How to Learn to sightread

SmokeyClutch · #1 05-20-2009, 04:59 AM

Hi everyone! Just decided to (re)learn the BG and this time do it right. I played with friends in High school but we mostly messed around with tabs playing stuff like Crazy Train and Nirvana. This time i want to learn to sightread music, that is read it like i can read English.

I cant afford lessons, so please dont suggest that. I would if i could, but i can't.

Everythign i see online falls into 3 catagories

1. TAB

2. Really basic instructions on scales, chords etc. This does me no good as I already know the scales on the fretboard, im not learnign to read anythign beyond what the name of the lesson is. I have a grasp of music theory and have no lack of resources to find that sort of thing out.

3. Really hard stuff i coudlt play yet even if i could sightread it.

I feel like an illlterate person who has "Go Dog Go" and "Green Eggs and Ham," and some hard College level texts, but nothing at around a2nd or 3rd grade level.

Can anyone pont me in the right direction?

#2 05-20-2009, 05:10 AM

Have a go with a bass book on walking bass or something like that - i reckon something like Ray Brown's bass method has some good lines to learn. Or just get some bach pieces adapted for bass guitar. Lots of people swear by bach for learning to read music.

RDUB · #3 05-20-2009, 05:15 AM

+1 for the Ray Brown book. Chuck Rainey's book is one I've started a lot of students with as well. Both start out pretty simple, then get more complex as they go along.

ReBass · #4 05-20-2009, 05:15 AM

+1 to the bass book idea. Go to www.bassbooks.com and search for "sight reading." One of those should get you started.

SmokeyClutch · #5 05-20-2009, 10:57 AM

Ty for the fast responces. I have Ray brown's in a pack of files a " friends(s)" sort of "shared" with me. I'll give the exersises in the back a go and see if that helps. I just realized those don't have chord or scale names in them so figuring it out from the key signatures might help.

I also noticed it was volume 1 number 1. How high does this thing go? ( I know I know, wiki it.)

Anyway thanks again. I'll post in a few days and see where it takes me.

lowfreqman · #6 05-20-2009, 11:11 AM

You don't necessarily have to limit yourself to bass guitar literature either. Sight reading is all about being able to pick-up a piece of music and play it correctly the first time. So, exposing yourself to as many novel reading situations as you can will help you to achieve the ability to sight read.

Beyond the obvious bass guitar instructional books, look for some trombone or euphonium music. That stuff is written in concert pitch in the same range as bass. When you feel comfortable with reading that stuff, you can start working on transposing music written for instruments in different keys and in the treble clef. This can be really helpful for being able to play melodies that are not written in the bass part, but may be in an alto sax part.

Scott

BassChuck · #7 05-20-2009, 12:17 PM

There are some great suggestions here for music. But to really get the skill of reading something correctly the first time you see it, you must get with other musicians and do this.

One of the major problems students (of any age) have with reading is that few have the discipline to keep playing even if they make mistakes... it's just too tempting to 'go back' and get it right. You can't do that in a performance situation. And as long as you keep correcting mistakes like that you'll never get the flow of good sight reading. You'll always make mistakes, the goal is to make smaller and smaller mistakes and to get quicker and quicker in recovering and going on with the business of making music. A metronome is OK, but you still have to keep going.

There are some pretty good books by the Mel Bay company and Hal Leonard (heck, everything is owned by Hal Leonard now) that have CD to play along with. Try some. The Aebersold series is good too, but gear toward improve. You can still play with the CD and make the changes in time.

Good luck. You'll never be as good as you want.. but that's just the nature of the animal. Keep getting better and enjoy the journey.

paul_wolfe · #8 05-20-2009, 02:50 PM

You could also check out The Hal Leonard Bass Method (written by Ed Friedland) that's kind of OK as a primer to reading music - or the song collections that go with it which are exclusively in notation, they're called Easy Bass Lines, More Easy Bass Lines and Even More Easy Bass Lines. And there are versions of these books with CDs so that you've got backing tracks to sight read along to.

SmokeyClutch · #9 05-20-2009, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassChuck

There are some great suggestions here for music. But to really get the skill of reading something correctly the first time you see it, you must get with other musicians and do this.

One of the major problems students (of any age) have with reading is that few have the discipline to keep playing even if they make mistakes... it's just too tempting to 'go back' and get it right. You can't do that in a performance situation. And as long as you keep correcting mistakes like that you'll never get the flow of good sight reading. You'll always make mistakes, the goal is to make smaller and smaller mistakes and to get quicker and quicker in recovering and going on with the business of making music. A metronome is OK, but you still have to keep going.

This is precicely what i couldn't articulate as my problem doing it alone. I figured its easy to learn in perhapse a public school situation where everyone starts around the same level. How would one go about finding a drummer, guitarist etc. who would all be reading from the same sheet music as me? Most people either already know it or use tabs. Is this why jazz is considered so important in formal training? Are jazz musicians more likely to all read from sheet music? I know nothign about Jazz ( other than it's not my favorite.)

Well regardless I've been at the ray brown book and it's slow going. hard not to cheat when i can guess where the exercise is going.

Johnny StingRay · #10 05-20-2009, 07:03 PM

I used Carol Kaye's Reading Music instruction booklet and DVD. She does this weird thing with patting your right hand on your left knee on the downbeats and going up to hit your left hand palm on the upbeats and saying da...da...da whenever there is a note to learn rhythms. My wife thinks I'm crazy when I do that, but I'll be darned it really works and makes reading tough rhythms really easy to learn.

She shows how to mark downbeats for quarter time and eighth notes so you always know where the downbeats are and makes counting really easy......although she doesn't call it counting......she doesn't do the 1 ee and ah, 2 ee and ah stuff.

Her method is easy to learn and makes reading music actually fun.

Here is a link: http://www.carolkaye.com/catalog/pro...products_id=44

Good luck.

kingbee · #11 05-20-2009, 07:31 PM

First things first: you gotta know your scales and key signatures. It's essential that you be able to play any random note in front of you, but if you're going to sight read, it's important to relate that note to the ones before and after it. If you can look at a melody line and see it moving in 2nds and 3rds, then knowing your scales and intervals is going to help you more than knowing the names of the notes.

I taught myself to sight read music one summer in college by grabbing a bunch of scores to my favorite classical pieces and then just listening along to the different parts. Then I'd just grab a guitar and play along with one of the instruments. It was slow going at first, and I had to write the note names over the staff and sometimes just tab it out note by painstaking note. Eventually, after a few months of this, I started to internalize it.

I'm sure there are some excellent method books out there but the real solution is to practice, practice, practice!

elgecko · #12 05-20-2009, 07:41 PM

My biggest jump in sight reading ability came after spending some time in a rehearsal big band. It was mostly old, retired guys and a few college kids who got together once a week to run through charts. The leader had a gigantic book with ancient charts. Some of the them were literally marked "Fender Bass". Every single note on every single chart was notated...I guess they didn't have chords back then

Like others have alluded to, there's no getting off the bus when you're driving a big band...sink or swim...trial by fire. I stumbled a lot at first, I'd sometimes resort to doubling the 1st and 3rd notes to keep my head above water, but my reading quickly improved...it had to. I was suddenly able to look at a bar of notes and have it register as "Amin7" on the fly. That's also where I started recognizing/expecting common chord progressions. If you could find a similar situation, there's nothing better.

Stumbo · #13 05-20-2009, 07:50 PM

Check out the link in my sig. below for some useful information that may help you along the way.

Good luck.

Rudreax · #14 05-20-2009, 08:07 PM

Can you read at all, at a rudimentary level? If you can't go through all the things the above posters have mentioned.

If you can read, just find any piece of sheet music, either in a book or of the internet, and just try to play through it. Without stopping. Do that enough times and your sightreading will improve.

anon65884001 · #15 05-20-2009, 08:08 PM

Play it as it is written.

This is the easiest way to play a song, but at the same time, it is not easy at all

Playing something correct at the first attempt is extremely hard for any age groups i think, so my suggestion would be just play it, and if you mess up, it's okay. Just dont stop.

That's my suggestion

SmokeyClutch · #16 05-21-2009, 10:03 AM

Rudreax: No can't sight read at all. But once i get the hang of it i will keep that in mind

Stumbo: Awsome link collection. That notecard prgram is really i think what i was looking for to get me started. What i like about it is it tells you what note you should have picked and makes you keep going and has a time limit. Better than the bass cleff tutor at study bass.com.

Everyone else: Ty again.

Jaydin Nathan · #17 05-22-2009, 04:55 AM

I've got Reading Contemporary Electric Bass, by Richard Appleman (from Berklee Press), and I seriously recommend it. The exercises start off simple, but gradually get harder. The note choices are mostly random, and there are no chord symbols/tab, so no cheating

My reading ability has improved immensely, but sight-reading is a hard won skill. My best advice would be get a book full of music, preferably nothing to cheat with, and read EVERY DAY, so as to maintain ability.