Will Hypnosis work to........

[John Webb]

......make me forget the treble clef?

I see an A ....it's really a C.....

My brain has to work in 3 steps and my reading skills just ain't getting any better:

1. See an A.
2. Remember, no....lt's a C
3. My mind then translates it to a position on the fretboard.

[markjazzbassist]

i know how you feel. ive been reading treble clef for 9 years and am just starting to learn bass clef. what a chore.

[Eli M.]

This may help: think of the clefs not as separate, but together as the Grand Staff (which is what it is called in piano music). Middle C is the ledger line below treble clef and above bass clef. So one clef is a logical extension of the other.

[geoffkhan]

The grand staff method of viewing the clefs is helpful advice.

Personally I recommend to learn to be able to read notation away from your instrument, so you're not attaching fret positions to the notes on paper, but rather a sound. When I sightread, I look at the music and hear it in my head. Then I play what I hear. This is a very accurate and fast way of sightreading, and it works well for me, not to mention then it's easy for me to read music on other instruments and sight-sing, etc.

[tplyons]

Yep, I played sax for 6 years before switching to bass, and then played both for years.

I did the same thing you did for a long time, then one day it clicked. I was able to seperate them subconciously based on the instrument on my hand.

Then I started to play piano, then the grand staff part took effect.

[Correlli]

May work. I gave up smoking though hypnosis.

But, I'd tend agree more with what geoff said. you can also use the recorded version for reference.

Below is a rough diagram of the grand staff in relation to the piano.

[jc-bass]

Hey! Everyone here that reads music did overcome that, which is not a real problem...believe me!

Theres no shortcut,....

Practice, practice, practice,....that´s the only way! With even only 5 min reading per day, you´ll be amazed where you can be in a couple of months!

There´s a total of 7 clefs (to adapt to the different instruments) which classical musicians do master! Most of us do only know F(bass) clef and G clef(treble)! But there are 5 more: C clef in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th line, and F clef in 3rd line! There was a composer named Heinrich Schütz that used F clef in 5th line, which would be like G clef but two octaves lower!! (it´s never used). Learning them too is really useful...for example: transposing!

Trust me, once you are done with one (mastering reading is an art, and a science!) switching to another won´t take you long!!

It may help if you learn a bit of piano....

Did that help you??.- JC