Related to: "Can You Read Music?" Poll

[incident]

Sorry to start a new thread, but I didn't want to hijack the poll.

I am curious to know what those of you who do not read music do? Tab, ear, etc.?

[steddy2112]

Mostly ear, difficult passages that have me stumped, tab.

[seanm]

Learn by ear, write it out in tabish format.

I actually can read music... but mainly treble clef. I cannot read music for bass well enough to read and play at the same time.

[deepBassie]

I haven't read music since high school 1985. Been playing by ear ever since. But playing rock n' roll is easy enough to do by ear. Maybe not so easy with other types of music/situations. Being able to read music is great and something that everyone can learn with a little time invested. However, IMO, being able to use your ear is so much more valuable because:

(1) You will be able to handle most situations in real-time.
(2) Not all ears are created equally. Some peeps never "get it". Good ear = priceless.
(3) No music stands a/o staring at sheets/books while performing.

[Winnb]

Ear.

[KingRazor]

If there are tabs for it, I use them.

If not, I look to see if there's chord charts for it.

If not, then I'm out of luck. I can't play a song completely by ear.

[fdeck]

When I'm not reading, I'm playing by ear. Playing along to records and the radio was great ear training.

Between reading and ear, I've never found a use for tab.

[bassbully]

Simple, ear and knowing the chord progressions of the song aka a chord chart.Its all I will ever need and what 100% of the guys I play with who can read use anyhow.

[zachoff]

Ear and sight (watching the guitar player), mostly. I don't play covers so tab is generally pretty worthless.

[jmattbassplaya]

I can read, but since there's usually no sheet music for pop songs I'll often resort to tabs. It's not that my ear is bad - it's just bad at comprehending bass notes in modern day music. I can pick apart guitar solos with little difficulty, but I'll be damned if I can hear a bass clearly on a lot of modern recordings. It sucks since bass is my main instrument

[James Judson]

A healthy dose of all of it is best. I learned a lot of tunes using 5 line staff but never use it on stage. Charts go on stage with me. Nothing looks more unprofessional than "how does this song go?" "what key is it in?" etc. Only musicians think a music stand on stage is unprofessional. I've shared the stage with many national acts without anyone asking about my stand. Hell, Sir Paul uses a teleprompter, as does Shania Twain and many others. Ask Moody Blues, there would be about sixty musicians without a clue if the rule was "no music stands". If there is a passage that I need to get "RIGHT", sometimes I'll write it out in tab. Tab can also be valuable tool learning stuff quickly that might take years to "figure out". Learning to read fingers (guitar or keyboard) is invaluable. At the absolute top of the list is ear training. Its important to me to be spot on so a stand will follow me to any gig. At a glance I can see where I f**ked up the last time plus it tickles my little pea brain for words, chords, intros, keys, bridges etc. How many folks here come prepared to play thousands of songs. Nobodies brain is big enough to do that.

[nysbob]

I can read charts. Between that and my ear, everything's been good so far.

Tab is an utter mystery to me.

[Bassguy87564]

I can read what ever type of music you throw in front of me (maybe a little long on some clefs) but I try not to do tabs online cause most of them are really wrong but some times I use them as a guide line but any transcription I am doing I do by ear. I am trying to learn some jazz charts by ear they can be hard with some of the voicing they play but I am working on hearing them now.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

I can read, but since there's usually no sheet music for pop songs I'll often resort to tabs. It's not that my ear is bad - it's just bad at comprehending bass notes in modern day music. I can pick apart guitar solos with little difficulty, but I'll be damned if I can hear a bass clearly on a lot of modern recordings. It sucks since bass is my main instrument

If *I* can't pick out the bass line with bass boost and other tricks, then the average audience member can't pick out the bass line. This means I can play whatever I want since nobody can correct me. This assumes the actual bass player for the song isn't in the crowd

[KingRazor]

Originally Posted by seanm

If *I* can't pick out the bass line with bass boost and other tricks, then the average audience member can't pick out the bass line. This means I can play whatever I want since nobody can correct me. This assumes the actual bass player for the song isn't in the crowd

Yeah, it really irritates me when I can't hear the bass despite boosting it. Makes it hard to learn songs.

[hrodbert696]

Originally Posted by steddy2112

Mostly ear, difficult passages that have me stumped, tab.

Originally Posted by bassbully

Simple, ear and knowing the chord progressions of the song aka a chord chart.Its all I will ever need and what 100% of the guys I play with who can read use anyhow.

These, pretty much. I can read but originally learned on treble clef and reading bass parts is still slow and laborious for me. When I first took up bass again I got piles of tabs off the internet and labored through them. Now I first try to work it out by ear, go looking for chord progressions if I can't figure them out on my own, and resort to a tab if there's a particular bit I can't quite iron out.

[Rob22315]

I'll do the best I can with whatever is on hand. I usually get chords with the occasional bass note tacked on. Sometimes I'll listen to the original band's bass lines on youtube to get some ideas if they're available. Otherwise, I'll try to feel out the rhythm and use whatever mode the song seems to use.

I use standard treble/bass clef music and tabs as well.

Absent some form of written guide - I am a little slower by ear but can get clues by watching the guitarist carefully to see what chords he's playing. It helps if I ask what key it's in before we start.

[shadow_FIX]

I can read music, but if I don't have music or a chart to look at (this happens quite frequently), I use my ear. Sometimes I will glance at a tab to gather my bearings on the general idea of the song, but I find too many mistakes in most tabs to rely on them completely.

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by James Judson

A healthy dose of all of it is best. I learned a lot of tunes using 5 line staff but never use it on stage. Charts go on stage with me. Nothing looks more unprofessional than "how does this song go?" "what key is it in?" etc. Only musicians think a music stand on stage is unprofessional. I've shared the stage with many national acts without anyone asking about my stand. Hell, Sir Paul uses a teleprompter, as does Shania Twain and many others. Ask Moody Blues, there would be about sixty musicians without a clue if the rule was "no music stands". If there is a passage that I need to get "RIGHT", sometimes I'll write it out in tab. Tab can also be valuable tool learning stuff quickly that might take years to "figure out". Learning to read fingers (guitar or keyboard) is invaluable. At the absolute top of the list is ear training. Its important to me to be spot on so a stand will follow me to any gig. At a glance I can see where I f**ked up the last time plus it tickles my little pea brain for words, chords, intros, keys, bridges etc. How many folks here come prepared to play thousands of songs. Nobodies brain is big enough to do that.

Well said, James. I agree, especially about the music stand.

[Nomadskills]

I use Tab, youtube, and some ear if the Tabs don't sound right.