We all ended up playing the bass...

[mcgraham]

Great thread - really interesting reading everyone's background and motivations to pick up the bass.

I wanted to help out my youth group, and so looked at picking up an instrument - guitar or drums? I had no idea what a bass was so didn't count it as an option. I asked a friend what they reckoned I should pick up - they said 'what about bass guitar?' and they explained it was the low sounding instrument in a band. I recognised the sound they meant, but from the examples I knew I said it seemed quite limited relative to the number of sounds a guitar could make - what else could it do? So they sent me some RHCP (Higher Ground etc) and put me onto Primus... genuinely, from that moment I was hooked and I knew I just [i]had[/i] to be able to make those sounds.

I also play guitar now to a similar standard, but as much as I like guitar I [i]love[/i] bass and everything it encompasses.

Edited June 2, 2011 by mcgraham

[Cat Burrito]

My Dad was a drummer so I started out as the world's worst drummer at the age of 8. That was definitely my Dad pushing me. In my teenage years I revisited music & I always had people tell me I "looked like a bassist". I took this statement as a compliment but I'm suddenly wondering if that was meant as an insult!?! I've gone on and played guitar (lead, rhythm & acoustic), mandolin, harmonica, lap steel and banjo onstage (to very varying results!). Bass is my main instrument but I agree with the OP it's really about playing music. Bass feels like a second skin but if a really cool band came along and wanted me just to play mandolin I'd go with that over playing bass for a band that wasn't quite right.

[ficelles]

I started on piano at some single-digit age and was rubbish at it even though I liked the sounds it made. Switched to clarinet and did a grade but playing it made my head vibrate (how do sax players cope?).

At around 13 I picked up a bass (Japanese archtop with plastic-wound black strings and an action you could fly an Apache attack helicopter under) and was hooked, although fairly quickly added guitar and then mandolin. Later on learnt some violin and then double bass.

Out of all the instruments the one I am happiest with at the moment is EUB, although mandolin is a close second. I don't really like playing guitar in a band. I love playing violin but the neighbours throw their shoes at the wall when I do. Acoustic upright is great especially for the tone and for bowing but hard work so maybe I need to get my bridge adjusted...

I currently play bass (mainly EUB) with Bristol backing band the Bad Vegetarians, and mandolin with north Devon acoustic outfit Weaver. I also play bass for Sarana Verlin when she is over this side of the Atlantic.

ficelles

Edited June 2, 2011 by ficelles

[99ster]

[quote name='Highfox' post='1253059' date='Jun 1 2011, 07:36 PM']Personal stuff but..
It was a definite intention for me after going to see the Clash for the first time and watching Simonon throwing his bass around and looking that cool, how could you not want in!..
......I was a big Public Image Ltd /Jah Wobble fan as well, bass was where it was (and still is) at for me. Thats all it took for a young impressionable 15 year old to get hooked on trying to playing bass.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjQobv6ztF4"]The Clash[/url]
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnBq98uUJE4&feature=related"]PIL[/url][/quote]

+1
Paul Simonon.
Never wanted to play anything else but bass - why would you?

[GarethFlatlands]

A friend got me into Metallica when I was 11 and I wanted to be Kirk Hammett, at the front of the stage playing all the awesome solos. After a few dull, traditional guitar lessons failing to learn 'Little Brown Jug' I put my acoustic in the corner and gave up for a year or 2. The same friend mentioned above and a bunch of his friends showed me how to play songs I actually liked on guitar and explained how tab worked and I spent the next few years learning grunge songs from tab books. Got an electric guitar and dabbled on a friends bass over the years, buying myself a 5 string bass just before coming to uni in Sheffield as I figured it might be easier to join a band as a bassist.

Been in a few bands over the years playing guitar or bass and have picked up enough skills to get by on other stuff such as keys, mandolin and backing vox over the years. I gave up on learning to solos early on as I realised how pointless and self indulgent it was and concentrated on just making music I was proud of. I think of myself as a musician rather than a bass player but I enjoy bass as it has its own space in the mix of instruments and you can do some really interesting things with it in terms of the feel of a song/section.

Oddly, my sister was always the young musical prodigy and now she never plays anything. I've never been naturally talented but have worked hard and put the hours in because I enjoy making music so much.

[Kingy_who]

I first picked up a bass guitar at an all Wales scout camp, around 6-4 years ago (probably closer to 6), where a rock band was giving taster sessions on the instruments in a rock band, the guitarist was a show off and that put me off it and I couldn't get the grasp of drums. After that I asked my dad to get me a guitar (I had no idea what a bass was at that time, I thought I didn't like music at that stage because I didn't like what was on the radio) and he bought me a cheap acoustic. I didn't really pick it up very well, I don't know whether it was the teacher or me, but I wasn't pushed enough so I wasn't too upset when I lost the guitar a few weeks later.

A few years later, when I had discovered that all music wasn't played on the radio, and had really gotten into metal (still the more popular stuff at the time, such as dragonforce and bullet for my valentine), My gran had decided to treat us to a cruise and on the ship there was a rock school thing where we where given basic tuition and would play a song live at the end of the cruise, I had made some good friends who happened to play instruments, there was two guitarists, a keyboardist, a drummer and a singer, and we wanted to do an extra song (smells like teen spirit). This was decided at the last minute as everyone else knew the song, as I hadn't had access to a bass to learn the song, I was quickly told what frets to play and I went on stage and attempted to play it, I don't think I was too bad considering, but it wasn't great.

After that I got a bass and the rest is history.

[NickH]

Started off on keyboard as I love the whole big, bombastic piano & orchestra rock thing. Casually messed with guitar for a while but it was always keys for me.
Bass came about from going to music college and hanging around with lots of multi-instrumentalists, just jamming and writing things. I had to play bass for a few performances where there were two guitar parts but no keys. When I realised I could make this awesome throbbing powerful sound while dancing about like a fruitloop on stage with no keyboard anchoring me down, I was converted.

[Patster1969]

Bass is the only instrument I've played tbh. Always listened to music but never actually played any music through school, my teens, my 20's or the majority of my 30's due to school not having any music facilities and me being lazy/more into playing footie from the age of 8 until mid-30's.
Met my now-wife in 98, who has always played music (grade 8 piano & violin) & she always told me that I would enjoy it. For my sins, started playing guitar hero & after watching videos on Youtube of people playing guitar hero at super advanced level making no mistakes, decided that they must have had to practice for hours to get to that standard, which I thought was a massive waste of time as I might as devote the same amount of time playing/learning a proper instrument instead. Had been interested in the drums when I was a kid but had been put off by my parents who said that I would get bored very quickly, which I stupidly believed (I was at that age where I believed everything they said - they just didn't want to hear the noise tbh). However, size of house/being mid-terrace kind of put the kibosh on that, but wasn't particularly interested in anything else apart from the bass due to it being part of the rhythm section with the drums. Finally picked it up 2.5 years ago at age 39 and have been having lessons as I don't think I would have been as motivated, but have now joined a band, so have more motivation to keep playing now. Also like the fact that there is always a shortage of bass players - like being the odd one out!

[davey_one_visits]

I was at a friends house and I tried his bass out. I was amazed that I could play it almost straight away as I have never been successful at anything before (sport/instrument/hobby). I asked for one that Xmas and although my parents were pessimistic they fully supported me and paid for lessons. I've never looked back and will one day i hope to play professionally.