Was bass your first instrument?

[bikehorn]

Okay, every two weeks a "Why did you take up bass and not guitar/drums/keys/triangle?" thread pops up so here's a variation on the theme.

 

I tried piano when I was...10 years old I think. It didn't pan out and I got bored after a few months of in-school lessons. I basically forgot entirely how to play piano since then, so I consider bass to be the first instrument I actually put effort into and learned when I picked it up at 13.

 

What about everyone else?

[SA Rios]

I took piano lessons from age 4 to 10, guitar lessons from 10-13. I played guitar in bands from about 14 until around 21 then switched and have been playing bass for about 9 years.

[Les_Izzmor]

Played trumpet for 3 years from 8-11.

 

Started playing bass when I was 30.

 

That's it.

[t3ch]

Choir (12-15) -> band (pit 16, then snare 17) -> bass 20 (when I first registered here)

 

And I've never looked back! muahahaha

[bnyswonger]

I tried clarinet in grade school...didn't really gel with it.

[y-o-y]

I played trumpet from ages 8-20. Started playing bass 3 years ago at age 27.

[georgestrings]

Guitar at 10 - gigging by 13...

 

 

 

- georgestrings

[catphish]

piano

Then Trombone

Then Bass

[SpaceGhost]

Clarinet.

 

I was actually quite good but when I was 10 or so I wanted to play bass clarinet (blame Eric Dolphy) but couldn't afford it and decided to play bass guitar instead. Slowly from 10-14 I phased from playing to clarinet to just bass.

 

I was a strange ass kid.

[rummy]

Piano -> guitar -> bass

[Super Bass]

I played guitar while in school from about age 10 to 13. I was put off a little by the fact that my guitar sucked and the teacher taught us terrible songs.

 

I still have my guitar, it gave in towards the end and now the neck looks like a banana. Its about 30~ years old.

[Mytola]

I took vocal lessons from 6-10. Then I played trumpet for a year, then started on Cello. Played cello for around five years, moved to another town, bought a bass. That's three years ago, and I've been playing bass ever since.

[justinbass]

sax from 9-14. guitar 12-14. bass 14-now.

[Jazz Ad]

I started with mandolin at age 7.

It was fun, I still play it a bit nowadays and if nothing else, it taught me the basics of reading and gave me a lifelong taste for tremolo playing.

I switched to keyboards at 11 because well, I was a geek and synths were so inspiring.

Started bass at 18 because Grunge made keyboards so unpopular that I couldn't find a band. Tried guitar a little bit but it was boring.

I play very bad drums and I'm a decent singer and beatboxer.

[bleepo]

Trumpet at 11, Cornet and Fluglehorn as well as French Horn and Baritone at 12/13...

 

Bass at 13.

[collinwho]

Piano - age 5

Percussion (mostly auxillary) - 11

Trombone - 12

Guitar - 15

Bass - 17

Trumpet - 18

Mandolin - 23

 

So bass wasn't my first or my last instrument.

[BikerOnBass]

7 years of clarinet when I was in school, didn't carry on into adulthood. Toyed with guitar and keyboard over the years but never anything close to serious. Fast forward about 3 decades and started playing bass because a guitar player moved in across the street.

[Craig Vecchione]

Trumpet from 4th grade into middle school, then Trombone, which I played concurrent with starting bass in high school.

[Rowka]

 

Was bass your first instrument?

 

 

No.

[groutt]

Took organ lessons when I was little, but the lessons were playing "old people" music. Forget that.

 

Got some analog synths in the 80's when they were cheap. Made noises, but ever learned to play keyboard. Never learned to make noises that anyone would want to listen to.

 

If I ever learn how to actually play bass, there's a good chance that bass will be my first instrument.

[Super Bass]

7 years of clarinet when I was in school, didn't carry on into adulthood. Toyed with guitar and keyboard over the years but never anything close to serious. Fast forward about 3 decades and started playing bass because a guitar player moved in across the street.

 

 

Welcome to HCBF!

[Goofball Jones]

Guitar and piano was my first instrument. I haven't touched a keyboard (except for noodling around a music store) for 30 years . I was looking to get back into it with software synths and midi controller, but it seems to be a huge money-pit

 

Bass is so simple. Fingers>bass>amp>ears

[FloydianAnimal]

Piano first as a little kid- didn't really work out and I quit after a few years cuz I didn't like it.

 

Then I picked up acoustic guitar only at 13 and got an electric about a year after that. I really wanted a bass after a couple years but couldn't get one and so stuck with guitar for awhile jamming on bass when I had a chance. Picked up piano for a bit again in college for some theory classes. Finally picked up bass a few years ago and haven't looked back. Bass is pretty much all I play now and I only pick up a guitar every now and then just to screw around...

[bholder]

No - piano was, lessons from my mother when I was little (5-6). Little boys really can't take music lessons from Mom, just doesn't work (though my mother was an excellent pianist and a great teacher of more experienced students). Then I picked up clarinet in 5th grade or so, rapidly progressing lower to bass and then contrabass - always attracted to the low end. First picked up electric bass around 12-13, around the same time I had my brief fling with the bassoon (which I absolutely loved, but it was so darned hard, and they're insanely expensive).

[basste]

guitar: 18

then bass: 25