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so how did it all begin?


steve-bbb
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Yeah, I forgot about the melodeon in my childhood (family tradition)

it was in Bflat/Eflat, but we didn't know that, so everyone wondered why we couldn't play with anyone or with each other
(all these instruments came from my grandma, she had several of them, all in different keys, but we wouldn't know)

My dad still only plays in C major (lacking all musical education, he doesn't know there is a minor parallel)

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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1334054673' post='1610102']
Anything really - so long as it's not accordion or bagpipes. ;)
[/quote]

I've often fancied flute, but recently tried the recorder again (after 40 odd years) and ran out of breath fairly quickly! Maybe I'm too old for that.

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I voted bass since it's the first instrument I wanted to play, although I was forced to play piano when I was a kid but was too lazy to get anywhere with it.

I also dabble with drums, guitar and saxophone but just don't seem to have the motivation to get to a reasonable standard on them. I always seem to come back to bass to the exclusion of everything else.

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Apart from a brief flirtation with Flugel Horn in my early teens, I avoided all musical instruments.
Then my parents broke up when I was about 19.
My Dad thought I needed something to concentrate on and asked if I wanted to take up an instrument...
To which I replied "Drums"
At no point did he say "That's not an instrument!"
I think he just said "No!"
Guitars just seemed (and still do feel) so small and fiddly, so bass it was.

PS Many people my age will have been forced to endure the recorder in their youth. As many instruments have a low-frequency derivative, I googled "bass recorder"


Hmmmm.

And.... How much?!

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Started on classical and then got a cheapie strat
I heard New Years Day and finally found out it was bass I was hearing, I bought a no name white/white/maple p bass copy and should have spent more time at it.
I went back to square 1 about a year ago

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I am getting the impression that my generation (born 1963) consist of significant numbers of people who floundered around in the dark a little in their early days and found their way to bass later simply because it was not 'there' when they were younger. In my 'yoof', I was a singer and won the school Eisteddford competition every year from 6 to 10 years old. I them stopped before Comprehensive because I somehow knew that singing like a choir boy is a great way to get your head kicked in at the big school!

I remember a cousin giving me a guitar at a very impressionable age (I think I was about 12) and me fcuking about with it for about 5 years without really playing anything other than a few 'party pieces' (not whole songs but odd riffs, bits of Beatles tune, odd solos and melodies). I would have had no idea what a bass was at that age and there was certainly noone around who would be able to tell me about that kind of thing. Saxophones were absent, as woudl have been anything like oboes, French Horn, bassoon etc. I got hold of the idea of a bass at the age of about 15/16 and was playing bass lines on that old guitar a long time before I got a bass but the real thing came after I started work aged 17. Bass was then the priority although guitar was always there and moving forward concurrently (although more slowly). But bass is the only instrument I have ever really gigged on.

Now I'm off to learn soprano saxophone (ordered one this weekend)!!

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i actually wanted to learn bass first, i walked into the small town music shop thinking "i want a bass" and i looked at the 2 hanging there and they were useless cheapy rubbish, so my eye went to the acoustic guitars, none of those appealed so I continued along till I saw a red superstrat with a floyd rose and that was the one! about 10 years later (and many guitars) i finally got a bass, haven't looked back since. (although i still play guitar and i still have most of my collection I had plenty of fun being a guitarist though, and still play my beloved McIlroy acoustic most days.


Matt

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[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1334005594' post='1609642']
I thought this was going to be a 'life, the universe and everything' kind of thread. What a gip! :facepalm: Still voted though. :)
[/quote]

Me too. I was about to come out with some mind expanding idea about 'life, the universe and everything', but can now only confirm that many years ago I started out on the recorder!

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Clarinet whilst I was at school, then bought myself a bass with money from a summer job at about 19 recently learning a little electric guitar for writing and recording purposes. Really fancy learning the drums but I live in a small flat so might be tricky to get the practice in.

[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1334046853' post='1609921']
Played guitar in a punk performance band in Berlin. Chatted up a girl with big tits to do the bass part. Got up at her place went and bought a bass for her to use. Was a cool project. She moved back to Swizerland for rehab. Everyone eventually left, but the bass. This was later smashed by some arab kids in a squat in Paris, re-assembled, and sold in London. I miss it, it was a great bass.
[/quote]
Great story!

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Totally non-musical till 16 years old , I went to party where every-one was totally pissed and this knob was larking around with his dad's steel string acoustic guitar pretending to be Rick Parfitt from the Quo , he promptly fell over and snapped the headstock off the guitar , which did not please his Dad too much . I rescued the broken guitar from the rubbish bin and repaired the headstock and taught myself guitar from Russ Shiptons books .
At first year Uni , met a real talented guitarist who was looking for a bass player , so I sold the battered acoustic giutar and pooled all my savings and bought a BB1200 from Yamaha Musicland ( that was the only bass in the shop , and i remember it was in the clearance sale, none of the sales assistance were really interested in it ( or me ) , I suspect they just wanted shot of it (and me )
Interestingly , the first song we learnt as a band was also " New Years Day " Thanks Adam and the Edge for getting us interested .
Still play acoustic guitar for pleasure and to work out new songs , and to relax with a beer after work .

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[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1334046853' post='1609921']
Played guitar in a punk performance band in Berlin. Chatted up a girl with big tits to do the bass part. Got up at her place went and bought a bass for her to use. Was a cool project. She moved back to Swizerland for rehab. Everyone eventually left, but the bass. This was later smashed by some arab kids in a squat in Paris, re-assembled, and sold in London. I miss it, it was a great bass.
[/quote]

You could sell this story to Luc Besson , it would make a great black + white film

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[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1334081223' post='1610695']
Good job she was wearing dungerees... :blink:
[/quote]

Entirely depends on what fabric they're made of :blink:

Anyway...started on bass, sold bass and did a lot of fishing (I might add not for bass :D) and then returned to bass. I still do a bit of fishing.

I have never played anything else, which has its disadvantages...quite a lot of them really.

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I had piano lessons as a kid and really didn't get the stuff I was being taught and packed in, bought a epi SG copy from a 2nd hand shop(only cos it was £12 I had no idea what Gibson or SG was ) and messed with that , obtained a proper vox organ and vox head and crappy speaker from a cousin and had some great fun pretending to write and perform . The next door neighbour could hear the racket and said that her son who had left home had a guitar he did.t use , did I want it for £20 , I said yes , and took it . I was a bit surprised to find it had only 4 strings and a neck that was separated from the body . I screwed the neck on with acouple of woodscrews and I was a bass man , I did'nt realise it was an original 60's Hohner violin until a lot later after I flogged it on , but it led me to proper performing as I was the only person in school with a bass , so I was in every show, at every assembly, and even dragged to church on occassion , It was quite a novelty at the time and kind of baptism of fire .

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played the flute for a short while when i was very little, and from then i had a non-musical period. then one day a few years ago i thought it would be a fun project to build a guitar from scratch, so i did that and ended up enjoying playing it too. i've recently picked up a bass for some more variation. the two instruments are similar enough that they don't feel completely alien going from one to another, but different enough that they require different technique and playing style. it makes for a nice change from the 6-stringer.

Edited by heminder
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