What other instrument would you play?
for me it would be the drums.... when I was 10 my parents suggested I learn the cello - which I did for 6 years along with the clarinet, but when I was 13 I met a boy at my high school who played the drums and that was it...
I remember going home from school that day and saying to my parents at dinner time "I'm gonna learn to play the drums"! - my dad replied "not in this house you're not"! and that was it - my dreams of becoming the next Keith Moon or John Bonham were quickly extinguished.
my friend at school sat me at the drums one day and said your right hand goes here, left hand here and you use your feet to control the kick drum and hi-hats... and it just somehow came naturally to me and I found I could play the drums, but I knew my dad and no actually meant no.... so when I was 15 I picked up the only bass at school (it was right handed and I'm a leftie) and because I could read music I just figured out the notes and began to teach myself to play right handed.
I got my first bass when I was 17/18 and began to leach myself to play U2 songs (this was the 1980's) but when I tried to learn other songs I found it difficult - then I learnt that U2 had 'tuned down' a half step on their first 3-4 albums and I had tuned my bass to the key of U2's first albums!
anyway I've been playing bass ever since and when I was about 22 my originals band broke up and I realised my dreams of playing at Wembley or Madison Square garden had all but diminished and I needed the day job to pay for rent / food..etc... I then joined my first covers band - we got paid 2 pizza's and a bottle of Jim Beam for our first gig and got paid $25 each for our next gig - I thought I had got it made!
I still play the drums if any of the drummers I play with will let me jump on their kit for a bit and I've always said to my wife that if we win the lottery I'll buy a big house in the countryside and buy a kick ass drum kit - like Alex Van Halen uses on the video for 'Jump'.
So if you weren't a bass player - what instrument would you play instead?
for me it would be the drums.... when I was 10 my parents suggested I learn the cello - which I did for 6 years along with the clarinet, but when I was 13 I met a boy at my high school who played the drums and that was it...
I remember going home from school that day and saying to my parents at dinner time "I'm gonna learn to play the drums"! - my dad replied "not in this house you're not"! and that was it - my dreams of becoming the next Keith Moon or John Bonham were quickly extinguished.
my friend at school sat me at the drums one day and said your right hand goes here, left hand here and you use your feet to control the kick drum and hi-hats... and it just somehow came naturally to me and I found I could play the drums, but I knew my dad and no actually meant no.... so when I was 15 I picked up the only bass at school (it was right handed and I'm a leftie) and because I could read music I just figured out the notes and began to teach myself to play right handed.
I got my first bass when I was 17/18 and began to leach myself to play U2 songs (this was the 1980's) but when I tried to learn other songs I found it difficult - then I learnt that U2 had 'tuned down' a half step on their first 3-4 albums and I had tuned my bass to the key of U2's first albums!
anyway I've been playing bass ever since and when I was about 22 my originals band broke up and I realised my dreams of playing at Wembley or Madison Square garden had all but diminished and I needed the day job to pay for rent / food..etc... I then joined my first covers band - we got paid 2 pizza's and a bottle of Jim Beam for our first gig and got paid $25 each for our next gig - I thought I had got it made!
I still play the drums if any of the drummers I play with will let me jump on their kit for a bit and I've always said to my wife that if we win the lottery I'll buy a big house in the countryside and buy a kick ass drum kit - like Alex Van Halen uses on the video for 'Jump'.
So if you weren't a bass player - what instrument would you play instead?
