Can you read music?

[thehangingmist]

I just have a Broadway cast recording on CD.

I'm currently teaching one of the songs to a student who is also one of the "brothers" so that he and another brother can come over and grab instruments from the pit and play "One More Angel in Heaven" cowboy style 'round a campfire.

nice

 

[dougjwray]

Musical notation, yes. Tabs, never tried.

 

[TL5]

My sight reading is rusty (crusted over and would need a day or two soaking in WD40 to loosen up). I read charts (nashville numbers, chord charts) regularly.
It's the TAB that I have sit down and fiddle with to figure out.
Given the choice of notation/Tab, I'll take notation every time.

 

[standupright]

I can read music in four clefs.

The only reason I know how to read music is because I never realised until I decided to play praise and worship that church teams nearly always sheet. So I had to learn in FOUR hours how to read music.

I can sight-read a lot of praise and worship, but haven't tried it for any other genre.

four clefs?

 

[Flongoid]

I can read.
But it's very very slow..

 

[Rudreax]

four clefs?

Most likely Treble, Bass, Alto, and Tenor.

In case you don't know them, here's Alto:

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And here's Tenor:

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Both are essential C clefs moved to different positions. There are other clefs but I'd assume this is what the guy meant.

EDIT: There's also the neutral clef that some percussionists use:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Music-neutralclef.png

 

[rosanne]

I've tried to learn drum notation but to little avail.

 

[cnltb]

Standard music notation is as easy to read as TAB once you get the concept of playing in positions. It definitely gives you way more options as far as music to study as well as more work opportunities.

+1

 

[Gord_oh]

i played tuba 7 years prior to playing bass.
i could read bass clef.
once i figured out the notes on bass, i applied them to music notation.

i learned tab first, then cord charts, then i experimented with actual sheet music.

 

[Luke.Walton]

I can read. Barely.

I started off on Euphonium so I could read treble, then when I switched to bass I have to think long and hard about what I'm doing when it comes to bass clef. I still need to put in a LOT of work

 

[Flyingaero]

I can read music....just not the bass clef

 

[tahoebass92]

i learned to read by experience. I walked into a situation where it was required, so I basically taught myself. However, now I'm working with a teacher to help my rhythm reading skills

 

[Elrend]

I can read both bass and treble clef, but not very well. I'm mostly an ear-player (probably being that I play largely improvisational music.)

 

[Jim Campbell]

Fluent sight reader.

i find that the stuff thats divisible goes pretty good but the more out there phrases ie triplets tied inside other triplet groups and more complex groupings are just impossible to count out....did you hit a wall/plateau at that point and if so how did you manage to get past....

 

[Stumbo]

I can decipher, not read.

Read the notes, decipher the rhythm, slowly.

 

[distortedbass93]

I can read sheet music but I suck at tabs

 

[Fassa Albrecht]

four clefs?

Yep: treble, alto (slowly anyway), bass and neutral (drum) clef.


I play instruments which use all these clefs.

 

[CBgaragebassist]

Yep: treble, alto (slowly anyway), bass and neutral (drum) clef.


I play instruments which use all these clefs.

Show-off! Off to the stereotype thread with you!

I can read bass clef BTW.

 

[DaveAceofBass]

I can read. I can sight-read (not Jaco transcriptions, but just about anything I'd have to do in the real world). I can improvise. I can play by ear and know a crapload of tunes (mostly alot of jazz standards and classic rock, pop, funk, motown, and r&b). Keeps me working. University of Miami baby.

 

[fdeck]

i find that the stuff thats divisible goes pretty good but the more out there phrases ie triplets tied inside other triplet groups and more complex groupings are just impossible to count out....did you hit a wall/plateau at that point and if so how did you manage to get past....

I think that reading is a skill like any other, in a couple of ways. First, it improves with practice, and gets weaker if it's not practiced. Second, no matter how good you get, there's another level to work on trying to reach.

I am a better reader when I have been playing regularly with a big band. But if I go into a big band gig without having done it for a while, then I stumble. While I call myself fluent, there are still kinds of passages that are difficult for me, and bassists who are better at it.

Presently I am working on my treble clef sight reading, and completely on a lark, am trying to learn a relatively easy twelve-tone composition for flute that was written in the 1960's. Now that's some reading, because there are very few familiar patterns. I also have "Chord Studies for Trombone" and am using it to get my cello chops back.