im in the jazz band at school and have found myself having alittle trouble with reading music, i can sight read and read but slowly (im slowly inproving) but i was wondering if you guys had any tips or tricks of the trade to learn to read sheet music for bass on time! i plan on majoring in jazz studies as a bassist so this is very inportant and i need to learn !

help please!

practice practice practice

it also helps if you play with a recording of the piece you're playing

D

The more you do it, the easier it gets - I promise!

I struggle reading treble clef because I rarely do.
In college, where I was reading it everyday, I got fairly fluent in treble.
But after 30 years of not reading treble I'm back to struggling.

Practice every day for at least an hour or two (four or six is better). You will improve, you just have to work at it consistently - tortoise, not hare.

http://www.berkleepress.com/catalog/product?product_id=11179&category_id=16
http://jimstinnett.com/books.html
http://garywillis.com/pages/lessons/read.html

PRACTICE!

There's no easy out to this, it takes practice. But, being in a jazz band at your school is without a doubt one of the best ways to learn. This is one skill that is best learned in the company of other musicians and not at home alone.

As far as tricks go.....
Get the downbeat of every measure ON TIME. Even if it means leaving the rest of the measure out.

Make your mistakes IN TIME. (in other words, rhythm is more important than notes) One of the clearest indications to your director that you aren't getting is playing out of time (trust me on this, I've directed school jazz bands for more than 20 years)

Every time you come across a note you don't know the name of, look it up... do your best to get it in your memory.

A huge percentage of written bass parts, at least the ones you'll encounter in school jazz bands are made of chords and scales. The more you are comfortable with how scales and chords are constructed, the easier it will be to read. BECAUSE you'll start to see patterns. On a related note, if you part doesn't have the chord symbols written on it, get with the guitar player or piano player and copy the chords above the CORRECT measure. This will all seem odd at first, but keep with it and in time it will all make sense.

Be patient with yourself, good sight reading is a process and not an event. Try to get more notes every time you play a chart.

I started sight reading a year ago and still have some challenges with it, although my reading has improved.

Here's a few things you should try to learn to do

Learn to count 8th notes (1+2+3+4+1...)

and 16th notes (1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a..)

Get the book, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." It's got tons of charts ranging from easy to hard and will turn you on to the awesomeness of James Jamerson

http://www.amazon.com/Standing-Shadows-Motown-Legendary-Jamerson/dp/0881888826/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210176112&sr=1-1

And most of all, Practice!

Like everyone is saying it take DAILY work and even after your good. SR is one of those skills that is you leave it alone your edge goes away.

My comment I've made many times here when you practice SR especially in the beginner separate it into separate skills. Seeing and knowing rhythms. Seeing and recognizing intervals, chords, and scale fragments. Knowing you fretboard well enough so you don't have to keep looking at it while reading. SR is all about learning how to See a page of music, spot beats, rhythms within beats, are the notes a scale fragment or ??? It's all about training your eyes to see dots on a page and know them the way your know these words your are reading. You see four eight notes instant know what that rhythm is, see they are on every other line so its a chord shape, oh they are up a couple frets from where I'm at now. Thru constant practice that becomes something you do in a millisecond and start looking at next notes while playing those. Look for some of my old posts on sight reading I've written up a way to practice these pieces separately then together.

Another thing I don't think I've posted before is for those playing in school bands, how to setup yourself. Now your in a situation where you need to read, follow a band leader, and see your instrument now and then. First is when band leader is in position I raise the music stand so I can see the music, but I can see the band leader just over the top of the stand. That way it's easy to not stray too far from the music to catch cues. Next I sit with the neck of my instrument angled a little forward. Again if I need to look at my neck a just a glance down and I can see the side markers on my neck and back to the music. Setting up like that my eyes don't need to stray far from the music.

Wow, some really excellent replys, especially the reply by "BassChuck," with his "tips." So the only thing I will add is this:

Sight read every single day. The more you do it the better you will get. Slow down the tempo enough so you can play what you are reading accurately, I mean VERY slow if you have to. Get a metronome and use that, becuase good time is as important as the notes. Don't look at the fretboard unless you have to. Do these things and you will be fine.

Make your mistakes IN TIME. (in other words, rhythm is more important than notes) One of the clearest indications to your director that you aren't getting is playing out of time (trust me on this, I've directed school jazz bands for more than 20 years)

Yeah this is a great tip for reading in general if you're screwing up. Screw up the notes, fine, but as long as you don't screw up the rhythms then it'll work out in the end for the stuff you'll do in jazz band.. Of course...the notes would be nice to get to.

First, there arent many great sightreaders out there, so dont get discouraged. I ready fairly well, but get tripped up also.

I generally look at a piece of music and determine my lowest and highest notes then find a position to play in that can play all or most of the notes. Sometimes, you have to reach out of position a half step. Just get back in position quick !

If I get to a difficult measure/ rythmn, I take a pencil and mark the down beats (on top of the staff paper) and I work those out first. Sometimes I just memorize it.

I take note of the chord changes, and repeats. I Know where the root notes are.

Another tip I found useful in reading is where your placing the sheet music. Most people have it in front of them. I prefer to have it to the left of me facing the top of the neck (so I can also see the fretboard ) while I am playing the notes.

Good Luck

I was never a good reader at all, but now I've all but lost that skill. I need to get off my ass and start again. Reading is a great way to become intimately familiar with your positions and frteboard.

First, there arent many great sightreaders out there, so dont get discouraged. I ready fairly well, but get tripped up also.

I generally look at a piece of music and determine my lowest and highest notes then find a position to play in that can play all or most of the notes. Sometimes, you have to reach out of position a half step. Just get back in position quick !

If I get to a difficult measure/ rythmn, I take a pencil and mark the down beats (on top of the staff paper) and I work those out first. Sometimes I just memorize it.

I take note of the chord changes, and repeats. I Know where the root notes are.



Another tip I found useful in reading is where your placing the sheet music. Most people have it in front of them. I prefer to have it to the left of me facing the top of the neck (so I can also see the fretboard ) while I am playing the notes.

Good Luck

Those are good tips Steve!

Since you are in a school ensemble, which presumably meets multiple times a week, you are already on the course to improve your sight reading. My suggestion when you are given a new chart to play is to identify all key changes, time signatures (usually consistent in jazz charts but other genres can change wildly throughout a song), repeats, codas/G.P.s/railroad tracks, and to a lesser degree dynamic markings. Preparing a quick road map like this will help you relax and interpret the notes.

Does your school have a band for classical compositions, string ensembles and such? If you have the time try to join them (some let an electric bass in as well). If not at the very least you could copy any pieces in your key. Or copy the others, such as trumpet pieces, and practice your transcribing!

I was heavily involved with music going through high school and in a youth band held at a nearby university (symphonic arrangements). And you can only keep getting better the more you do it.

I used to think my sight reading was really good then I saw how quickly some professional musicians in an orchestra could play a new sheet of music and I was blown away.

First thing i want to say thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread, i havent been checking out the general instruction forum until i got to a wall and im glad that when a question is asked here people are willing to help, thank you your advice has helped me greatly!!!