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Just because I thought I should learn to play an instrument, I took up bass.

Why bass and not guitar?

First of all, bass is usually what I pay the most attention to in any given piece of music.  However, I didn't seriously consider playing bass because I thought it was just plucking one string for the entire song.  (Total musical ignoramus until I started this.)

Secondly, I saw a video on You Tube called Reg Kehoe and His Marimba Queens.  It's from the 40s.  About halfway through it, the bass player comes to the front and starts completely rocking out, headbanging and everything.  It's awesome.  That bassist's name was Frank DeNunzio.

From there, I searched other bass solos and came across some pretty awesome stuff from Cliff Burton, Les Claypool, Gene Simmons, Victor Wooten, Flea, etc.  I learned from those videos that bass is every bit as complicated and technical as regular guitar and it can be just as badass.

So, I've been practicing for several months and I'm up to three strings and the first four frets.  Nothing spectacular yet but I can manage to play some basslines that sound like actual music and my hands work a lot better than they used to.  I can read music, can solo a little bit (my friends say it sounds more jazzy than rock), and I've even written a simple piece that sounds decent.

I've jammed with a friend on the ukulele.  Bass/ukulele is an ... interesting combination.

I'm proud of myself and it's very rewarding.

Do any of you play instruments?

I play euphonium (played that in the band through jr. high, high school and college and recently bought one and have played at the local Tuba Christmas the last couple of years). Knowing that instrument, I can also play most brass instruments, though I can only read bass clef on it. Also, I don't have the lip for the higher instruments like trumpet, so my range is severely limited on them.

I also play (very amateurishly) a little piano. I'm better on guitar and have written several songs--I'm learning some recording software now so I can save them for posterity and become a megamillionaire selling them online  :tongueout:. I taught myself a little bass years ago, and I still have my bass, but I never learned anything beyond some basic one-string patterns. I learned the basics of drumming years ago also, and I do have pretty good natural rhythm (though I can't dance at all), but I've never practiced that enough to say I can play drums.

I've played guitar for about 23 years now, used to be in a band for quite a few years.  Those were the days  :cheers:  Haven't really been practicing much lately, too many hobbies, too many kids.  I'll go through periods where I practice all the time, then I won't touch the thing for a while.  I'm mostly into heavy metal, through I'm almost as interested in blues.  Depends on what mood I'm in.  I was working on Troy Stetina's instructional series for metal and John Ganapes series for Blues, love that stuff.  I used to have a made-in-Mexico Fender P bass, but sold it because I never played it.  Wish I still had it for home recording.  I've got an American Strat that I bought back in the mid '80s, mostly use that for blues, just had it re-fretted last year.  Also an Ibanez guitar for my heavy metal stuff (two humbuckers, tremolo, 24 frets, neck-thru-body).  One of these days I'll have to figure out how to upload my music to the net, but I've been saying that for about 10 years now.  :lookingup: