

10 hours ago, Owen said:

Dad sang the bass lines in our chapel. It was Welsh so 4 part harmony for everything. Not everyone wants to be like their dad. I did. So I picked up the lines and sang them an octave higher. There was also a full pipe organ there. All the low notes were magnificent. Who would want to make any other type of sound?

No idea that @Dad3353 sang bass in a Welsh choir. 😁

[Huge Hands]

I was obsessed with drumming as a kid, and used to annoy my family by tapping on anything I could - ie the dinner table with cutlery, chair arms etc.

 

At 11, my parents said they would get me a drum kit if I took it up at school.  Our school only had a brass band, and after realising there were about 7 drummers and I would never get a shot, I opted for trombone.  However, over the years I would be playing offbeat melody stuff on the trombone, but really listening to (and wanting to play) the bassy stuff the tubas were playing (bass trombone wasn't an option at my school).

 

As an aside, my parents kindly did still get me a drum kit, and outside of school, I became a drummer. However, at that age, in most bands I got to play in the bass player was the most rubbish guitarist "demoted" to bass.  However, I was listening to lots of Acid Jazz and funk stuff, and wanted to be playing with bass players like that.  I was also feeling I was reaching a plateau in my drumming skills, and although people were saying I was a good drummer, I couldn't get my feet around some of the clever things I wanted to play.

 

Around this time, I watched the Beatles Magical Mystery tour film, and was fascinated by the I am The Walrus video in the middle of it.  When Paul slides down and comes in after Ringo's fill - it got me every time.

 

In truth though,  it was thinking that Paul looked so much cooler, and that if I played bass like him, I was likely to get so many more girls than as a drummer that gave me the kickstart to start playing bass myself.

 

It is now around 30 years later and I have come to realise I didn't pull any girls on either bass or drums.......

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Huge Hands

[Boodang]

My best mate in school was a great guitarist, even then he was a natural talent. So I couldn't pick up the guitar as I was always going to be comparing myself to him. He formed a band with his brother on bass, but when the brother couldn't commit to rehearsals he suggested I take up the bass.

We loved going to see bands live and the idea of being on stage myself was always there. So I went to my local shop and they had a fretless Westone, and I thought well, if I'm going to play 4 strings rather than 6 then a fretless would look cool. I didn't actually pick up a fretted bass until 20 years later!

It didn't take long for me to be hooked and not think of the bass as an something failed guitarists ended up playing. My biggest influence then was Chris Squire. Massively into Yes I was mesmerized by his driving bass lines. I never really nailed the tone on my fretless (!) but his playing style was what I aspired to. I spent the next few decades getting kicked out of bands for over playing!

Then I came across Eberhard Weber and converted almost overnight to EUB. Much to the consternation of the rock band I was in at the time, I insisted on playing it exclusively. 

Only recently have I found my way back to fretless BG, but very much still learning and loving playing bass.

[Franticsmurf]

13 hours ago, Boodang said:

My biggest influence then was Chris Squire. Massively into Yes I was mesmerized by his driving bass lines. I never really nailed the tone on my fretless (!) but his playing style was what I aspired to. I spent the next few decades getting kicked out of bands for over playing!

I know that feeling - I was never actually kicked out of bands but occasionally asked to simplify the bass line a bit. And I've been on the trail of Squire's tone almost since I started on bass. I'm getting closer, but it seems to always be one pedal/amp/cab/bass ahead. 😂

[snorkie635]

Just pondering how many 'bass-journeys' will begin next Monday morning and how many will remember this in the years/decades to come. Is that a tear that's making the screen go blurry? Probably a bit of grit in my eye. If anyone out there is planning on giving a loved one a present of a bass this Christmas, may I say a sincere, 'good for you', and wish the recipient a lifetime of pleasure from your gift.

[Big J]

Born in 71. Loved rock music, wanted to be a drummer, had no where to put drums, bass seemed the closest thing, and a few mates played guitar so I didn’t want to follow the crowd. 
got a used Kay bass at 16 or 17 with a fret buzz like a chainsaw, I learned basic fretboard from listening to records or watching VHS. Got an Ibanez budget bass at 19, played it for 10 years. Drifted into guitars, bought too many of them considering how diabolical I am on one. Started to drift back to bass in 2010. Bought too many basses (but not as many as I had guitars) and didn’t focus upon skill. 
Dad died 2017 and I bought a nice jazz with some cash he had left. Got into playing more and more. 
 

I never had the time, inclination, or patience to joint and stay in a band. Bass is something I do that’s a bit like chilling out, or even meditating. I just feel better during and after it. Some areas of my playing have improved over the years, some have got lost. But I guess I’ll play bass all my life. 

[Downunderwonder]

I studied violin at highschool. Went off on my OE and never hung out much in rowdy bars until I got back. There was a blues band playing Rolling Stones covers and I thought 'dang I can get my head around that bass better go get me one of those bass guitars'. So I did.

[Baloney Balderdash]

I was introduced to Manowar by a friend in my early teens, which became my favorite band (at the time) right there, deeply fasinated by their fantasy universe, mostly having listened to classical music prior to that and singing in the local church choir, so I decided I would learn how to play guitar to be able to make music like Manowar.

 

As it happened to be however a couple of friends were starting a punk band, and I was hired to play guitar in that band.

 

A couple of years later, gradually starting to lean more towards noise and indie rock than metal, I accidentally picked up the bass players bass at band rehearsal and jammed a bit on it, and I fell in love with the deep tone and feel of it right there from that moment.

 

Shortly after I answered an add by a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist that needed a bass player for their noise rock band, and I went to an audition.

 

Borrowing a bass for it, as I didn't own my own one at that point.

 

However, even if basically having no experience at all with this instrument, playing bass somehow just felt really naturally to me, all chords and scales I had practiced on guitar for some reason just made much more sense to me on bass, I figure I had really been thinking more like a bassist than a guitarist all along, and I made some great melodic bass lines, that supported the relatively simple, mostly chord based, guitar parts perfectly, right there on the spot, and I got complements from the drummer for my playing, who already then was a fairly experienced musician, knowing how to read music, and also, beside drums, playing piano and guitar, and I was in.

 

Quickly bass took over as my main instrument of choice, and ironically with time playing bass also made me a much better guitarist. 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[LeftyJ]

As a young kid I played the recorder at school. Two of my classmates did too, and it was fun for a while. I really wanted to play the guitar though, but my parents wouldn't let me as they thought it was just a phase and I would lose interest quickly. I didn't. When I was 16 I finally bought one myself. I went electric straight away, and got a Squier Affinity Strat with a small 10 watt Kustom amp. 

 

Then I started listening to Dutch band The Gathering, who I've been following ever since. Back then they were a very influential metal band as they were one of the first that mixed very dark and heavy metal with angelic clean female vocals. They released a record called "How to measure a planet?" which was a departure from their dark metal sound, but still had the beautiful vocals of Anneke van Giersbergen. What really stood out to me though was the bass! There is a lot of heavy, overdriven bass on that album. The track that really stands out is "Probably built in the fifties" where there's a quiet bit during the bridge that ends with the bass playing a big palmmuted riff with an incredibly heavy distortion. I wanted to sound like that!

 

So I bought my first bass soon after. And eventually joined my own female-fronted metal band Eve's Fall 

[Huge Hands]

12 hours ago, snorkie635 said:

Just pondering how many 'bass-journeys' will begin next Monday morning and how many will remember this in the years/decades to come. Is that a tear that's making the screen go blurry? Probably a bit of grit in my eye. If anyone out there is planning on giving a loved one a present of a bass this Christmas, may I say a sincere, 'good for you', and wish the recipient a lifetime of pleasure from your gift.

 

We're giving our son a g****r for Christmas, does that count?

 

If it helps, I just "had" to get a finish matching bass to go with it, so I am giving myself a present of a bass.......

 

[snorkie635]

Just now, Huge Hands said:

 

We're giving our son a g****r for Christmas, does that count?

 

If it helps, I just "had" to get a finish matching bass to go with it, so I am giving myself a present of a bass.......

 

In the spirit of the season, of course it does. Enjoy your jamming.

[Wolverinebass]

I watched "The Kids Are Alright" when i was about 8. Bass guitar didn't sink in properly until I got into U2 about the time of the Pop album. After picking up the bass I realised how little challenge those parts were and I went back to The Who.

 

My late brother said when I was taking up bass, "What's the point? You'll only be as good as Sid Vicious. You won't be as good as Adam Clayton or John Entwistle." Some years later he denied he'd ever said that.

 

Whilst I had musical training in the form of piano and trumpet beforehand, after I saw The Who in 2000, I realised that bass was all I wanted to do musically. I saw a level of technique I wanted to attain and determined to get there. Going this way has its downsides too. People that want you to play much simpler (for lots of reasons), but after 25 years I just don't entertain those bands that don't give me any freedom. That's not to say I am (or am not) a colossal show off, but I always play what the band needs first.