Jazz bassist Roland Guerin began his musical sojourn on viola, switched to guitar and ended up on bass: “Guitar kind of felt natural to me. But when I felt a bass under my fingers, it felt right. The strings were all big, the tone was deep. It was something—I was like, ‘Yeah, this is it.’

“The bass is a very melodic instrument. It’s got a different voice because it’s deeper. It’s not tuned like a guitar. I actually do not like playing guitar, I would rather play a six-stringed bas...