What I do remember is that, it was near the year end and I was trying to play some notes on the church bass -the Santa Cruz 5 string bass-.
That time, I was told to stop to play the bass because I can't play it right at all! Haha! But since then, I tried hard to learn the notes on the bass.
My first learnt intsrument is acoustic guitar. At a Kids' Sunday School, my cousin taught my the A minor, C major, F major, G major in root C. Of course I don't even know the chords then. I was 10 year-old that time. Two years later, my father brought me to Kota Kinabalu (which is my first time to set foot to KK) at Victory Music at Kampung Air (The music shop is still there until now). My father bought my my first black acoustic guitar. Black? Did I said black? I should've chose the wooden-color..haha..but it's okay..I learnt some other chords from my senior and my dad also did give me a lesson for 3 chords.
However, as I grew up, I didn't have much lesson which lead me to my boredom. I don't know to play certain chords, I always hit the wrong chords and all short of mistakes. I didn't stop immediately though. In 2004, my father told me to learn to play all the instruments. So I do. I learnt to play the bass guitar. There's so many things I need to learn, even up until now. But before 2008, I've been played the bass in Youth Conference, church events and inter-church events. What I remember is that, bad bass sound doesn't bother me, yet.In the 2004-2007 period, I actually learnt to play the drum, and keyboard. As far as I remember, I started to play the drum and keyboard in late 2006. I firstly learnt G major root chords on the keyboard..until now, I think-nope-I NEED to learn some more roots.
As in 2008-2011, I grew a lot in playing the bass. I study how to set up a good bass sound, which I never satisfied until present. I learn to play some group chords, slap (well slapping hurts me the first time I tried to). But in the period of 2008-2009, I don't have my own bass. So I will borrow my friend's bass guitar (The Ibanez GIO - with hard strings!). But my life as a bassist changed forever when my dad agreed to buy me a bass guitar (I waited about 5 years) in late 2009. There, my first wooden-body Ibanez SDGR SRX355 bass guitar. I was so excited to have my first bass guitar.
Then, a sad story happened in new year 2010. When I was trying to get the bass out from it's bag, I accidentally lift it up high and......the ceiling fan hit its head! OUCH!!! I was moody, sad..I felt like..I don't know how to describe. But soon after, I develop my acceptance that what happened cannot be undo. Well, it doesn't affect my bass guitar sound anyhow. I accept it as GOD punishment because I did not say thank you to the LORD nor saying my gratitude to GOD because if not by HIS grace, I would not have my bass guitar.
2 weeks before I got my bass guitar, I was in Ladang Mills Sdn. Bhd. doing my industrial training. I fasted for two weeks and pray that I would have my very own bass guitar, and I did! Thank YOU LORD JESUS! Now, I'm happy and I learnt so many bass things since I got my own bass guitar. However, there are still too many things I need to learn. There are so many scales, chords, techniques, rigs I need to know before I could call my self, a good bassist.
That is my story of how I began to play the bass guitar. Thank You for reading.
