John Webb
09-30-2006, 11:55 AM
......make me forget the treble clef?
I see an A ....it's really a C.....
My brain has to work in 3 steps and my reading skills just ain't getting any better:
1. See an A.
2. Remember, no....lt's a C
3. My mind then translates it to a position on the fretboard.
markjazzbassist
09-30-2006, 01:31 PM
i know how you feel. ive been reading treble clef for 9 years and am just starting to learn bass clef. what a chore.
Eli M.
09-30-2006, 02:18 PM
This may help: think of the clefs not as separate, but together as the Grand Staff (which is what it is called in piano music). Middle C is the ledger line below treble clef and above bass clef. So one clef is a logical extension of the other.
geoffkhan
09-30-2006, 02:41 PM
The grand staff method of viewing the clefs is helpful advice.
Personally I recommend to learn to be able to read notation away from your instrument, so you're not attaching fret positions to the notes on paper, but rather a sound. When I sightread, I look at the music and hear it in my head. Then I play what I hear. This is a very accurate and fast way of sightreading, and it works well for me, not to mention then it's easy for me to read music on other instruments and sight-sing, etc.
tplyons
09-30-2006, 03:57 PM
Yep, I played sax for 6 years before switching to bass, and then played both for years.
I did the same thing you did for a long time, then one day it clicked. I was able to seperate them subconciously based on the instrument on my hand.
Then I started to play piano, then the grand staff part took effect.
Correlli
09-30-2006, 09:20 PM
May work. I gave up smoking though hypnosis.
But, I'd tend agree more with what geoff said. you can also use the recorded version for reference.
Below is a rough diagram of the grand staff in relation to the piano.
jc-bass
10-06-2006, 12:28 PM
Hey! Everyone here that reads music did overcome that, which is not a real problem...believe me!
Theres no shortcut,....:bawl:
Practice, practice, practice,....that´s the only way! With even only 5 min reading per day, you´ll be amazed where you can be in a couple of months!
There´s a total of 7 clefs (to adapt to the different instruments) which classical musicians do master! Most of us do only know F(bass) clef and G clef(treble)! But there are 5 more: C clef in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th line, and F clef in 3rd line! There was a composer named Heinrich Schütz that used F clef in 5th line, which would be like G clef but two octaves lower!! (it´s never used). Learning them too is really useful...for example: transposing!
Trust me, once you are done with one (mastering reading is an art, and a science!) switching to another won´t take you long!!
It may help if you learn a bit of piano....:eyebrow:
Did that help you??.- JC