Question:
What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen correctly to play bass? When I was 15 (about 1976), my bass teacher, out of the blue, invited me to jam with his buds, all pro or semi-pro jazz and rock musicians, pretty top-notch, about five or six of them, all men in their late 20s-early 30s. I had never been in on a scene like this. My teacher handed me a bass (a sunburst Precision into a Portaflex), one of the guitarists launched into a progression, and everybody fell in strong. And it isn’t long before I am totally locking with these guys. I mean I’m gettin’ it. We played all afternoon, songs, vamps, anything at all, it seemed. I was a mile high for days, and an experience my teenage music buddies just wouldn’t be able to relate to. It was so incredibly hip! At that point it became clear to me that the bass and I were a great match. I got my first real glimpse of its power that day. Edward G. ‘It’s not a gang; it’s a club.’
Response:
I guess my moment of realization came a few years earlier than yours Edward, sometime during the summer of ‘73. I was 16 and me and a couple of friends applied for a long-ago-cancelled Canadian govt. grant program called "Opportunities for Youth" (I think). The long and short of it was that we were paid wages for the whole summer to form a band and learn to play. Those were the days, I’ll tell ya, part of the grant was that we had access to the local school gym all summer so we spent the days learning everything we could. My father sure didn’t like the idea but we pressed ahead. We played a Dance at the end of the summer (I still have pictures) and that’s likey where I decided that the Bass was for me. No wonder our country has such a debt problem now! Andrew Thompson
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass? > When I was 15 (about 1976), my bass teacher, out of the blue, invited me to jam > with his buds, all pro or semi-pro jazz and rock musicians, pretty top-notch, > about five or six of them, all men in their late 20s-early 30s. I had never > been in on a scene like this. My teacher handed me a bass (a sunburst > Precision into a Portaflex), one of the guitarists launched into a progression, > and everybody fell in strong. And it isn’t long before I am totally locking > with these guys. I mean I’m gettin’ it. We played all afternoon, songs, vamps, > anything at all, it seemed. I was a mile high for days, and an experience my > teenage music buddies just wouldn’t be able to relate to. It was so incredibly > hip! At that point it became clear to me that the bass and I were a great > match. I got my first real glimpse of its power that day. > Edward G. > ‘It’s not a gang; it’s a club.’
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen >correctly to play bass? >When I was 15 (about 1976), my bass teacher, out of the blue, invited me to jam >with his buds, all pro or semi-pro jazz and rock musicians, pretty top-notch, >about five or six of them, all men in their late 20s-early 30s. I had never >been in on a scene like this. My teacher handed me a bass (a sunburst >Precision into a Portaflex), one of the guitarists launched into a progression, >and everybody fell in strong. And it isn’t long before I am totally locking >with these guys. I mean I’m gettin’ it. We played all afternoon, songs, vamps, >anything at all, it seemed. I was a mile high for days, and an experience my >teenage music buddies just wouldn’t be able to relate to. It was so incredibly >hip! At that point it became clear to me that the bass and I were a great >match. I got my first real glimpse of its power that day. >Edward G. >’It’s not a gang; it’s a club.’
My first breakthrough was before I ever picked up the instrument. My uncle, Walter Miles, was an old session picker in Nashville. When I was about 10 I was sitting listen to him and a bunch of his buddies jam. I expressed an interest in learning the guitar, and one of the other old session vets looked me right in the eye and said "Son, let me tell you something. There are a million pickers in Nashville. Learn to play the bass. No one wants to do that." And for the first, last and only time in my teen years, I actually listened to an adults’ advice. Started learning about a year after that.
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> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass?
When,after playing for about 15 years,I got bored and intensively learned to play drums (my first love, but it was discouraged by my parents for obvious noise related fears),good enough to gig regularly too.I was about 30 years old at this time (‘83-’84) and I realised I would never gain enough strenghth to be as good as I wanted to be through starting late,so I went back to bass. Immediately I felt relaxed and in control of what I wanted to play,a feeling I never managed on drums. SR
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass? > When I was 15 (about 1976), my bass teacher, out of the blue, invited me to jam > with his buds, all pro or semi-pro jazz and rock musicians, pretty top-notch, > about five or six of them, all men in their late 20s-early 30s. I had never > been in on a scene like this. My teacher handed me a bass (a sunburst > Precision into a Portaflex), one of the guitarists launched into a progression, > and everybody fell in strong. And it isn’t long before I am totally locking > with these guys. I mean I’m gettin’ it. We played all afternoon, songs, vamps, > anything at all, it seemed. I was a mile high for days, and an experience my > teenage music buddies just wouldn’t be able to relate to. It was so incredibly > hip! At that point it became clear to me that the bass and I were a great > match. I got my first real glimpse of its power that day. > Edward G. > ‘It’s not a gang; it’s a club.’
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> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass?
Whenever I get a compliment from my older brother or father who are very talented drummers. — -rob O> /() ^^
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I remember, years before I first touched a bass, a friend of mine in about 6th grade was talking about bands, and we were talking about what instruments we liked and he told me "You should play bass, ’cause the bass player is always the crazy one". I think he was right. -Jonathan www.badspatula.com
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass? > When I was 15 (about 1976), my bass teacher, out of the blue, invited me to jam > with his buds, all pro or semi-pro jazz and rock musicians, pretty top-notch, > about five or six of them, all men in their late 20s-early 30s. I had never > been in on a scene like this. My teacher handed me a bass (a sunburst > Precision into a Portaflex), one of the guitarists launched into a progression, > and everybody fell in strong. And it isn’t long before I am totally locking > with these guys. I mean I’m gettin’ it. We played all afternoon, songs, vamps, > anything at all, it seemed. I was a mile high for days, and an experience my > teenage music buddies just wouldn’t be able to relate to. It was so incredibly > hip! At that point it became clear to me that the bass and I were a great > match. I got my first real glimpse of its power that day. > Edward G. > ‘It’s not a gang; it’s a club.’
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> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass?
Cool thread…I’ll try not to ramble TOO much 
Bass was actually my third real instrument. Both of my parents are musicians and music teachers, so me being involved in music was inevitable. I started on cello somewhere around age 7-8 (after trying violin, piano, trumpet, french horn, and some others before that), and that was my "main" instrument. Somewhere around 6th-7th grade I wanted to play drums, so I started on lessons and got a kit for christmas. The summer after 8th grade is when I started on bass. I remember my dad used to bring home stuff from his school that they didn’t use during the summer. He brought home a bass and a few instruction books, and figured I’d spend the summer going through it. Three hours later I was done and moved on. It was easy..bass clef, just tuned in 4ths. Big deal. I never wanted to play bass first. I always wanted to play cello in classical music and drums in rock or jazz. When I got to high school, there were like 48 drummers and 2 bass players: a senior, and me. I ended up getting all of the bass related stuff throughout high school: swing choir, jazz ensemble, festivals, plays, I even got invited to play with a local band Oceans on a gig they had locally. Yet, I never put any time into bass, and it wasn’t anything I thought I would do after high school. College came around and I went to major on cello. After about 9 weeks into it, and realizing they didn’t want me to play anything but cello, I dropped out of the music program, stopped playing cello forever, and stopped with music for about a year. Later on I moved into my own apartment, and the drumset sat in storage doing nothing. Now this next part I’m not all so happy with admitting, but one day a friend brought over the year and a half in the life of Metallica video. I’m not a Metallica fan and never was, even though I was big into the 80s-early 90s metal scene. I thought their old stuff sounded too structured and boring, and their newer stuff was an attempt to show everyone how cool they were. Well, I sat watching the video all the time thinking that I could/should be there doing what they were doing. I took the bass out for the first time in over a year, put a new set of strings on it, and spent the next 18 months playing a minimum of 5 hours a day. I would come home from work and just play until 2-3am, sometimes just blowing off work for the next day. That was pretty much it. Since then I’ve put a ton of time into bass and being a musician on the bass instead of just picking it up, reading a chart, and going to do something else. I traded in my drum kit for my first bass rig, and the rest is history… Adam
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> > What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass?
Started off on drums. Played them briefly and badly. Sold my kit and couldn’t afford another one. Bought a Cort Jazz copy when I was 19, and woodshedded for 6 months, learning everything I could by ear. By the end of those six months, I was trading pieces of Billy Sheehan’s NV43345 (?) solo and the farandole with a much more advanced player (who had been taking lessons and gigging for 7 years). He was amazed that I was actually picking this stuff up at such a beginning stage. But that wasn’t the clincher. The real moment came about a year later, when my dad happened to hear me playing. He was surprised to find out I hadn’t given the instrument up after 2 weeks. He’s a big music buff (mostly oldies and Motown stuff, but dug the Commodores, Kool and the Gang, and the Gap Band a lot). He was completely unimpressed by anything Talas ever did, and couldn’t appreciate any of Billy’s work. I remember him telling me once, "the day I’ll think your good is the day I can pick any radio station — top 40, R&B, jazz, country, you name it — and you can pick up the song and play along. That crap you listen to doesn’t even sound like music to me." Well, one day, he did it. He scanned the dial for all different types of music. I listened for a moment, and joined in as best I could. We did this for about 20 minutes, finally ending on some Michael Jackson tune. Them he turned off the radio, smiled, and said, "You can really play that thing. Don’t listen to your mom (who didn’t like my pursuing music, as she thought it distracted me from my god-given talent, which is art). If it makes you happy, do it." That’s when I knew I made the right choice. P.S. The impetus for my choosing the bass in the first place? Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. I saw them on the "Piece of Mind" tour and was amazed by his energy and stage presence. I thought, "hell, I don’t wanna sit behind a drum set, I wanna do that!"
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My first breakthrough on bass. Well it has been 16 years of reafirming my love for the bass as part of my true identity. I don’t remember when it first happened, but the rush I got at being the navigator for the band was my breakthrough. Most of us have been involved in some incredible jams, and when I look down the fingerboard of my bass, any of them, I know that I’m flying. It’s like bieng the Duke of groove. When the rest of the band knows your in the drivers seat, your using the Force! You are the balls of the band. Live, every bass player can be a superstar. You can dazzle with the lightest touch, and crush their chest with your brute force. You are bass players and bass is the breakthrough. Mike Furlong Night Donkey Central
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> What event in your bass playing life/career told you that you had chosen > correctly to play bass? > When I was 15 (about 1976), my bass teacher, out of the blue, invited me to jam > with his buds, all pro or semi-pro jazz and rock musicians, pretty top-notch, > about five or six of them, all men in their late 20s-early 30s. I had never > been in on a scene like this. My teacher handed me a bass (a sunburst > Precision into a Portaflex), one of the guitarists launched into a progression, > and everybody fell in strong. And it isn’t long before I am totally locking > with these guys. I mean I’m gettin’ it. We played all afternoon, songs, vamps, > anything at all, it seemed. I was a mile high for days, and an experience my > teenage music buddies just wouldn’t be able to relate to. It was so incredibly > hip! At that point it became clear to me that the bass and I were a great > match. I got my first real glimpse of its power that day. > Edward G. > ‘It’s not a gang; it’s a club.’
Response:
> I took the bass out for the first time in > over a year, put a new set of strings on it, and spent the next 18 months > playing a minimum of 5 hours a day. I would come home from work and just > play until 2-3am, sometimes just blowing off work for the next day.
….. I think I see an area I need to improve in ….. lucky to spend more than 1/2 a day 5 or 6 times a week. [contemplates reducing newsgroup time to practice more ....] — Wilson Varidel (BD) www.varidel.iwarp.com <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
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> of those six months, I was trading pieces of Billy Sheehan’s NV43345 (?)
Nv43345…if you look at it upside down, with the "43345" on a calculator and a little imagination, it spells Sheehan upside down and backwards… I actually learned that one on my first bass, an Eko beatle bass copy. Man that thing was a piece of junk. I think the neck was plastic, because I could bend it down over a 5th and it never even creaked like a standard wood neck has the tendency to do. Needless to say it wasn’t the easiest thing to play on that bass. Then again, nothing was Adam
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> ….. I think I see an area I need to improve in ….. lucky to spend more > than 1/2 a day 5 or 6 times a week.
Keep in mind I was also like 21-22 years old, had no girlfriend at the time, no job committments outside of work, etc. Now I’ve been married for a while, have a 15 month old daughter, and a "career" instead of just a "job". It doesn’t leave much time for bass, but I fit it in almost everywhere I can… Adam
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> > of those six months, I was trading pieces of Billy Sheehan’s NV43345 (?) > Nv43345…if you look at it upside down, with the "43345" on a calculator > and a little imagination, it spells Sheehan upside down and backwards…
Yeah, the only way I could remember it, was by spelling out sheehan in numbers. His live solo was "Bill Live" spelled out in numbers, if I remember correctly. 3A177718? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I actually learned that one on my first bass, an Eko beatle bass copy. Man > that thing was a piece of junk. I think the neck was plastic, because I > could bend it down over a 5th and it never even creaked like a standard wood > neck has the tendency to do. Needless to say it wasn’t the easiest thing to > play on that bass. Then again, nothing was > Adam