I need to learn to read music. Since I have some spare time right now (off work for a few weeks) I thought that I would get a good start on it.

I have heard that in the gigging world you typically run into treble clef music much more than bass clef. I'm not talking about classical music scores but mostly jazz.

What do you guys think?

Or should I learn both?

:D

Joe.

i say learn both. since you never really know which of the two you will get handed you might as well.

Both.

Definitely both. That way if you wanna play piano or something later on all you gotta learn is fingering.

Bit of a dumb question...

Obviously its BEST to know treble, bass, tenor, alto, grand and any other clef that gets thrown at you!

In practice most people learn treble first on an instrument other than bass, and add bass clef later.

If I was learning from scratch I'd just work on bass clef till it was good, and add treble later. Trying to learn both at the same time is just going to be a mess. DO NOT TRY AND LEARN BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.


The other clefs crop up occasionally, but are pretty rare.

Also watch out if you're reading treble - a lot of instruments transpose when written in treble but not in bass. That is when a brass part is written in treble clef and they write a C they actually mean a Bb (or Eb), but if they write for brass in bass cleff a C means a C...

Ian

Definitely Learn Both. For jazz gigs and any other gig where you'll just be reading a chart, the Melody will usually be in treble clef. Learning the melody helps to realize what to play and getthe feel down, but ears help with that too.

Bass clef. Most music for bass should be in bass clef right? Well in my experience it is. Just get bass down solid for now then move to treble.

I would say learn bass clef first because that is your instrument, then learn treble clef.

both, maybe start with bass clef, and it is gonna take you a lto longer than a few weeks to get fluent.

good luck


Dave

A bass player only really needs to know bass. A musician should know both. Which one are you?

CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY!!!

Be warned... there are many, many, many more clefs then just Bass and Treble... ;)

I have personally only seen Alto clef used - but there are lots of other clefs

G-Clefs: Treble, octave-treble, double-treble, etc...
F-Clefs: Bass, Baritone, sub-bass
C-Clefs: Baritone C, Tenor, Alto, Mezzo-soprano, & soprano

As I understand it, the 'note' designation of the clef identifies what staff line bears that name. You will see that in treble (G) clef, the sign circles the 'G' line of the staff. In Bass (F) clef the dots surround the 'F' line of the staff. So where you see portion of the signs in these clefs that seem to 'grab' a staff line, you know what note that staff line represents based on what note name that clef has.

http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/clefs/clefs.html

I voted both, but start with bass in my view if that is the instrument you are trying to master, and then do like tZer said and learn them all. Fact is, the big hurdle is learning just one of them, the rest fall right into place as it's just minor changes.

I have a clef on my chin!

haw

Peace
jpw

I have found that in my experience in lead sheets and jazz situations, most horns learn to transpose from treble clef as well.

I have a clef on my chin!

haw

Peace
jpw

F, C, or G?

tZer, great link!!!!!!!!1

Wow!

So far the votes are overwhelmingly for both.

To address a few things :)

1. I know it will take a very long time to get good at reading. But I wanted to get a decent jump on it now.

2. I knew there were more clefs, but honestly I didn't realized how many more! Do bassists really need to worry about anything other than Bass and Treble clef?

3. Yes, I consider myself a musician who's primary instrument is the bass. ;)

Thanks for all the responses so far. This has been interesting and educational for me so far.

:D

Joe.

I've never been handed a lead sheet in bass cleff.....

I've never been handed a lead sheet in bass cleff.....

if you're handed a lead sheet then you can just go off the chord charts. i can't remember the last time i saw a lead sheet with notated bass lines. but it probably happens somewhere to someone, thats why its a good idea to learn both.

i can tell from my experience at church that not all music is written in the form of a lead sheet. a lot of the classic stuff is written in your everyday standard notation meant for piano. in this case, the bass clef is the clef which the bass player should follow,as the treble clef tends to be harmonies and melodies for the singers.

Learn both. You really are very unlikely ever to have to deal with alto clef, tenor clef, baritone clef, or any of the others. But you will see a lot of bass clef and a lot of treble clef.

Learn bass first since it's your clef. Then you'll be able to learn treble and other pretty easily.

I voted treble clef cause most sheet music is written in that. In my experience its pretty rare to get someone handing you bass cleff stuff to play at a gig. Everyone else pretty much reads treble clef, so that's what everyone else has, and you'll get handed a xerox of what they have, treble clef. If you're going to share lead sheets, or get copies of others sheets, they'll be in treble clef. Bb horns like trumpet typically learn to transpose from Treble clef on the fly. See a C, play a D, etc.

Once you read treble clef well, its not so hard to transpose bass clef to treble for the few times you get bass clef material.

I would expect it would be completely different in the classical world, and bass clef music for bassists would be considerably more common.

Randy

I am surprised by some of the replies. I assumed bass players would be given material in the bass clef.Silly me.

What would you be given in a standard chord chart (if there is such a thing as a standard)? I assume a lead sheet just gives the melody with the chords above ala piano music?