Sight-reading sheet music...

[RollingMonkey]

So a few days ago, I decided enough was enough... Time to learn to read sheet music, and eventually sight-read.

What I've been doing for the past few days is loading a random song I'd never heard before into Guitar Pro, then taking off the tablature part of it, so all that is left is the sheet music, and trying to figure out how it sounds.

If I continue to do this for 30-45 minutes a day, how long would you say it'll take me before I can sight-read? Now, I know someone will say something about me having to be patient (fair enough ), and that it is different for each person, and so on, but I'm just looking for a ball-park estimate, as in, am I looking at one year or ten years? Thanks!

[BassChuck]

I will take a while. I would think the fastest way to get comfortable with it and as soon as possible get with other musicians who are reading and try to keep up. The next best thing is to use a metronome or drum loop or anything that KEEPS YOU MOVING. Its really amazing (to me) when I try to do something like this just how many times I'll pause a little to let my brain catch up, or I go back over a mistake and correct it or slow down or speed up. All those things will lengthen your learning time.

After I finished my Undergraduate degree in music I felt I could sight read pretty well. But what really got my act together was reading dance gigs. I was on stage reading bass parts for 90 minute sets and there was only enough time between tunes to throw the last chart under my music stand before we started reading the next one. (we called all 60 tunes before the set and had them in order on the stand). The band knew the music well and had to read to keep up with them.

[Jim Carr]

Ok, you have a goal and have created a way to work at it. Good! Progress is not automatic, however. Your method may work fine for you, but I am a little concerned.

Why are you selecting things at random?
How do you know what your mistakes are?
What do you do when you discover you are making a mistake?
How do you practice?
How do you test yourself?
How do you apply your skills?

I don't think you should answer these questions here. I just think you should be aware that a good highly experienced teacher can help you get going in the right direction and teach you some answers to these questions. Without that, things could be, well, pretty random.

BTW, the only important kind of reading is sight-reading, IMHO, and there are some pretty effective techniques for speeding up improvement of sight reading skills. They all require serious devotion of practice time. IF you have an effective method and IF you practice a couple hours a day (minimum), and IF you get out there and actually use your skills, you will be a reasonable sight-reader in a year or so.
However, those kinds of skills are never "finished," and to a certain degree, if you don't use it, you loose it. All IMHO.

[RollingMonkey]

Firstly, BassChuck, I'm kind of trying to do something like that. What I do is I set the tempo to something like 90 bpm on Guitar Pro, and then play along with the music, trying to keep up. So far, I've only been playing along with really simple songs, such as *big cringe* Blink 182, where I only need to focus on identifying the notes, since the rhythm is pretty much just eighths, and the notes change only once every bar, giving me just enough time to identify the next notes. Once I've mastered that kind of stuff, I'll move on to real music.

Jim, I see what you're saying, and I agree. I won't answer all those questions (and some I still have to figure out an answer for ), but there are two points I'd like to clarify. Firstly, I chose the wrong word when I said "random". I meant unfamiliar, the reason being that there is no point in practising a song I already know, because then I won't be solely relying on what I'm reading, I'll also be relying on what I know and what I expect, which kind of defeats the purpose of reading. And as mentioned above, the songs I've been reading are very simple, for now. Also, since I'm playing along with Guitar Pro, it's very easy to pick up what I'm playing wrong.

What will be a bit of a challenge when I've mastered the quick recognition of notes is rhythm, but I think I can cross that bridge when I get there.

[Yvon]

What I did....

I bought the real book in bass clef.

then I took one of the easiest song. I go slowly read the notes Then trying to play it at tempo with a metronome. After that I would take the metronome out and put it at a slow tempo.
I suggest that you take 1 song a day or every 2 day (for easy songs).

[CamMcIntyre]

If you aren't taking lessons, i'd get them. Now that my generic response is out of the way here's a few more tips.

I'd recommend buying a bass method book and reading out of that to get a gradual introduction.

A book that i used early on [and still read out of from time to time] is actually a trombone book. It's called 40 progressive etudes for trombone. If you're interested-i can find out who wrote it and that fun stuff. It starts off pretty simple with primarily quarter notes and then expands in both range and rhythmic complexity.

[DocBop]

Reading lead sheets of songs you are familiar with is good to see what your play looks like, but shouldn't be the only thing you do. Learning to read pitches doesn't take too long the thing that take awhile is learning to read rhythms and how to "see" the music on the page. Those are things that a teacher or a book on sightreading can help more on that trying to read lead sheets.

One book I think it good especially if working on your own is:
Simplified Sight-Reading for Bass by Josquin Des Pres. It really helps on reading rhythms.

But learning how to look at a measure of music most books tend to glance over or skip that is were a teacher helps.

[RollingMonkey]

Thanks for the suggestions, all... Unfortunately, a teacher is out of the question due to monetary and time constraints, so I have to do this on my own. I'll check out those books, though!

[ding_man]

The best thing to do is just read as much everything.

Another good thing is to be comfortable with what intervals look like on the page and on your bass. Often instead of reading notes you are reading intervals.