This may be one of those things you think sounds fun and never do, but I have done all kind of musical this and that in my life, am not prodigiously musically talented, but am reasonably proficient, and I want to be in a band. Maybe you did this at an appropriate life stage, like college. Help me daydream about how to work toward this.
I play guitar badly. I am an ok singer in certain styles. I have the idea, perhaps wrong, that you can hide in back a little if you learn bass and are not in a fancy prog band with lots of crazy ideas.
So like...where should I start? Get a cheap bass and an amp? Youtube? Some book for beginners? Is there a good way to find other people who are just fucking around and have no grand dreams? What do you do after that?
Bonus question: I'm a short guy with I think maybe slightly small hands, like a B chord on a guitar is hard. I've seen "short scale basses." Would this help? Or are these for some specific musical purpose?