How do I overcome my shyness (playing guitar)?
I feel you...back then my friends were already shredders and I could play just not at their level....so I felt like sh!t...as if I couldn't play at all....I overcame it by admitting that I wasn't that good but very capable....you never know, those guys probably love your music too
Which should I learn first? Bass Guitar or Trumpet?
I agree with the answers which implore you to start on guitar or piano first. Guitar is easy to learn, easy to carry and inexpensive to buy in the beginning! Then just about anything but piano would easy. But your question narrows things down to bass and trumpet. Now if you really want to learn either instrument, you need to learn how to read music. It doesn't matter which instrument you learn first, if you want to be good at it, and play with others, you must learn to read music! Bass guitar is definitely a group instrument. Even Wynton Marsalis only plays a few trumpet solos! (I played percussion with his father Ellis way back when.) Now to answer your question, I played both of these instruments easily, early on, but I started on piano. I love bass guitar and trumpet. But the trumpet is so easy to carry around when you are not playing and is (unless muted) loud enough to carry over all but the loudest of bands without amplification. If you are playing large enough arenas that the trumpet needs to be amplified, you will have a sound man to take care of it for you! The bass always needs to be amplified and is not so easy to carry around. Sometimes I like to play in he rhythm section (bass) and sometimes I like to take the lead (trumpet). Where do you feel like starting off? In a supporting (bass) role, or in a front man (trumpet) mode? Those are the questions you must answer. Each of these two instruments have their challenges and their easy points. But each of them must be practiced faithfully with written music. I still like them both. But at home, I play the bass more because I don't have to lug the equipment around!