Reading notes

[RuneMIkkelsen]

when you guys are reading notes. Do you then focus on the value of the note. like translating in to A, B, C and so on. Or do you read it like intervals instead?

I have just started reading notes and i just need some inputs.

Thx.

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by RuneMIkkelsen

when you guys are reading notes. Do you then focus on the value of the note. like translating in to A, B, C and so on. Or do you read it like intervals instead?

As the actual note.

The ideal is for you to not have to think in terms of "middle line, er, that's a D". You should be aiming to be able to see the note and, without really stopping to think about it, be able to play the note. That won't happen overnight.

[WillPlay4Food]

I practice this both on and off the bass. There's a program called Fretboard Warrior and you can freely download the guitar version (don't know why the bass version costs $$?). If you just think of the B string as slightly misplaced (guitar is strung EADGBE) when compared to a 5 string bass (strung BEADG) you'll be able to make the most of this software.

I'm at the point where I can name 20-22 notes without mistakes in the 2 minute time period.

When I'm on the bass I'll close my eyes and randomly fret a note. Then I guess what the note name is before looking at the fretboard because I'm trying to train my ear then check the fretboard to see how close I was as well as learn the note under my finger. Guess I'm trying to learn two skills from a single note.

[IanStephenson]

Originally Posted by RuneMIkkelsen

Do you then focus on the value of the note. like translating in to A, B, C and so on. Or do you read it like intervals instead?

It's kind of hard to explain... When it works its just something that is totally subconscious. When you read text do you read individual letters, words or sentances? Probably all three, simulataneiously, each contributing to the final outcome.

However when fluent you don't consciously see a note on the page, turn that into a letter, and then turn the letter into a fret - the thing written on the page IS the sound, and simultaneously its the physical move you need to make.

Sometimes its about shapes on the page rather than notes - for example if you see that the next note is one note up, I'd read it as that rather than reading it as a note. Simlarlarly I'd read an arpeggio as a single pattern rather than individual notes.

However all this takes time - just keep practicing. Start with exercise using a few notes, and you should quickly progress to being able to play those notes without much conscious thought between text and sound. From there you just add more notes...

Like I said - its a hard question, because by the time you've learnt to do it you've forgotten HOW to do it!

Ian

[RuneMIkkelsen]

Thank you very much! Very helpful answers.

[steveb98]

That's why reading is one of those things you have to do daily or the skills slip. After you have been reading you start recognizing pitches and rhythms the same way you recognize these words you are reading. You don't think r, e, a, d, i, n, g. oh that is reading. No you look at the collection of letters and know its the word reading. Music is no different you learn to spot rhythmic patterns and melodic fragments. It takes time to build that music vocabulary.

[Poop-Loops]

Originally Posted by WillPlay4Food

I practice this both on and off the bass. There's a program called Fretboard Warrior and you can freely download the guitar version (don't know why the bass version costs $$?). If you just think of the B string as slightly misplaced (guitar is strung EADGBE) when compared to a 5 string bass (strung BEADG) you'll be able to make the most of this software.

WOW! That thing is a GODSEND! The B-string is the only one really screwing me up, but I'll get used to it. Thanks a lot for this!

[Techmonkey]

I can read treble on the piano as is - I played violin for a good 4 years, so I'm fine on sight reading treble. but now I've just started playing bass in wind band, I'm going back to a traditional reading environment for that, and I was sorta thrown into the deep end - they give us pieces in crazy keys and expect us to sight read them, and of course everyone else does it fine. To practice I bought some double bass books (though I play bass guitar, it's difficult to find a bass guitar book that has those sort of examples in notation form) which has really really helped my reading tenfold.

I do a bit of both - for the most part I'll be interval reading, and checking every 3 or 4 notes to see if I'm still reading the right note. The more I practice, the less I have to read intervals.

[Clay_Bass]

Originally Posted by RuneMIkkelsen

when you guys are reading notes. Do you then focus on the value of the note. like translating in to A, B, C and so on. Or do you read it like intervals instead?

I have just started reading notes and i just need some inputs.

Thx.

Thing is after you get good at reading you wont be thinking about it at all (hopefully) so it wont matter which way you learned it originally. Getting a teacher is a great thing when youre getting into reading so if you dont have one you should look into that. Theres also musicdojo.com with the amazingly talented adam nitti where they do some interactive reading classes online for 2 months that equals about the cost 2 lessons with a teacher. Either option is great.

[Correlli]

I agree with steveb.

When you've been reading a long time, you start to see alot of recurring patterns. An analogy could be that the average person has verbal language vocabulary of about 86,000 to 90,000 words (maybe more or less). The same could be said for musical written vocabulary. So instead of reading note for note, read in groups of notes (motive).

[cowsgomoo]

Originally Posted by RuneMIkkelsen

when you guys are reading notes. Do you then focus on the value of the note. like translating in to A, B, C and so on. Or do you read it like intervals instead?

I have just started reading notes and i just need some inputs.

Thx.

like the others have said, it becomes a subconscious thing once you get up to speed...

but when starting off, focus on the value of the notes A, B ,C# etc... doing it by trying to recognize intervals is making it harder for yourself

set your music stand up so you don't have to move your head (and have to move your eyes minimally) to switch between looking at your fretting hand and looking at your sheet music

get yourself lots of sheet music that doesn't go above C on the G string much, and plough through it playing everything in first position...

(the 'Standing In The Shadows of Motown' Jamerson book is great for this because his harmonic approach was directly derived from playing jazz on upright bass... so there's lots of interesting chromatic notes to read, and it's almost all played in first position)

concentrate on nailing notes, forgetting about rhythm and just use the sheet music as a stream of notes to recognize... forget about a metronome and don't worry about it sounding too musical: you're doing an exercise on note recognition

if you have Cubase, go into a midi part and randomly splatter notes down there on the bass register... then go into the 'notation' part and try and read what you've made... again it won't sound musical but it's a cheap & easy way of finding material to practice your note recognition skills

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by cowsgomoo

like the others have said, it becomes a subconscious thing once you get up to speed...

but when starting off, focus on the value of the notes A, B ,C# etc... doing it by trying to recognize intervals is making it harder for yourself

+1

What also helps is to try to relate the specific written note with the played note without using the note name as a stepping stone. Relate it to possible playing positions instead, so if you see, for example...



You're thinking "third fret, A string", rather than "C... where's that?"