Sight reading

[seanreiter]

I've been writing a lot of walking bass lines recently and I find myself avoiding anything beyond E above middle C because my sight reading is so bad above the 6th fret. I'm constantly playing between the first and fifth frets and want to expand. Can anyone suggest a book or exercise that I can do to escape this trap?

[tkozal]

Learn Treble Clef! Play Melodies! If you can handle walking bass lines, these things should be easy....

at least thats the sense I get from your question...

[bottomend!]

Two issues you need to attack here. the first is getting to know your fingerboard VERY WELL about the 10 fret. The other is to get familiar with the "telephone pole notes" that are above the staff.

Solution? Get some sheet music that stays very low on the staff... maybe nothing going higher than about A, Bb or C and read that UP AN OCTAVE. Do this for a month or so, or until it's starts to feel as normal as reading material in the intended written range. As you're reading, say the names of the notes out loud so you can get your brain involved on more levels than just sight, sound and touch.

Now, after you've got that bird killed, get some sheet music thats only up in the tops of the trees and (drum roll please) read that DOWN AN OCTAVE. Again, saying the names of the notes as you practice.


Step three is to play the music in the intended range as written.

What am I doing here? I'm easing the pain of having to bite off alot of "new" information at once. Breaking down the struggle allows the brain time to absorb information before it gets overloaded. So, what happens when the brain get overloaded? It just sits around all day posting on forums asking questions instead of practicing...

[seanreiter]

That seems like some sound advice. Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a shot.

[Snarf]

Get yourself a copy of Bach's 2-part inventions, and the Well-Tempered Clavier and read the left hand parts. Some easy stuff, some really hard stuff.

[hunta]

Learning treble clef is a good idea, but you're still going to get charts thrown at you in bass clef with ledger lines. Eventually you just have to get comfortable with reading ledger lines. Most bass parts don't go higher than a G above the staff, which is only 3 lines. You need to learn the neck too, but there's no getting away from ledger lines.

[seanreiter]

thanks for everyone's suggestions. for the record, i do know treble clef. i was mostly talking about the ledger lines.

The other thing that may have been unclear is how i'm looking to improve my ability to play in higher positions on the neck. i.e. the low Bb (1st fret A string) at the 6th fret on the E string and learning to get comfortable with those notes above the 5th fret, while learning how to incorporate the higher notes (ledger lines) from those posotions. i think i'm still being unclear, but oh well.

[Phil Smith]

Start playing everything that you know in the lower postions in the higher positions. Eventually you'll get more comfortable playing up high.

[Dave Muscato]

Bottomend, great post!