How to learn to play music you read?

[domportera]

I'm a very slow music reader and even slower at finding the notes on my bass, and I want desperately to be able to read and play to the point where it's second nature. I bought a book that is all about music theory with the bass, but it requires being able to read music and play it already, and I really need to get to that point.

Does anyone have any pointers as to how I should go about learning? What did you do? (note: a teacher is not an option)

EDIT: yes I use tabs constantly, but I want to get out of that habit.

[madurolover]

Do you know how to read tabs? Its a good way to start. You may want to convert the bass clef music to tabs for a start and you will pick up on it faster as you do it. Personally I don't copy very much from the original except basslines that are key to the song. I create my own from the chords in the songs and how the guitarist plays it alongs along with the rythem the drummer and I work up. In most cases it is very close. There isn't a real need to copy perfectly unless maybe your a classical musician.

[WilliamSandoval]

Learn the notes on the bass first. Most importantly 1st-9th fret on every string. After the 12th fret, it repeats since the 12th fret is an octave higher than the open string it's played on. The notes are the same two strings over, and two frets down. So if I played a G on the 3rd fret of the E string, the 5th fret of the D string would be the same note.

That's my input.

[domportera]

yes I use tabs constantly, but I want to get out of that habit. I'll give that a shot, sounds like that'll help me learn the clef and read that better, but then its a matter of translating that to the fretboard. I want to learn how to write music and learn scales and chords and such, it's a necessary skill for those things. I write music and have no way to show it without recording it with probably the worst recording equipment available, so I want to write.

[groooooove]

practice..

do it everyday. your already ahead of the game- you're motivated to learn it, witch is more than i see from most students.

literally; just read a piece of music every day. its okay if you have to "sound it out" and take it super slow, one bar at a time. its okay if its only 8 bars of a melody. just make sure you read something new every day.

[domportera]

thanks guys, I'm gonna try all of that. I figure doing all of it every day can get me to learn it pretty quick, hopefully itll become reflex. Then I'm gonna see if I can start writing down the songs I wrote... wish me luck!

[WilliamSandoval]

Learning the notes of the frets are actually really easy to remember, you just have to go over them in your head. Repetition is key.

[manbearpig97]

I faced the same problem with locating notes and reading them. What you should do is find a piece of written music, not tabs, for any song. For every note you see, copy them on a separate sheet of paper. Under that note, write out what note it is (B, B flat, F, G etc) and the frets they can be played on. With this method, I got a fairly good grasp on the notes in about a wee or two. Hope this helps!

[madurolover]

You may want to transcribe your music to tab first as practice and as a way to capture it. A trick is to play it on a midi keyboard and use a notation converter. It will also help you learn.

[Stumbo]

Here are a few links you may want to check out:
TalkBass
Beginner's Bass Clef tips
1 Learning
2
Improving
Practicing
Sight reading source material

On-Line
Online fretboard/SN trainer
Fretboard note trainer online
"Name that note" online SN game
Free bass clef sheet music
Downloadable read "bass clef" software
Online bass clef audio/visual trainer
print bass clef flashcards/staff paper
Intro to transcribing

{url=www.studybass.com/lessons/reading-music/bass-clef-fretboard-notes/bass-clef-notes-fretboard.pdf}Note: paste web address to your search bar to Download this cool doc: bass clef to fretboard translation.

[musomark]

Another site for learning the fretboard:

Fretboard Identification

[Billnc]

Forget the tabs, they will not help you.
I would only mark the occasional position shift or fingering alteration. Tabs or excessive markings will have you looking at the markings.
I will never buy anything if it has tabs.
I buy trombone etudes to keep the reading chops up, and no tabs. There are some bass transcriptions with no tabs, rare but when you see them buy it.
There are always naysayers on the reading thing. READING GIGS PAY WELL! Forget the naysayers on never having to read, true you don't have to read, but reading gigs pay well.
When encountering lots of funky 16ths it can be good to think of 16ths as 8th notes for counting.

[AFRO]

Originally Posted by domportera

I'm a very slow music reader and even slower at finding the notes on my bass, and I want desperately to be able to read and play to the point where it's second nature. I bought a book that is all about music theory with the bass, but it requires being able to read music and play it already, and I really need to get to that point.

Does anyone have any pointers as to how I should go about learning? What did you do? (note: a teacher is not an option)

EDIT: yes I use tabs constantly, but I want to get out of that habit.

off topic.

LOL!! a teacher is AWLAYS an option. see if someone can give you FREE lessons, (church musician maybe?) You tube, music store worker, DVD series, Books..etc..the more you look, the greater the increase in the chances of what you seek will come to fruition.

on topic. Nothing Wrong with slow my man.

First/ I would suggest you make a diagram (or find one) of the Fretboard, include enharmonics; or make two.. a "sharps" chart, and a "flats" chart (as I did).

This will help you to see which notes are where on the fretboard when not playing necessarliy. or can give you a quick guide for when you wanna look to re assure where you think your at. also see relationships of notes.

2/ Learn to construct the Diatonic Major scale. learn to play it every key. (search for circle of fifths topics) when you play scales, "Say and Play", or -sing & play- them, note by note. asending and desending. you should eventually know which note comes next going up or down..work your way to playing them over two octaves. search up on these forums and look for the different approaches to playing scales (Packman has a sticky in the technique section; and Scott Devine has some good resources and vids) later, you will need Learn to construct the Natural Minor scale (again, to be able to play in all keys, and all over the neck of the fretboard) work daily on fretboard knowledge to then use when playing written music scores.

Get to know your "Key Signatures"

3/ since you have a book, work a little every day. this way you will start to recognize (visually and audiblty) which tones go with which strings..which fingers need to play which notes...The easiest way to do this is to start at the begining of that book and go as SLOW as you can tolerate.. like 40BPM for quarter note..one exercise/page at a time. then review them many times a week. when you can get them at turtle speed, turn the BPMs up a tad and go for 45BPMs till you get comfortable there.. increase as your see progress...

fight the urge to move ahead of what you can actually do. (I struggled with this part, but found, in the end rushing will only send you back to something you should have taken your time to learn. many folks will agree with this, but if you are like me, you will find out the hard way by yourself)

4/ make sure to stretch your muscles/tendons in your fingers and wrists. do warm up exercises every day you play.. aka scales and find exercises that strengthen your hands conducive to playing bass.. again you can search, I think Fergie Fulton and Chris K (I think) have much to say in regards to good playing technique.

make sure you get or have a metronome to use!

final thoughts.

the book should touch on fingering positions and things like rhythm, melody and harmony.
take your time with these things and ask questions when you get stuck. Studying notation will increase your musical vocabulary! which in the end will be beneficial to you and others.

But Remember this, its not like a bike, if you take a few days off it will show. if you take months off it will be harder get back to where you were.

Try to maintain the drive to look at something every day. Even if you dont practice it. or even if its the SAME thing, or if its WAYYYYYY over your head. just do it...every day.

The more you look at pices and practice them the more its starts to stick.. "Oh that note is a low G on the 'E-string' and this higher one is the 'open-G-string' (or the 5th fret of the 'D-string') kind of thing... this is all 8th notes, that is a half rest...Coda, dynamics, repeats..the like.
you may eventually want to find things in the Treble clef too. its a little different but based on the same set of notes, rhythms and such..

you will soon finda a balance of hearing and seeing what you need to play..eventually your fingers get condititioned to go up and down the fretboard when your eyes see the notation do the same. if its slow, who cares? you are at the begining, its going to be rough and will sound raw or even wrong. but keep pushing thrugh. it is the most important thing you can do to make progress. keep at it.
Practice is the key, and the key to practice is the doing part.
make time for it.
now I will shut up, maybe too much caffieeeeen today

[dave64o]

Originally Posted by Billnc

... Tabs or excessive markings will have you looking at the markings.
I will never buy anything if it has tabs.

I've always wanted to read but I found that most books have tab as well as standard notation. For me anyway, I always fell back into looking at the tab rather than the notation because it was "easier". As a result, I just never learned to read.

Once I told my instructor I don't want to use any book that has tab in it, my reading immediately started to improve. At the stage I'm at right now no one would ever call me to take a reading gig, but I *am* far better at it now than I was a few months ago. The most important thing I've learned is that the secret is ..... are you ready for it ..... that there is no secret! Working at it, whether it's sight reading or any other skill, is simply the only way to get better.

Having said the obvious, here are some things that either I discovered or my instructor suggested that seem to be helping me:

1) Do a quick scan of the piece to see what the lowest note is and the highest note. That might help you figure out what position to start in.

2) If there's a wide range (lots of ledger lines above and/or below the staff ), see if you can find sections that kind of contain a certain range of notes. That might help figure out what position to play those sections in.

3) For a given piece try working out a fingering that uses an open string every place those notes show up. Note where the difficult spots are.

4) Reverse that exercise and try playing that same piece without using ANY open strings at all. Again, note where the difficult spot are.

5) Try playing that same piece with at least one other fingering that tries to maximize the use of the easy a spots and minimize the use of the difficult spots of the fingerings you worked out previously.

6) I only have five string basses, but I also try playing assignments as if I was playing them on a four string (i.e. don't take advantage of the positional options the B string gives me).

7) Reverse that exercise and see if I can work out a fingering that enables me to make the most use of the B string to try to minimize, or even eliminate, position shifts.

8) Play as slowly as I need to to play the notes correctly. No sense playing too fast to actually learn the piece.

9) Occasionally ignore #8 and try playing the piece at speed. My instructor always laughs at me because I think too much about the options I have (I have an engineering background, it's my curse. ). So when I'm stuck at some point he now tells me to stop, counts off a faster tempo, and tells me to start over at that tempo. Without the time to think about what I'm doing, I almost always play it much better. So now when I'm practicing on my own, I do this once in a while and it's amazing how much it can sometimes help when I'm stuck on a given passage.

10) When jamming, force myself to focus on NOT playing box patterns. Instead, focus on the notes in the next chord and try playing them from the position I'm currently in. Without relying on the box, I'm forcing myself to use all of the above in a new way - i.e. when I don't have sheet music in front of me.


Note that in some way all of them have some relationship to fingering. For me personally, that's the biggest problem. I can read the notes at this point, but knowing that I can almost always play the next note on the same string I'm on now, on the string above, or the string below, and also that I can play the next note with any of four fingers, it's easy to be like a dear in headlights and just be frozen with too many choices. But trying multiple approaches with my assignments is helping me learn all parts of the fretboard and the more I do that the better I seem to get at setting up my fretting hand to be in the right spot to handle the passages that are coming up. For me at least, that seems the key to playing smoothly and confidently.

Originally Posted by AFRO

...
But Remember this, its not like a bike, if you take a few days off it will show. if you take months off it will be harder get back to where you were.
...

That's a great quote. I have to remember to use that one on my son!

[GeoffT]

The best method I know of for learning notes on the fretboard to get started reading is to learn all the natural notes (no sharps or flats) in first position (first 4 frets). E-F-G, A-B-C, D-E-F, G-A-B. If you don't already know them, you can figure them out just by knowing that there is a whole step (2 frets) between each one except for B-C and E-F which is a half step (one fret).

Play the notes and say the name out loud when you play them. Don't say the names in your head, say them out loud. Do it in time and start slowly. E-F-G, A-B-C, D-E-F, G-A-B, then back down the strings, G-A-B, D-E-F, A-B-C, E-F-G. Then mix up the order of the strings, E to D to A to G and back, then E to G to A to D and back. Speed up a little as you get better at it. Do this 5-10 min a day and you will know them pretty well within a week or so. By default you can now locate ALL the notes in the first 4 frets since the sharps and flats are the notes you didn't play and are simply either 1 fret above (sharps) or 1 fret below (flats) the natural notes you learned.

You now also have a solid basis for every note on the entire fretboard since the relationships between the notes you learned can be repeated at the 5th, 7th, and 12th frets. At the 5th fret you have A, D, G, and C going down the strings, you already know the 75% of the notes there since you practiced A, D, and G in first position. Same with 7th fret, going down the strings you have B, E, A, D and you already know E, A, D. 12th fret is same as open strings, 17th fret is same as 5th, 19th is the same as 7th.

There are many other ways of really learning and mastering the notes on the fretboard but for the purpose of being able to quickly locate the notes to facilitate reading, I find this to be relatively fast and effective.

[Telenic]

You absolutely must ditch the tabs. If you are peeking at the tabs there is no way you are going to learn to read. When I started I taped over the tab so I couldn't see it.

Otherwise it is a long haul and requires a lot of practice to get it. But once it starts to gel in your head it gets easier quickly.

Tip: Say each note out loud as you play it.

TIp 2: take a two or three measure passage and play it everywhere on the fingerboard you can. Ex., if the passage starts in D play it in the open position and then move up to the fifth fret and figure out all the notes in that area and play it.