 Feeling that he lacked a technical understanding of music, Ind took evening classes in piano and classical harmony at London's Trinity College of Music in the period 1944–46.He transitioned to playing the bass because he liked its sound and thought that his piano technique was limited.He had bass lessons from 1947 with Tim Bell, who "introduced me to what was then a revolutionary method of bass fingering, in which all four fingers of the left hand are used – playing semitone intervals", and later with James Merrett.