Music has always been in my family, but it was mainly keyboards.

I learned to play classical piano, but when I first heard the amazing bass guitar of James Jamerson, who played on all the big Motown hits of the 60s and 70s, I knew bass guitar was my instrument.

The first time I played, I was about eight years old. I would stretch rubber bands across a long pole and pretend it was a bass guitar.

I got my first real bass guitar in my hands when I was 14 – a 1957 Fender Precision, which is still hanging on the wall in my front room. I loved the heaviness of it and the feel of the wood. I still do.

I taught myself to play by ear, copying bassists from other bands, sometimes practising until my fingers started to bleed.

The instrument came quite naturally to me as I've always been a very percussive kind of musician – and by 18 I was really, really good.

The golden rule for playing the bass is that's it all about feel, not just plonking away. You need to feel the sound, not using a pick or a plectrum – which has meant plenty of calluses on my fingers.

As James Jamerson always said, it's not what you play, but what you don't play, that counts.

Age isn't a barrier to playing the bass and I've definitely improved over the years, although maybe I'm not as flash as I once was. But looking back, I can't imagine a life without a guitar.

It's been my road to freedom – sexual and otherwise – and my advice to anyone considering taking it up is: learn it properly, play at every opportunity, embrace it, love it, and don't give up.

For Suzi's forthcoming tour dates visit suziquatro.com