Reading

latkingz781 · #1 05-14-2008, 08:55 PM

Hi,
I have been playing for well over a year now, and I now want to learn how to read, or at least:confused get a start on it. Are there any online sites that could help me with this, or someone that could. This would help me out a lot!

DudeistMonk · #2 05-15-2008, 10:22 AM

I googled "reading music" like 30 things came up...the first link seems to be a decent tutorial on how to read...http://datadragon.com/education/reading/

latkingz781 · #3 05-16-2008, 03:13 PM

thanks!

dodgy_ian · #4 05-19-2008, 05:47 PM

The Hal Leonard Bass Method book 1 is a very good and cheap intro to reading as is the beginning bass reading book by mel bay.

a_magg · #5 05-19-2008, 08:51 PM

I used cyberfretbass.com when I first started out...Once I learned to understand music, my next steps were the Simandl and Rufus Reid's The Evolving Bassist- Each helped me work on reading from two different aspects: Classical and Jazz. Check them out!

Cheers,

Andrew

MarkTAW · #6 05-19-2008, 11:04 PM

I'm using the trial of etude sight reader right now. starts pretty slow & the exercises are good. You need a midi keyboard though & have to be willing to play keyboard lines and learn the G clef as well as the F clef.

I have no idea what registration gets you, but the free trial lasts about a month.

jweiss · #7 05-20-2008, 06:56 AM

You might be interested in this software:

http://www.prolevelguitar.com/SightR...aderMaster.htm

MarkTAW · #8 05-20-2008, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jweiss

You might be interested in this software:

http://www.prolevelguitar.com/SightR...aderMaster.htm

Looks interesting. How does it "hear" the guitar?

I have always wanted to brush up on my "jazz" chord voicings...

Shovelbone · #9 05-20-2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by latkingz781

Hi,
I have been playing for well over a year now, and I now want to learn how to read, or at least:confused get a start on it. Are there any online sites that could help me with this, or someone that could. This would help me out a lot!

Take a look at www.studybass.com

CapnSev · #10 05-20-2008, 10:03 AM

studybass.com

jweiss · #11 05-20-2008, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkTAW

Looks interesting. How does it "hear" the guitar?

I have always wanted to brush up on my "jazz" chord voicings...

Unlike the Etude Sight Reader, there is no feedback via midi or other mechanism. So it doesn't hear what you are playing. But you can play the bass rather than keys

It does play back the music that is generated in real time so you can hear while you play whether you are doing it right or not.

The software generates lines of music for you to sight-read with the parameters that you specify for string and fret range, key, note duration, etc.

Pretty useful stuff. Using this in combination with Absolute Fretboard Trainer really helped my reading.

MarkTAW · #12 05-20-2008, 11:35 AM

Nice! I need to practice my sight reading - as I get deeper & deeper into music theory, my spotty reading skills are beginning to hold back my learning. I know how to read music, but not fluidly in all registers to quickly go through the examples.

Scot · #13 05-20-2008, 12:12 PM

There are 2 primary aspects to reading/sightreading standard music notation: rhythm and pitch. Divide and conquer. Work on reading rhythms without pitches. Clap the rhythms - you don't need your bass for this. Work on reading pitches that are only quarter notes.

DocBop · #14 05-20-2008, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scot

There are 2 primary aspects to reading/sightreading standard music notation: rhythm and pitch. Divide and conquer. Work on reading rhythms without pitches. Clap the rhythms - you don't need your bass for this. Work on reading pitches that are only quarter notes.

+100 In the beginning you should be spending as much if not more time without your bass in your hands when working on reading. Spot where the downbeats are, see the rhythmic patterns like they are words in a book. Now clap the rhythms with a metronome. Name the notes especially if ledger lines. Look at pitches for scale or chord fragment, any unusual interval leaps? A big part of reading is training your eyes how to look at music. Next use the bass in your head to work out fretboard locations and fingering. Get the mental work done, then pickup your bass and work on physically playing the music.

As time going on that mental process will be something you can do in seconds and this is what good reader do when they get a new piece of music. They sit and scan the piece for stuff they have seen a million times before so they can spend a second on new things and make a mental note. Doing this means no surprises when the music is counted off.

mambo4 · #15 05-20-2008, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scot

There are 2 primary aspects to reading/sightreading standard music notation: rhythm and pitch. Divide and conquer. Work on reading rhythms without pitches. Clap the rhythms - you don't need your bass for this. Work on reading pitches that are only quarter notes.

+100 more!

Since i can pretty quickly mentally translate a staff line/space to a fret/string location, I am focusing on rhythm. I have taken to reading etude books like Reading Contemporary Electric Bass by Rich Appleman on the couch while the wife watches TV. Not being advanced enough to hear pitches in my head as I read, I just tap my toe and read the rhythms.

latkingz781 · #16 06-11-2008, 01:33 PM

wow all these links are so useful. Thanks!~

DaneB · #17 06-11-2008, 08:51 PM

I really want to learn to read too. I can look at music and see what's going on, rests and note lengths and everything, just no matter how many times I get all stern with myself, and go 'right, you're learning this', I can't make the actual notes stick in my head. The lines all meld together and I can't tell what lines the notes are on, or if they're on or between or whatever...

JTE · #18 06-12-2008, 10:05 AM

Don't make the mistake of confusing notation with tab. You have to rethink. It's not a code that shows you where to put your fingers, it's a code that indicates relative pitch. So, instead of looking at that note in the middle of the staff and thinking "That's the open second string", and then looking at the note on the of the staff and thinking "That's the second fret of the G string" do this.

That first note is D. No matter where you can play it on the neck, it's exactly the same SOUND. And that next note, two lines up, is a fifth. With no sharps or flats in this case it's a perfect fifth, so it's the sound two frets up and one string up. Or two strings up and three frets down. Or where ever you find a perfect fifth.

Start learning to read by NOT reading on an instrument. It's a kind of Zen thing, but once I quite relating notes to physical locations, and started relating them to sounds I found I could stumble through written notation much more fluidly and accurately.

My ex-wife was an excellent singer (if she'd gotten real voice training at 18 years old instead of 48 years old, she may have been able to make a living as a dramatic alto). She was taught sight-singing by solfege where you sing the relative pitches (do, re, mi, etc.). And I picked up some of that and it helped a LOT.

jte