Best method for teaching myself to sight read music?

[jsbachonbass]

This is a bit unconventional, but transcribing will also help your sight reading. Taking something you know and writing it. A bass professor at UNT said transcribing is like reverse sight reading.
Another professor would make us memorize a melody, then would make us transcribe it onto paper as quickly as possible into different keys.

 

[Bander]

All good advice. I considered myself smarter than the average bear in school, and I was naturally good at music, where I could identify a half diminished chord by ear, etc. But, I was never a good sight reader. That bothered me for a while, but then I realized the reason: I was able to hear and memorize passages, and as a result, learned parts faster than others - for a while. So, that gift, turned into a crutch after some years, and the folks that "read" music, got better and eventually was able to read it fast enough to play it at will - THE definition of sight reading. I on the other hand, never developed that skill. Its been a thorn for decades, as I still compensate by memorizing parts slowly, then speeding them up. Maybe when I retire, I'll make myself into a better reader - or not...lol.

Long way of saying, don't short cut the process of learning to read, read well, and learning to read fast. Its just time in the seat, don't rush it but push yourself, and let time work for you, not against you.

 

[Rib 13]

Repetition... there's no trick, you just put music that you don't know in front of yourself and play it.

^this...I also used flash cards.....btw, im a slow reader (I have to look at it and work it out) but I really don't make it a point to practice reading anymore

 

[Colin Cunliffe]

My wife bought me the Hal Leonard Complete edition, books 1,2,3 but before I get too far into it I just wanted to ask if there were any more entertaining or more effective methods out there that might make the process more efficient or just overall better.

I am going to assume you can play the bass and have done so for a while (yes I know ASS UME).

Having come from a more "classical" side of music this was a skill that I didn't always realise I had, until conducting and the players couldn't keep up.

So my secret to success - just as all of the others; practice reading, practice reading and when you have done that practice reading.

My main suggestion though would be to look at PULSES (beats) and patterns. I have done a simple line of beats, BUT the important ones are ON THE BEAT, look at all music and work that out, then if you play after or on the beat. I assumed you can play, if so, you can (usually) hear where the bass line is going, you already have the hard to learn skills of understanding chord changes, 8 bars, 12 bars etc etc.

Every piece of music, no matter what it is or the pitch or the instrument, try to work out the beats. Can you spot any patterns? Every exam I've taken the examiner has said something to the effect of " Take a moment to look at this and then play it.

So if you have a pattern that you use to sort out what you have to play you shouldn't miss out something, like key sig.

As an aside I was taught:
FLATS
Flowers, Bloom Early And, Die, Gradually, Charlie
Bloom Early And, Die, Gradually, Charlie, Flowers,

SHARPS
Good, Dogs, Always, Eat, Bones, For, Calcium,
Fran, Can't, Go, Down, An, Escalator, Backwards,

Good Luck

 

[mambo4]

This is a bit unconventional, but transcribing will also help your sight reading.

 

[Tommyc]

Buy Louis Bellson's book linked here. You can get used copies for as little as 4 dollars. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775
My thesis regarding reading is that there are a finite number of notes on the staff in a finite number (in the case of bass and guitar) of locations. There are however an infinite number of rhythmic expressions. Use the book solely as a drill to deal with rhythmic permutations. You will encounter all that he drills you on here and more in your reading. I would do one page a day using a pencil to tap on the book, no instrument needed. Start at the beginning and go through the whole thing. It's ok to go back to figures that are tricky until they become familiar. This is really a drill book to prepare you for sight-reading. When you finish the book go to the beginning and do the whole thing again in swing eighths. When you finally sit down to a piece of music, much of the note value issue you'll encounter in actual scores will be with you because of this book. Bellson is a good teacher.
The other thing to do daily, is to try and write down in notation things you hear. Simple things like commercial jingles, familiar tune fragments, etc. It's like a foreign language. You want to be able to think in that language not just translate. Good Luck!

 

[Hasty]

Buy Louis Bellson's book linked here. You can get used copies for as little as 4 dollars. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775
My thesis regarding reading is that there are a finite number of notes on the staff in a finite number (in the case of bass and guitar) of locations. There are however an infinite number of rhythmic expressions. Use the book solely as a drill to deal with rhythmic permutations. You will encounter all that he drills you on here and more in your reading. I would do one page a day using a pencil to tap on the book, no instrument needed. Start at the beginning and go through the whole thing. It's ok to go back to figures that are tricky until they become familiar. This is really a drill book to prepare you for sight-reading. When you finish the book go to the beginning and do the whole thing again in swing eighths. When you finally sit down to a piece of music, much of the note value issue you'll encounter in actual scores will be with you because of this book. Bellson is a good teacher.
The other thing to do daily, is to try and write down in notation things you hear. Simple things like commercial jingles, familiar tune fragments, etc. It's like a foreign language. You want to be able to think in that language not just translate. Good Luck!

I have both Bellson books and they are amazing (standard and uncommon times). I need to pull them out more frequently just to run through rhythms.

Thanks for the reminder about that one!

 

[bassinplace]

I just started the sight reading course on talkingbass.net and it seems pretty good so far. I'm in the early stages of it but it's very thorough, I can see that much already.

 

[RemoteOutpost]

I just started the sight reading course on talkingbass.net and it seems pretty good so far. I'm in the early stages of it but it's very thorough, I can see that much already.

Does it start from total beginner or do you need to be able to read some music before starting the course?

 

[bassinplace]

Does it start from total beginner or do you need to be able to read some music before starting the course?

Total beginner.

 

[Ulf_Hansson]

Buy Louis Bellson's book linked here. You can get used copies for as little as 4 dollars. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775
My thesis regarding reading is that there are a finite number of notes on the staff in a finite number (in the case of bass and guitar) of locations. There are however an infinite number of rhythmic expressions. Use the book solely as a drill to deal with rhythmic permutations. You will encounter all that he drills you on here and more in your reading. I would do one page a day using a pencil to tap on the book, no instrument needed. Start at the beginning and go through the whole thing. It's ok to go back to figures that are tricky until they become familiar. This is really a drill book to prepare you for sight-reading. When you finish the book go to the beginning and do the whole thing again in swing eighths. When you finally sit down to a piece of music, much of the note value issue you'll encounter in actual scores will be with you because of this book. Bellson is a good teacher.
The other thing to do daily, is to try and write down in notation things you hear. Simple things like commercial jingles, familiar tune fragments, etc. It's like a foreign language. You want to be able to think in that language not just translate. Good Luck!

Just had a look at the preview at that Amazon page, and had to keep reading page after page (just as you said, tapping with a pencil). Could't stop. That was fun and it seems to be a book full of commonly found phrases in charts for most music. Great advice in the preface as well; to make sure to practice both straight eights and with a swung feel.

 

[Groove Master]

I like at first reading open strings exercices and focus on only 4 notes and rhythms....Like in the Rufus Reid's book

 

[Jazz Ad]

Once you have the basics down it's only doing it again and again.

 

[MrLenny1]

I got a good teacher and he put me thru a classical method book.
Learn to read and the book had specific fingering for scales/etudes
which i was really lacking.
Good luck.

 

[Snarf]

Very strongly recommend reading through the Simandl method. Then, any bass clef books you can get your hands on, not necessarily specifically designed for bass. My reading also took a jump forward when I started transcribing top-40 bass lines for my own personal transcription/chart library.

 

[bherman]

It's not rocket science, think about how you learned to read as a kid. Start with easy stuff, do it every day for a minimum of 15-30 minutes. Move on to harder stuff (gradually) as you are able. Think of it as a multi-year process, just like learning to read when you were young. In a few years, you'll be able to read anything, just like most of us can with our native language if we stick with it. No need for any special tricks or such.

 

[WoodyH]

I'm tempted to get those same Hal Leonard books to start learning bass notation, myself.

Funny thing is I could sight read treble notation to this day with a fair amount of ease. I played trumpet through school and some of college, and as some have already said, sight reading in that arena was a fairly regular practice.

But when I started on bass, I just jumped in and started learning by ear. Until pretty recently, I hadn't taken the time to learn bass clef notation (or even note location on the fret board), so now I struggle with it.

I will say that most of the answers already provided here are great. "Nothin to it but to do it", as they say. It's rocky in the beginning, but with time you start to pick up on where notes are located on the instrument, and it requires less thought/concentration. I'm sure one-on-one lessons would be a huge help, too.
Best of luck

Same here. I played trumpet from the 5th grade through High School and a little after that as well. I can also sight read treble clef sheet music fairly easily. It’s like reading a book, you don’t really think about it, you just do it.
I, like you also just picked the bass up and started playing by ear (and using tabs in my case) without learning the bass clef all that well. It’s hard, for me at least to re-wire my brain for bass notation. I can do it, but it’s not natural and I’m slowwwww. Lol

 

[Malcolm35]

If you want to improve your sight reading; play a lot of standard notation.

 

[Dgl44]

Stick to it and don't get discouraged brother!
This past december I missed out of two gigs, one pretty high profile (corpo band comprised of A-list musicians), due to lack of reading skills.
Now I'm on day 8 of daily reading, and I'm starting to see some progress. I can also see that it's gonna take a while to get fluent in reading but being consistent is already showing to be the quickest way to go in a very slow process.

My routine is currently to first read a page or two of rhythm exercises from a book called Rhythm & Reading to a metronome and then a page from Carol Kaye's Electric Bass Lines nr. 1 without a metronome for now, using only my foot to heel-toe tap out eights as slowly as needed. I've decided to first work on understanding written subdivisions and note/interval recognition. I can't tell if it's the best way to go, but it looks like it works for me, at least for now.

 

[Phil Smith]

The thing that will get your reading together is to play in groups where you have to read.