Sight-reading standard notation: Complex rhythms

[perucci]

A limitation of mine has always been sight-reading complex rhythms in standard notation (and in some cases, playing the part *period*). There are only so many rhythmic sequences possible within a given measure, yet I'm still "challenged" by many.

Has anyone found an easy way to focus on just rhythm (no concern for pitch here), with:

• Standard notation visibly displaying the rhythmic sequences?
• The sounds played via a computer, so I can "hear what I'm seeing"?

[jweiss]

Sight Reader Master will do this.

For free stuff Jalmus will do it too.

[hunta]

How complex are you talking about? Post a sample of something that's tripping you up. If you're having problems with certain rhythmic patterns or styles it will help if you focus your practice on them. What trips me up may not trip you up and vice versa.

[Agilulfo]

Rhythmic solfege methods are very useful.

[jweiss]

Originally Posted by Agilulfo

Rhythmic solfege methods are very useful.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, this one is free too:

http://www.solfege.org/

[ryco]

It helps me a lot to tap my foot on the beat (1 2 3 4 for 4/4 time, 1 2 3 for 3/4) and clap out the rhythm patterns with my hands.

A lot of times syncopated rhythm patterns aren't transcribed very well, making reading just that much more difficult.
Easiest when rhythms are written in groups that reflect the main beats, such as being grouped in quarter notes (or eighth notes for 6/8).

Just clapping out the melodies in fake books (The Real Book) is a good exercise or borrow a rhythm book from a drummer fiend (sic).

[DocBop]

It's all about learning how to "See" the music. When you look at a measure you should be able to instantly spot where beats are, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. Then there aren't that many combo of one beat. Also most have trying learn two things at once, the first being read rhythms, and secord reading pitches and locations on the neck. You need to separate the two during early stages of practice.

First get good books on rhythms lke the Simplified Sightreading for Bass by Josquin Des Pres and Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments. Those books start with simple beats and subdivision to help start training your eyes. You need to spot beats in a measure and "read" a beat like reading a word in a book. You see the rhythm and just know it. The Josquin Des Pres book has a playalong CD that helps a lot.

I will go thru this quickly since I posted a few times before.

First put your bass down.

Take the music or part of it and first go note by note naming the rhythms.

Now turn on the metronome and start clapping the rhythm till you have it perfect.

Now look note by note and name the pitches of the notes, where they are on your bass, and which finger you will play it with.

Now using the bass in your head mentally play the music "seeing" yourself fingering each note.

Okay the mental part of practice is done. You should know the rhythms you have isolated it and clapped it. You know what the notes are where and how to play. Now time for the physical practice with your bass. So pickup your bass and start working on the music.

In the beginning this process will take a few minutes before you play, but the more you do it the fast it gets. You start memorizing rhythms, learning to spot scale fragments, intervals and so on. Eventually you be able to do the process in seconds and that is what the pro's do. Pro's get to where they have sightread so much and it like reading a book they are looking for things they haven't seen before or a tough section. For those they are playing them in there head.

Last sightreading is one of those things that HAD TO BE DONE DAILY no skipping. I used to keep a book of rhythms in my car so if I had a some time I could clap or tap rhythms. I would even go to the beach and sit, checking out the sights and clap out rhythms.

[Calebmundy]

I am a great sight-reader now, but I never did well with solfege-type stuff. I almost had to go through and memorize what each rhythmic grouping looked like, which of course took longer than people who could just count it out.

After a while I stumbled upon the method that has really worked for me: I kind of counted starting from beats that I knew for sure where they were, and then worked into, or away from them.

For instance if you have a _e+a (three 16th notes) leading into a downbeat. I wouldn't worry about trying to count all of the beats leading up to that, I would just concentrate on hitting the last three 16ths before the 1. Or if there were three 16ths following a 16th-rest, I would hear the missing beat (say beat three for instance-easy to find, yeah?), and then play the written notes from there.

I was going through the "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" transcriptions at the time, so there was plenty of opportunities to see how 16th notes worked.

I hope that helps, and isn't too confusing.

[perucci]

Originally Posted by hunta

How complex are you talking about? Post a sample of something that's tripping you up. If you're having problems with certain rhythmic patterns or styles it will help if you focus your practice on them. What trips me up may not trip you up and vice versa.

Nothing too fancy. Right now, the written music for Brick House is giving me a bit of heartburn. I can sort-of work through it by ear when I hear the song (MP3 recording), but the syncopated 16ths are a bit more than I can faithfully reproduce on my own.

[Calebmundy]

With something like "Brick House", I would also suggest breaking things down into 16th-notes, instead of quarters. If you're using a metronome (and if you're not, I'll let everyone else rain-down admonition on you), try setting the metronome to four times your normal practice speed, so it's beating out 16th notes. Then it should be easier to hear where the rests are in the syncopation.

[perucci]

Solfedge & Jalmus (both free) look to be exactly what I was looking for.

I was going to stick some basic combinations into Finale's "Print Music" and listen (and play along with) playback mode, but these two free tools look to be much easier!

Edited to add: After looking at the other great comments above, it looks like I also need to concentrate on practice, recognizing common rhythmic ideas, and seeing where the beats fall in a measure. I got a video-tape from Carol Kaye that talked about this some, but I've not gotten the "practice" part down yet...

[cowsgomoo]

I have some good practice material on my site if you like complex rhythms:

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by cowsgomoo

I have some good practice material on my site if you like complex rhythms:

That's just plain evil

I've seen stuff like that with Zappa, but where else will it be found?

[Aaron]

Louis Bellson's Modern Reading Text in 4/4 is a great book to help condition reading rhythms. He also put out a book for odd time signatures.

[brake]

Seriously, when you're just starting to work on reading complex rhythms, do just that. Read through a piece of music and just clap the notes, and after you can clap them in time, play it on the bass with just one note, or even a muted string. If you can't play one note in time, you won't be able to play the rest of 'em in time, either.

[brake]

Originally Posted by DocBop

That's just plain evil

I've seen stuff like that with Zappa, but where else will it be found?

Classical music, pit orchestras, some jazz tunes...showtunes, etc.

[cnltb]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Louis Bellson's Modern Reading Text in 4/4 is a great book to help condition reading rhythms. He also put out a book for odd time signatures.

+1!!!
Also -Read anything you can get your hands on.
Practise SLOWLY and THOROUGHLY.
It can also help to mark the highest and the lowest note, as well as those passages that appear more difficult.( I tend to do that on most sight reading gigs).

Transcribing music-Anything- can help as well.

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by brake

Classical music, pit orchestras, some jazz tunes...showtunes, etc.

I've worked in show bands and lots of Jazz I've never had charts with polyrhythms like that. Yes, I know they exist, but not very commonplace.

[tkozal]

Originally Posted by DocBop

I've worked in show bands and lots of Jazz I've never had charts with polyrhythms like that. Yes, I know they exist, but not very commonplace.

yea, I agree...the other artist that came to mind with lines like that was Don Ellis..

I agree with one of the earlier posters, breaking things down into 16ths always worked for me...I have an additive rather than derivative approach to the beat, studying indian music really opened me up and got me clear with a lot of this stuff.

1234 1234 1234 1234 rather than
1 e and a 2 e and a etc....

listening to a lot of Phillip Glass will help.

when I studied with a jazz sax player, he did have me playing 5's over 4, 7's over 4, etc....but you never had to READ it!

[slybass3000]

Originally Posted by perucci

A limitation of mine has always been sight-reading complex rhythms in standard notation (and in some cases, playing the part *period*). There are only so many rhythmic sequences possible within a given measure, yet I'm still "challenged" by many.

Has anyone found an easy way to focus on just rhythm (no concern for pitch here), with:

• Standard notation visibly displaying the rhythmic sequences?
• The sounds played via a computer, so I can "hear what I'm seeing"?

I would like to note that badly written rhythms is the worst thing ever in music. You can make a simple rhythm looks like the hardest thing to count. There are some rules to make it easier: In a jazz or pop context you usually show always the third beat in the bar even if it is a rest or a tie so that way you can divise your bar in two. In a funk context with 16 th notes, I tie my beats together so I see four groups of rhythm in the bar to show where the beats fall. Reading rhythms is really visual so we have to make it clear and easy.

SB