At first, I got to learn the sound of the bass from the different styles and rhythms from the organ that I was playing – a Yamaha Electone Mate. This introduced me to the sound and it’s role in the overall piece of music. I first played bass not on an electric bass but on the organ. It had foot pedals for bass and I played bass with my left foot!
Then during school times, we were learning covers and quite often I had to sort out the notes for the others. Even then, I did not play bass. I was playing keyboards. Bass then was generally a minimal affair, with the root, third, fifth and the seventh at most. So, when someone was absent, I would take the bass and play bass lines.
Then one day, I got a call from a friend to play bass for a gig at a curcumcission ceremony. It seemed that there was some problems in the line up and I was to play bass! With some skepticism, I went for it. Of course I had to learn the repertoire with a new instrument and parts – bass lines. We practiced for a day and I had bad blisters on my fingers. The gig was that night.