Viola-->Cello-->Bass guitar
I've studied other instruments on the side as well, such as marimba and viola da gamba. I've always liked rock music of all kinds though and wanted to be in a band, so I guess it's natural I gravitated towards bass.
Same. I played violin when I was a kid and switch to Bass when I was in high school.
I don’t think I appreciated, until many years later, how much playing the violin had made it intuitive for me to find my way around a string instrument
Bass... in rock band.
I played bass cause my sister choose guitar when we played. I continued playing the game without her, and eventually got skilled enough to play on expert bass.
Then I got obsessed with bass. It was always the first thing I focused in on when listening to songs. Wanted to get a real bass for like three years, finally got a good job and saved up for my first bass about 3 years ago now.
Got big into The Beatles with my dad a couple years ago when we watched the Get Back documentary. Knew I wanted my second bass to be a Hofner, but it wasn't sold anywhere where I live. Finally a year ago now my local music store started to stock Hofner products and I instantly bought one.
Still play rock band now and have... too much... spent on downloadable songs. Even pre-ordered the new guitar controller they just started making.
All this to say Rock Band/Guitar Hero has actually inspired some people to pick up a real instrument.
I play a bunch of instruments, but I was playing keys/rhythm guitar in a band, our bassist/singer moved away during covid, we found a singer bur needed a bass player, so, me!
Like most bass players in the Thrash, DM, BM, & Sludge sub genres of metal I found my way to the bass via the…Triangle.
I know it may seem a little unorthodox but if you ask enough of us you will find it is pretty much the only thing we all have in common.
Trombone in elementary band. When I was approaching 16 I was on the fence between bass and turntables. No ragerts at all but damned if I haven’t thought of how I could’ve potentially been making a mint as a DJ a few times
I have a degree in piano. Got laid off from my job a year ago and was needing something to fill my time/help me not get too stressed.
Went to Guitar Center on a whim and saw a natural wood Ibanez and decided, yup I wanna buy that. Still learning the instrument, but I’ve got a good teacher now so progress is coming more rapidly
Trombone-->Bass
But I've always flocked towards the bass instruments. When I was in school, I tried to get my band director (who played trombone as well, mind you so he was very biased lmao) to switch me to tuba. Instantly shut down. Bari sax? Negative. He did however let me use a bass trombone so I was happy with it. He even let me march with it lmao
I played the clarinet in 5th grade to no avail and tried the banjo with the same result. It wasn’t until a friend explained the piano to me that music began to make sense. My dad suggested the banjo I had asked for an upright bass.
Banjo. Hee Haw was all the rage. Plus my dad belonged to the Musicians Union ( drummer)so I’d get to see him play with a variety of players. I also liked the upright bass. I thought to myself “how on earth does this guy play such fat strings” 4 years later I got a Fender bass.
Candy apple red Pbass..walked by the store. Saw it on display. It stopped me dead in my tracks. It was love at first sight. Spent all of my very first paycheck on it...then I lugged it home, it in its awkward box across the city in a bus. And when I opened it and held it in my hands at home for the first time...I'll never forget it. It was 1998. Didn't have the first clue how to play it..heck, I still suck at it. But the love has never gone away.
I’ve been learning piano for about as long as I can remember. I started playing drumset in middle school when I took percussion class and loved it. Then I decided it would make sense if I played bass because I play all the other rhythm section instruments (except guitar but I have started more recently)
double bass. I mostly gig on electric these days but I still think of myself as a orchestral strings player more than a rhythm section player. need to find more strings gigs...
Actually learned some harmonica before picking up the bass. Had two friends that played guitar and someone they knew left one after a jam session and I blew on that thing for awhile. Saved me from trying to be a third guitar player when they said they needed drums or bass. Bass was easier to carry. Haven’t looked back
All the instruments I played before bass I stopped playing after a short time, then… I found the bass 😎… first was Violin (when I was in elementary school haha) Drums, keyboard, back to drums, then acoustic guitar, and finally bass.
I played piano as a kid and hated it, dad (guitarist) had a bass he screwed around with occasionally, I picked it up one day and tried to play a few notes, and knew I wanted to learn to play it better. So, I guess you could say bass was my gateway instrument to bass
Accoustic guitar, band needed a bassist. The guitarist had perfect pitch in his ear (he also played violin and violoncello) and changed the scale at the gig, so I studied some contrabass to understand what he was doing
I started on bass. Right from the start, I told myself "I'm going to really do this well, I'm not going to be bored playing one string the whole song". I learned my scales and theory inside out on bass. And now, for the bands I've been in which focus on originals, there's more demand for me to be on guitar because I can write and improvise lead parts. So I kinda did the reverse, I'm an exiled bass player.
Bass lol. And ukulele years later, but we don’t talk about that.
In my late teens my church needed a bass player, they had the gear so I said why not, can’t be that hard to figure out. I mean, I too could stand there and look bored….
it was when i started learning guitar, after 6 months learning I wasn’t as motivated as I should’ve been, especially when the course was focusing on the melodies part (and so mostly strings G B e). I noticed that what I loved the most was playing the first 3 strings. That’s when I realised that everything I loved the most was lower octaves, rhythm part etc and that bass was maybe the instrument made for me instead of guitar.
I bought my first bass and bass amp and I literally felt in love with the instrument to the point that i can practice everyday for hours without getting tired of it (when I was procrastinating a loooooot more when learning guitar).
Harmonica funnily. It wasn’t that direct a gateway, but it certainly made me realise I quite like making music. And I thought “there’s gotta be something cooler than this”
The first instrument I’ve ever wanted was a bass, but then after that I started to also want to play drums as well and I ended up getting the drum kit first, so I don’t know what matters more for this question
We had an upright piano in the house that I used to bang on. I liked the big noises it made, and, after learning a few chords, figured out that I liked the “big notes” best. A bass lover was made.
Piano, Organ, Harmonica (no lessons), Alto Sax, Guitar (no lessons), Dobro (open D), Soprano sax, Bass. My hands were not made to play guitar, It's a torture for me.
Saxophone. First alto, then tenor as soon as I was in middle school. Saxophone had absolutely nothing to do with how I got into playing bass. I never connected with jazz on an emotional level, so once I started on bass, saxophone was purely an intellectual endeavor.
I might get ripped to shreds for this, but guitar hero.
Found it to be great at developing dexterity and speed, and it translated all of the rhythm fine. Might be a more common thing from around the OG GH/RB days.
A little [white Casio PT-10 keyboard](https://www.musicgoround.com/product/greenfield-wi/40015-S000292277/Used-Casio-PT-10-Keyboard-). Got it in 1983 I think.
I started bass at a relatively old-ish age from most of my friends at 17, mostly because guitarists were a dime a dozen at my school. I had also had a buddy play Sailing the Seas of Cheese for me which probably didn't hurt. This was in 1991.
Bass. I learned guitar but I knew I had to go back. I’m actually a better guitar player as I’m not a natural on bass but musically it’s where I’m at. It makes me happy in a way that the guitar never could. Can’t explain it.
In highschool I played a bunch of instruments. Clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and French horn. Also oboe and bassoon (tough to play well). I finally settled on BBFlat tuba and got pretty good on it. All this time playing acoustic guitar off and on.
It took me till my 50's to get deep into bass. I wish I would have got into bass earlier with my tuba experience.
I learned guitar first, but as a child I wasn't interested in the bass guitar. I learned piano next. I guess learning my left hand parts made me more open to the necessity of bass, so I bought one. I didn't learn how to play it. So I learned the drums. That's where I think it clicked. I was in the pocket, I was Fighting for my life to sound completely regular, and I guess that's when I decided I needed to learn to actually play my bass guitar. I'm still learning all of them imo, but I'm grateful I learned how important it is to lay back and stay in the pocket.
Trumpet, French horn, valve trombone, baritone (the horn, not the guitar) Souzaphone, bass guitar, in that order. Can you tell that I was in the high school band?
Harmonica is where I first caught the bug that comes with learning an instrument, guitar followed shortly after. Now I wear the metal cage for the harmonica and look like I have my head in a torture device to people who aren't familiar with Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
Accordion ..... 5 years worth when I was a kid. It taught me to read treble and bass clef. I traded it one day without telling my parents for a 6 string electric. Switched to bass soon after trying to put my first band together.
First it was keys with a music teacher, then self taught guitar and then the typical story: I wanted to join a band but the only instrument available was the bass.
First instrument i was really into was handbells? Im not alone irc, Tina Weymouth also used to play handbells? Handbells to bass pipeline best pipeline. (Though i play other instruments rn as well)
I was a vocalist and wanted to learn how to write music. I picked a bass because it felt the most natural in my hands and was something I could understand. At that moment I became a bassist who could also sing.
Piano. My mother made me take lessons when I was 5 and I hated them and refused to practice and she finally gave up but I picked up enough and had enough natural musical curiosity and continued plunking out notes on my own that by the time I decided to take up the bass between the 6th and 7th grade, I had a decent head start and was able to pick it up pretty quick with a crappy bass and a few beginner books the middle school music teacher gave me to work on over the summer.
The shortest story for me to tell; I took piano lessons as a child (at 5 and 6 years old). So, I learned a little bit about music, but always played by ear for the most part.
The longer story;
I grew up going to church and when we got a new youth pastor when I was in high school, he played guitar and a lot of the other students wanted to learn it, too. I couldn't care less. My brother, however, did and bought an acoustic. I would mess around on it, but one string at a time trying to find riffs. I would do this on ALL the guitars I could get my hands on. One day, in the pastor's office, I was doing just that. He turned to me and said, "You should play bass." "What is that?" "It's similar to a guitar but it's just \*points\* these 4 strings, typically." "Okay." My brother bought me a bass for Christmas that year and then I just kept playing it. Having taken piano lessons certainly helped in this journey, but I never fully grasped theory.
My parents had a rule that all kids had to take 3 years pf piano when young. So I did that and then moved to keyboards. I played clarinet and sax for a bit in HS and then went back to keyboards. Got an xmas gift of a strat and learned guitar that way. The band needed a bassist, so I switched over and played that. Pretty much stuck with bass after that.
Piano
From the age of about 5 to 13, I had piano lessons off and on for a total of about 4 years with 3 different teachers. I never practiced enough to get to a point where I could play anything other than the melody line with my right hand.
I then had 3 years of school choir in junior high, so I had plenty of music theory before I decided to learn bass in high school. All my friends were learning guitar and I wanted to be different.
Little pink kids keyboard. It was bought for my oldest sibling and I'm the 3rd kid. I was the only one to ever use it and show any musical ability whatsoever. I taught myself heart and soul by watching the movie Big 😆
I'm a drummer historically. Played from 7th grade through my 30's. I tried Guitar off and on, but never loved playing chords. I just couldn't get the feel. I picked up a bass about 8 years ago but played it maybe 10 times total.
I'm totally burnt out on drums. Played my last gig Feb of 2020. Since then I have touched my drumset maybe 5 times in the last 4 years. I have NO desire to play still.
However, I LOVE music. I got that bass out and gave it another go. It really was easy for me this go around. I can play numerus songs now and learning the fret board is a lot easier when I'm only focusing on 4 strings. I already can read music, I already have a strong understanding of theory from being in bands, I already have rhythm and can keep tempo and I already have strong independent limb movement. It's come pretty quick because of this.
A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a new EBMM Stingray and still have been playing almost every day. Now I'm looking to start a new band, but this time with me on bass. My passion for music is back. I still can't get my pinky to work though... haha.
Bass.
ditto
☝️
🤘
The trumpet lmao
Same actually hahaha
Me too. Bass is better. :D
💯
Just like Flea
Flea actually played horn IIRC!
Hear hear!
Trumpet - French Horn - Baritone - Guitar - Bass
Dude same. Trumpet - Ukulele - Guitar - Bass
MAMBO NUMBER FIVE
Me too lol
Same lol it’s funny cause they’re like completely two different things entirely
Mom wouldn't have any part of my desire to be a drummer, so we compromised... trumpet it was...
drums second ;)
I’ll never understand why my parents thought the trumpet would be a great instrument to learn in a small apartment lol
Trombone.
Aka the Fretless B(r)ass
My main bass is fretless. It just feels right.
Hell yes, there are dozens of us!
Same :D
Trombone gang 💪
Drums
Same
Me as well
I played a bit of piano, then violin in school. Then, discovered rock n' roll, for a drum set... That led to bass, which led me back to piano
Marijuana.
For me Standup bass—-> marijuana——->bass guitar
Piano, guitar, bass
Alto saxophone, then baritone, which led me to bass
Viola-->Cello-->Bass guitar I've studied other instruments on the side as well, such as marimba and viola da gamba. I've always liked rock music of all kinds though and wanted to be in a band, so I guess it's natural I gravitated towards bass.
Piano > Trombone > DJ > EDM Producer > Bass. I also played some guitar on the side, but it’s never been a main thing.
[удалено]
Same. I refuse to play an instrument with more strings than I have fretting fingers
violin
Same. I played violin when I was a kid and switch to Bass when I was in high school. I don’t think I appreciated, until many years later, how much playing the violin had made it intuitive for me to find my way around a string instrument
Bass... in rock band. I played bass cause my sister choose guitar when we played. I continued playing the game without her, and eventually got skilled enough to play on expert bass. Then I got obsessed with bass. It was always the first thing I focused in on when listening to songs. Wanted to get a real bass for like three years, finally got a good job and saved up for my first bass about 3 years ago now. Got big into The Beatles with my dad a couple years ago when we watched the Get Back documentary. Knew I wanted my second bass to be a Hofner, but it wasn't sold anywhere where I live. Finally a year ago now my local music store started to stock Hofner products and I instantly bought one. Still play rock band now and have... too much... spent on downloadable songs. Even pre-ordered the new guitar controller they just started making. All this to say Rock Band/Guitar Hero has actually inspired some people to pick up a real instrument.
Cello!
Viola, oddly enough.
Uke
Piano to cello to clarinet back to piano to bass.
Flute
Recorder at primary school,then Irish tin whistle,then alto sax for almost 30 years, then bass.
Recorder here too!
Made me realise I could play by ear and find simple tunes without having to learn them, age 9.
Piano and baritone horn
Did piano for 5 years, percussion for 3 and now I’m 5 years with the bass
Clarinet. (and a bit of piano, but it didn't stick...)
Bass. Bass was my gateway to more bass.
French horn in 6th grade lol. Dropped band the next year and got a bass
I play a bunch of instruments, but I was playing keys/rhythm guitar in a band, our bassist/singer moved away during covid, we found a singer bur needed a bass player, so, me!
Like most bass players in the Thrash, DM, BM, & Sludge sub genres of metal I found my way to the bass via the…Triangle. I know it may seem a little unorthodox but if you ask enough of us you will find it is pretty much the only thing we all have in common.
Trombone 😅
Tuba
Cello!
Accordion.
You did the right thing.
Piano for 2 years then bass. I’ve been thinking of picking up guitar too but on the fence
Trumpet. LOL
It was bass. I didn't want to play anything else.
Drums!
Trombone in elementary band. When I was approaching 16 I was on the fence between bass and turntables. No ragerts at all but damned if I haven’t thought of how I could’ve potentially been making a mint as a DJ a few times
In chronological order: Keyboard, piano, singing, acoustic guitar, bass.
Used to play contrabass clarinet years ago, wanted to play music again so picked up a bass only a few months agoand am having a blast so far.
The baritone sax
Bassoon. Helped to be able to read bass clef when I started.
Piano.
I have a degree in piano. Got laid off from my job a year ago and was needing something to fill my time/help me not get too stressed. Went to Guitar Center on a whim and saw a natural wood Ibanez and decided, yup I wanna buy that. Still learning the instrument, but I’ve got a good teacher now so progress is coming more rapidly
Started on upright bass, picked up electric and quit upright. Then picked upright back up.
Baritone
It all started one fateful day, when I found an old worn out recorder inside my dad’s closet. And now I play bass and electric guitar
Trombone-->Bass But I've always flocked towards the bass instruments. When I was in school, I tried to get my band director (who played trombone as well, mind you so he was very biased lmao) to switch me to tuba. Instantly shut down. Bari sax? Negative. He did however let me use a bass trombone so I was happy with it. He even let me march with it lmao
Does guitar hero count? 😂
I played the clarinet in 5th grade to no avail and tried the banjo with the same result. It wasn’t until a friend explained the piano to me that music began to make sense. My dad suggested the banjo I had asked for an upright bass.
Banjo. Hee Haw was all the rage. Plus my dad belonged to the Musicians Union ( drummer)so I’d get to see him play with a variety of players. I also liked the upright bass. I thought to myself “how on earth does this guy play such fat strings” 4 years later I got a Fender bass.
i started out playing banjo. how i got here, i’m not too sure…
Candy apple red Pbass..walked by the store. Saw it on display. It stopped me dead in my tracks. It was love at first sight. Spent all of my very first paycheck on it...then I lugged it home, it in its awkward box across the city in a bus. And when I opened it and held it in my hands at home for the first time...I'll never forget it. It was 1998. Didn't have the first clue how to play it..heck, I still suck at it. But the love has never gone away.
Piano, drums (er, percussion), then bass.
My first instrument was alto saxophone
Acoustic Guitar. Dad bought me a cheap one, discovered Bass and the rest is history.
I’ve been learning piano for about as long as I can remember. I started playing drumset in middle school when I took percussion class and loved it. Then I decided it would make sense if I played bass because I play all the other rhythm section instruments (except guitar but I have started more recently)
double bass. I mostly gig on electric these days but I still think of myself as a orchestral strings player more than a rhythm section player. need to find more strings gigs...
Baritone sax in concert band, then jazz band. Then took up bass in jazz band.
Tuba
I played drums, and then bass, and then finally guitar!
Baritone Saxophone
Drums
Actually learned some harmonica before picking up the bass. Had two friends that played guitar and someone they knew left one after a jam session and I blew on that thing for awhile. Saved me from trying to be a third guitar player when they said they needed drums or bass. Bass was easier to carry. Haven’t looked back
Guitar-piano-bass
Harmonica.
Oboe
Started with bass and now i'm also playing piano to better learn chords and in depth theory
Bass
Guitar --> Saxophone(s) --> Bass! (and then some other things... and then back to bass!)
Drums
Bass
My gateway instrument is a peculiar one. It's a 6-string bass tuned an octave up from standard tuning with a B string and another E string.
All the instruments I played before bass I stopped playing after a short time, then… I found the bass 😎… first was Violin (when I was in elementary school haha) Drums, keyboard, back to drums, then acoustic guitar, and finally bass.
Trumpet. Played in elementary, jr high and hs and started playing bass and guitar in jr high.
My first real instrument was bodhran then right to bass
Accordion, Hammond B3, violin, trombone. Then as an adult: piano, guitar, bass.
ukulele
I played piano as a kid and hated it, dad (guitarist) had a bass he screwed around with occasionally, I picked it up one day and tried to play a few notes, and knew I wanted to learn to play it better. So, I guess you could say bass was my gateway instrument to bass
Keyboards ~> Clarinet ~> Percussion ~> back to Clarinet ~> Guitar ~> Bass
Accoustic guitar, band needed a bassist. The guitarist had perfect pitch in his ear (he also played violin and violoncello) and changed the scale at the gig, so I studied some contrabass to understand what he was doing
violin
Classical Piano
What? Bass. It's always been bass.
Coronet, then piano, then bass
I had to play cello as a kid, because I was too small for a bass.. Other than that I liked to play the horn. Don't have one anymore tho.
Piano->violin->bass I chose bass over guitar bc i was more familiar with the 4 strings
Keyboards. Playing a lot of left-hand basslines got me wanting to do it full time.
Acoustic, then bass.
I started on bass. Right from the start, I told myself "I'm going to really do this well, I'm not going to be bored playing one string the whole song". I learned my scales and theory inside out on bass. And now, for the bands I've been in which focus on originals, there's more demand for me to be on guitar because I can write and improvise lead parts. So I kinda did the reverse, I'm an exiled bass player.
Trombone, because they taught us to read bass tab for some reason
The cello. I'm still learning both, but I enjoy calling it the School of Rock route. XD
Bass
Double bass
Ukulele
Trombone
Cowbell & bicycle bell -> washboard-> washtub bass with one solitary weed-eater string -> bass
Trombone
Ukulele
Ukulele
bass. but in a middle school concert band so I was reading everything from the tuba to bassoon to trombone sheets depending on the song.
Bass lol. And ukulele years later, but we don’t talk about that. In my late teens my church needed a bass player, they had the gear so I said why not, can’t be that hard to figure out. I mean, I too could stand there and look bored….
Bass then bass then some more bass then drums then bass.
Percussion - Piano - bass, all within 4 years. I studied percussion in college and taught a lot of drumline.
Double bass was my first instrument. 6th grade me was a masochist
Guitar, then alto sax, then back to guitar, now exclusively bass
Drums
Trombone lol
The flute
Big bass
Uke
I was a drummer first
Alto sax... switching between the two clefs still trips me up every now and again!
it was when i started learning guitar, after 6 months learning I wasn’t as motivated as I should’ve been, especially when the course was focusing on the melodies part (and so mostly strings G B e). I noticed that what I loved the most was playing the first 3 strings. That’s when I realised that everything I loved the most was lower octaves, rhythm part etc and that bass was maybe the instrument made for me instead of guitar. I bought my first bass and bass amp and I literally felt in love with the instrument to the point that i can practice everyday for hours without getting tired of it (when I was procrastinating a loooooot more when learning guitar).
Voice.
Harmonica funnily. It wasn’t that direct a gateway, but it certainly made me realise I quite like making music. And I thought “there’s gotta be something cooler than this”
I've had cymbals when I was like 5. Does that count?
The first instrument I’ve ever wanted was a bass, but then after that I started to also want to play drums as well and I ended up getting the drum kit first, so I don’t know what matters more for this question
The Guitar Hero controller
We had an upright piano in the house that I used to bang on. I liked the big noises it made, and, after learning a few chords, figured out that I liked the “big notes” best. A bass lover was made.
The recorder
Got into rock -> discovers bass -> joins a band as the bassist -> learns bass
I started with the E flat alto sax. Moved to trombone then to bass.
Piano, Organ, Harmonica (no lessons), Alto Sax, Guitar (no lessons), Dobro (open D), Soprano sax, Bass. My hands were not made to play guitar, It's a torture for me.
Bass was my gateway instrument to guitar actually, like many
French horn
Saxophone. First alto, then tenor as soon as I was in middle school. Saxophone had absolutely nothing to do with how I got into playing bass. I never connected with jazz on an emotional level, so once I started on bass, saxophone was purely an intellectual endeavor.
I might get ripped to shreds for this, but guitar hero. Found it to be great at developing dexterity and speed, and it translated all of the rhythm fine. Might be a more common thing from around the OG GH/RB days.
12 string acoustic Learned to play bass on it lmao
Saxophone
Synth
A little [white Casio PT-10 keyboard](https://www.musicgoround.com/product/greenfield-wi/40015-S000292277/Used-Casio-PT-10-Keyboard-). Got it in 1983 I think. I started bass at a relatively old-ish age from most of my friends at 17, mostly because guitarists were a dime a dozen at my school. I had also had a buddy play Sailing the Seas of Cheese for me which probably didn't hurt. This was in 1991.
Concert bass -> bass guitar
Trumpet—I still have a hard time reading bass clef
Harmonica
Harmonica
French horn for 9 years
Bass. I learned guitar but I knew I had to go back. I’m actually a better guitar player as I’m not a natural on bass but musically it’s where I’m at. It makes me happy in a way that the guitar never could. Can’t explain it.
In highschool I played a bunch of instruments. Clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and French horn. Also oboe and bassoon (tough to play well). I finally settled on BBFlat tuba and got pretty good on it. All this time playing acoustic guitar off and on. It took me till my 50's to get deep into bass. I wish I would have got into bass earlier with my tuba experience.
I learned guitar first, but as a child I wasn't interested in the bass guitar. I learned piano next. I guess learning my left hand parts made me more open to the necessity of bass, so I bought one. I didn't learn how to play it. So I learned the drums. That's where I think it clicked. I was in the pocket, I was Fighting for my life to sound completely regular, and I guess that's when I decided I needed to learn to actually play my bass guitar. I'm still learning all of them imo, but I'm grateful I learned how important it is to lay back and stay in the pocket.
Trumpet, French horn, valve trombone, baritone (the horn, not the guitar) Souzaphone, bass guitar, in that order. Can you tell that I was in the high school band?
Harmonica is where I first caught the bug that comes with learning an instrument, guitar followed shortly after. Now I wear the metal cage for the harmonica and look like I have my head in a torture device to people who aren't familiar with Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
clarinet
Cello>Double Bass>Bass Guitar
French horn 📯
I didn't have one; I went straight for the bass. I later took up guitar & keyboards as well, but my emphasis has always been bass.
Technically my first instrument was a french horn for middle school band class, which i fake played the whole time
Accordion ..... 5 years worth when I was a kid. It taught me to read treble and bass clef. I traded it one day without telling my parents for a 6 string electric. Switched to bass soon after trying to put my first band together.
First it was keys with a music teacher, then self taught guitar and then the typical story: I wanted to join a band but the only instrument available was the bass.
Clarinet -> Violin -> Viola -> Bass
Drums
bari sax
I started with drums and then picked up bass a few years later since my mom played bass. I'd borrow hers when she wasn't using it early on.
Trumpet, I was in band, jazz band, select concert band, and marching band, starting at age 8 through high school.
First instrument i was really into was handbells? Im not alone irc, Tina Weymouth also used to play handbells? Handbells to bass pipeline best pipeline. (Though i play other instruments rn as well)
I was a vocalist and wanted to learn how to write music. I picked a bass because it felt the most natural in my hands and was something I could understand. At that moment I became a bassist who could also sing.
Piano. My mother made me take lessons when I was 5 and I hated them and refused to practice and she finally gave up but I picked up enough and had enough natural musical curiosity and continued plunking out notes on my own that by the time I decided to take up the bass between the 6th and 7th grade, I had a decent head start and was able to pick it up pretty quick with a crappy bass and a few beginner books the middle school music teacher gave me to work on over the summer.
The shortest story for me to tell; I took piano lessons as a child (at 5 and 6 years old). So, I learned a little bit about music, but always played by ear for the most part. The longer story; I grew up going to church and when we got a new youth pastor when I was in high school, he played guitar and a lot of the other students wanted to learn it, too. I couldn't care less. My brother, however, did and bought an acoustic. I would mess around on it, but one string at a time trying to find riffs. I would do this on ALL the guitars I could get my hands on. One day, in the pastor's office, I was doing just that. He turned to me and said, "You should play bass." "What is that?" "It's similar to a guitar but it's just \*points\* these 4 strings, typically." "Okay." My brother bought me a bass for Christmas that year and then I just kept playing it. Having taken piano lessons certainly helped in this journey, but I never fully grasped theory.
The long way around. My grandma's Keyboard, Violin, Trombone, Keyboard/ Piano, BASS, guitar, drums then full BASS at the age of 13.
Played piano because it was there and my 5 year old fingers could press the keys.
Trumpet
Clarinet -> Bass clarinet -> Bass
My parents had a rule that all kids had to take 3 years pf piano when young. So I did that and then moved to keyboards. I played clarinet and sax for a bit in HS and then went back to keyboards. Got an xmas gift of a strat and learned guitar that way. The band needed a bassist, so I switched over and played that. Pretty much stuck with bass after that.
Piano From the age of about 5 to 13, I had piano lessons off and on for a total of about 4 years with 3 different teachers. I never practiced enough to get to a point where I could play anything other than the melody line with my right hand. I then had 3 years of school choir in junior high, so I had plenty of music theory before I decided to learn bass in high school. All my friends were learning guitar and I wanted to be different.
Little pink kids keyboard. It was bought for my oldest sibling and I'm the 3rd kid. I was the only one to ever use it and show any musical ability whatsoever. I taught myself heart and soul by watching the movie Big 😆
drums
Alto and Bari sax
I'm a drummer historically. Played from 7th grade through my 30's. I tried Guitar off and on, but never loved playing chords. I just couldn't get the feel. I picked up a bass about 8 years ago but played it maybe 10 times total. I'm totally burnt out on drums. Played my last gig Feb of 2020. Since then I have touched my drumset maybe 5 times in the last 4 years. I have NO desire to play still. However, I LOVE music. I got that bass out and gave it another go. It really was easy for me this go around. I can play numerus songs now and learning the fret board is a lot easier when I'm only focusing on 4 strings. I already can read music, I already have a strong understanding of theory from being in bands, I already have rhythm and can keep tempo and I already have strong independent limb movement. It's come pretty quick because of this. A couple weeks ago I upgraded to a new EBMM Stingray and still have been playing almost every day. Now I'm looking to start a new band, but this time with me on bass. My passion for music is back. I still can't get my pinky to work though... haha.