Recently, I’ve been working back through the book that started my bass playing and posting my reflections on the forums of the Scotts Bass Lessons site. However, I don’t think you can get to the content unless you are a member of the site so, for the next few days, I’m going to reproduce the posts here.

Towards the end of 1986, I was in my mid-teens and just getting started on studying for the newly-minted GCSE exams. Music wasn’t one of the subjects I’d taken up and, although I was a fan of hard rock and heavy metal, my playing career had ended half a lifetime ago when, aged about 7, I’d tripped up on my way to school and broken my plastic recorder.

Just starting on a new period of study doesn’t sound like a sensible time to take up a new, highly-involved hobby! Possibly I was influenced by the fact my best friend (same school year) had started piano lessons at the start of term but I can pin down the catalyst point. My family had popped into a music shop in Gravesend, UK, a town we often visited for its markets and fishmongers. My youngest brother had been learning violin for a little while and needed some new strings. A lifelong bibliophile, I occupied myself by flicking through the bargain book section where I found Bass Guitar by Jim Gregory and Harvey Vinson (Amsco Publications, 1983).

Didn’t my Dad have a bass guitar? Yes, he did (a 1960s Hohner 500/3). If I bought the book with my saved pocket money, would he be happy for me to use it? Yes, he would. I’ve got a vague memory that it was marked down to £3, the best part of a month’s “income” but, even if it cost more, that was probably the single best investment I’ve ever made.

My plan is to dig back into this book, which I’ve still got. What did I learn from it? Did I make it all the way to the end? Would I recommend it to a beginner today? Almost 40 years on, it is time to find out!