why I started playing the bass

I get asked to dep/play bass in function bands more than guitar.

I like doing the rhythm section, in the groove with the drummer and watching the girls move and respond to the changes.

They might listen to the melody, but they actually move to the bass.

 

I’m not really a bass player. I just wish I was!

I picked it up simply to create simple, foundation bass lines for my home recording. I get real enamored with it at times and can’t put it down, particularly when I find a groove or bassline that in my limited wheelhouse.

 

Is it because most bass players are more unreliable??

I joke. I was the lead guitar player in an old band for a couple of years but I had to leave for family reasons. A year or so later they had an opening on bass and they asked me to come back and play with them. I ended up staying and playing bass for a couple more years until we all decided to call it quits.

I ended up LOVING playing bass (sometimes still missed playing guitar solos though). Playing bass really taught me alot more about playing with a band and I really feel that my rhythm improved a great deal during that time. I'm currently in the first band after that one and playing bass had so much of an influence on me that when I find myself writing, a lot of the time I end up writing the bass line first. The drummer in this band was also the drummer of the last band. We are so used to locking in with one another that we end up doing a lot of really cool stuff rhythmically with me playing guitar. I think a lot more about what the drums are doing than I did before playing bass.

I feel every guitar player should attempt playing bass with a band at least once.

 

because we needed one, and the other guitarist was really good

 

Why did I start playing bass? Because I love the sound.

Why do I love the sound?

 

I love the kind of mantra vibe the bass has - getting into a grove and just going with it - and at decent volume you feel it in your bones.

 

Although I started out on guitar many, many, many years ago, my first few band gigs were on bass. Back then (1965-1966) EVERYONE played guitar, no bass players and a few drummers. So, to separate myself from the crowd I took up the bass and got a 500/1 bass and an B15N amp. Played bass through high school then switched back to guitar in college and guitar has been my primary instrument ever since, but I still really enjoy playing bass, you have so much control over the feel and groove of the song.
I still have the B15N but the Hofner is long gone. I have a 1980 Fender Bullet Bass Deluxe for the occasional bass subbing gig and for recording. The bass looks just like this pic from the internet:

 

this has been said before - in fact it's where I got this photo...on a similar titled thread....

 

Because playing bass got me playing music with other people.

 

The serious answer - in the (first) garage band that I joined in '64, the bass player decided he wanted to be the front man vocalist, so I volunteered to drop the rhythm guitar and play bass. Best move I ever made. Over the years, I played some guitar in better bands but returned to my strength on bass, never to stop playing in the Deep End.

 

Uh huh . . . your bass isn't even plugged in .

 

not me in the photo. I didn't notice the jack. In fact, I can't see it on my copy; seems cropped out. Who's looking for the jack? It's about the girl )

 

Yep. Couldn't agree more. If I were the guy in the photo, I wouldn't care if I were plugged in either. Fake it till you make it.

 

Hey, that's me, I guess I don't need to respond to this thread. The photo is not fake, my bass is plugged in and it's a real gig at a place in Elkton, MD.

 

You are legend.

 

I started on guitar back in the 70s in High School but my first real gig was in the 80s in a bluegrass band on upright. Then a classic rock band on a Ric.
I still get more playing out opportunities on bass than guitar, primarily upright in Rockabilly, Americana, or Bluegrass contexts.

 

Because bass is better



All joking aside, I really fell in love with bass when I graduated to genres other than hard rock. I realized that bass player didn’t have to be like a musical golf caddy carrying around a giant bag of root notes for the guitarist.

Getting started on bass may be easier than starting on guitar, but being a great (or even just good) bassist is way harder than people realize. You have the time keeping/feel/groove responsibility of a drummer, but with the added task of knowing enough music theory to construct interesting bass lines. Then you need enough taste, restraint, and discretion to NOT play sometimes so that when you DO play a note it actually says something meaningful.

Finally, there are more job openings for good bassists and word gets around. Not to mention, setup and tear down has become extremely easy for bassists in the last few years. The amount of gigs I’ve played in the last year with just a bass and preamp/di box is amazing. I also play drums, and setting up even a 4 piece can be a nightmare in comparison.

 

I find I'm a better bass player than guitar player...I think I am just more in tuned to rhythm than melody, if that makes sense.

 

Guitar was too hard.

 

I started playing tuba in 1969. I made a good run of it and almost finished a music degree but just ran out of steam for that kind of thing. In the early 80s some friends were jamming and there was an old hollow body bass through a Sears Jack White type amp. I picked it up and because I knew theory and the intervals I could get around pretty good right away. I played bass where ever I could for years.

Nowadays I usually get guitar and of course tuba gigs more often than bass.