Why the bass?

[MelodiousThump]

My signature is part of the answer for me.

What about ya'll?

Why did you pick the bass?

[Bottom End]

Yeah, that's about it for me,too.

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

I feel like the instrument kind of picked me.

[b5pilot]

Pretty much like lots of guys before me. I started as a guitar player. I was in a band and we needed a bass player. I volunteered and fell in love with the instrument.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Because girls don't dig the glockenshpiel.

[Ross Brown]

I hear bass lines.... it is a curse.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

OK, seriously. I quit trumpet in high school because I despised marching band. Some friends (we were the geeky "girls don't know we're alive" crowd) decided the best way to meet girls was to form a band. Because I thought the idea was ludicrous (none of my friends were musicians), I refused to partake in the discussion as to who would get what instrument. I was "assigned" the bass.

 

Three months later, I was the only one still plying the instrument.

 

(PS - The fatal flaw in my friends' plan was that in order to be in a band and have teenage girls throw themselves at you, you also have to NOT SUCK!)

[-Will-]

It's a bass thing, you wouldn't understand... or maybe you would. But seriously, I was always drawn to the bass line in music, so it was just the natural thing to do. I've recently tried learning guitar.. but it just left me feeling unfulfilled.

[Groove Mama]

Stanley Clarke's Lopsy Lu, wherein the concept of bass as the happy marriage of melody and rhythm hit me like a ton of bricks. After that I couldn't get my fill of awesome bass lines and fell in love with Jaco, Bootsy, Larry Graham, Anthony Jackson, Marvin Isley, Will Lee, Flea, Victor Wooten, etc., etc., etc.

 

I didn't actually pick up a bass until 30+ years later, but my bass guitar love jones had been germinating all that time. What can I say? Like all true-love stories, it was ultimately meant to be.

 

[jeremy c]

Because the bass player drives the bus.

[Groove Mama]

Because the bass player drives the bus.

I can see your business cards now: "Jeremy Cohen, Bus Driver."

[Chad Thorne]

Pretty much like lots of guys before me. I started as a guitar player. I was in a band and we needed a bass player. I volunteered and fell in love with the instrument.

Ditto.

[jeremy c]

Because the bass player drives the bus.

I can see your business cards now: "Jeremy Cohen, Bus Driver."

 

Now that's funny.

 

My brother (who plays guitar) is actually a bus driver in real life. Say hi to him if you ever ride on a bus in Portland, Oregon.

[Groove Mama]

Because the bass player drives the bus.

I can see your business cards now: "Jeremy Cohen, Bus Driver."

 

Now that's funny.

 

My brother (who plays guitar) is actually a bus driver in real life. Say hi to him if you ever ride on a bus in Portland, Oregon.

Actually, when I was a little girl, I wanted to be a bus driver when I grew up. I thought it would be really cool to drive around town all day.

[Ross Brown]

When I was in high school our bus driver was a very cute 20 something. I never missed the bus.

[biguglyman]

Played trumpet until high school. Band needed a tuba player so I volunteered. Got free lessons and free use of the school's tuba to practice. Came in one day to find the theme from mission impossible on my music stand. Went home that day and asked mom for an electric bass for my 16th birthday. 38 years later and the rest is history.

[wraub]

When I was in high school our bus driver was a very cute 20 something. I never missed the bus.

 

How did things end up between you and him?

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[wraub]

I got a guitar as a kid thinking I leant that way. Picked out the bass part to every tune on the radio.

I play bass.

 

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[Seamy ALB]

I wanted to get a band together and the last space was for bass. After my first time playing it I realized how it sat in the music I heard bass for the first time and I realized it was all over the music I fell in love with it. Then Geddy Lee & Cliff Burton happened. I play a little guitar as well but bass is where I'm home, happy and very alive.

[MX-HDRM]

I never once felt like I just got stuck playing the instrument

but I do believe most of us that had, developed the passion for it eventually. (How could you not!)

I dig everything about being a Bass player in a band!

[picker]

I get a serious thrill out of locking up with a drummer and providing the foundation. If there is a rhythm guitar who knows how to lock in with me and the drummer, it's a blissful experience for me. To me, that's making music, and the reason why I can call myself a musician rather than a self-taught wanker with a few hot licks.

 

And, it's easier to get a gig as a bass player with a decent band than as a guitar player.

[butcherNburn]

It was always the bass for me, long before I knew it myself. I played a few other instruments before (trumpet was one) but they never inspired me. My only regret is that I didn't start sooner.

 

[5 string Mike]

The low register of the music is what I have identified with the most. In high school, I played trombone, tuba, baritone and a little sax. After I graduated, I got away from music then started getting back into it. I tried guitar, but got a hold of a bass and fell in love. I had a crappy Silvertone from On Cue (basically the same caliber as a First Act) but it just really connected for me.

 

Part of that is really exploring the world of the bass. It's a big world- so many music styles and instrument styles it's hard to get bored with being a bass player. The limit is as high as you want to take it.

 

I also wish I would have started sooner.

[yourlord]

I started on keyboards (organ) as a kid, then in jr high played drums in the school band.. Neither really stuck on me. I watched an old friend of mine pick up a bass in high school and over a couple of years became a master of it. He was the first person I ever personally knew who played the bass like it wasn't just a backing instrument. This made me go back and actually listen to much of my favorite music again with new bass tuned ears, and realize just how much i was actually grooving to the bass lines, and not the guitars.. I got with him and went to a local music store and we picked out a cheap used POS P copy, and I've been banging away ever since.

[Groove Mama]

My only regret is that I didn't start sooner.

Oh, way +1 on that. If I had started when Lopsy Lu came out, I'd have been playing almost forty years by now. Oh, well. Better late than never, I guess.

[Ross Brown]

When I was in high school our bus driver was a very cute 20 something. I never missed the bus.

 

How did things end up between you and him?

 

Peace,

 

wraub

 

Sexist....

 

[Eric VB]

Age 9: My step dad taught me cowboy chords on acoustic guitar.

 

Age 10: I started trombone in school band.

 

Age 11: I played in an afterschool stage band; the music teacher played bass (Fender P). I was interested in it, found out I already knew the notes on the fretboard from guitar and the notes on the page from trombone. I started playing electric bass guitar immediately.

 

Another factor was my (older) brother. He had just started electric guitar. Instead of competing with him I decided to go down a different path.

 

In other words, just like any other music career advancement: I was given an opportunity and had the skills to make it happen.

[The Bear Jew]

It's not a cosmic thing for me. I like to play music in bands, so I play the instrument needed for the band I most want to join.

Sometimes it's bass. Sometimes it's not.

[tucsonbassplayer]

Bass is the musical equivalent of a Harley Davidson to a woman. That's why I still play bass. If you don't get it, ask a women. And not your sister or mother.

 

And nobody ever danced to a guitar riff, and that's all that matters. Unless you like playing to a room full of dudes, that's all that matters. Just look at your guitard players face as you play the opening line to "Billie Jean" or "Brick House". They can't get that, just can't.

[Groove Mama]

Bass is the musical equivalent of a Harley Davidson to a woman. That's why I still play bass. If you don't get it, ask a women. And not your sister or mother.

Huh? Sorry, but I don't get that bass/HD analogy. :idk And I'm neither your sister nor your mother...at least, I don't think so.