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Can You Read Music?
- Thread starter EtoG
- Start date
I'm deciding to make this poll for fun, I think the results will be interesting to look at. Just a simple yes or no type of thing.
My Response: Yes, I can read, and I use it with bass quite often. I also know a lot of guys that don't read who are great players.
Vote and discuss!
-EtoG
Yes. And I use it 85% of the time.
The Rhythm Bible. Or even some snare drum books clapped along with a metronome.
Count your bar in 1/8 notes, eg: 1and 2and 3and 4and. It will not only help you reading rhythm, it will help your playing rhythm and note placement.
I read music, have been doing so since 4th grade thanks to our music program, I played saxophone. With the bass I do occasionally read music, but tabs are so much easier when it comes to playing a song. I must say that reading music Does come in handy a lot, especially when working in a band, plus along with the reading came the theory behind why music works the way it does.
No I can't read music, I can barely read tab (I watch my 15 year do it, I'm catching on...but why?). 30 year player and just go by ear
I wish knowing how to read music was enough to do that for me. Sadly, that's not the case.
I mostly learned to read music not for bass, but for sax, and therefore I'm much quicker with treble clef. I'm working at improving my bass clef reading. In practice, I find that learning rock/pop songs is a lot quicker and cheaper to do by ear or getting chords or tabs off the internet than hunting up usable sheet music, so I don't use reading very much. But I do see the value in being able to do it and want to improve.
I wonder how the poll would look if we had more than the yes/no options? There seem to be a lot of "yes I can, but not very well" or "but I don't use it much" answers.
I wonder how the poll would look if we had more than the yes/no options? There seem to be a lot of "yes I can, but not very well" or "but I don't use it much" answers.
I learned string bass first so I had to learn to read. I eventually also had to learn to read alto and treble as well as bass.
I voted no, because my current reading level is so incredibly low it almost doesn't register. "OK, that's...an E. Then there's a...B? Yeah a B. Oh, and look, an A flat."
It's like reading an eye chart in Cyrillic.
It's like reading an eye chart in Cyrillic.
I read music. It's pretty much exclusively for Tuba though. I'm proficient at reading on the Tuba. I know bass clef well because of that, but I find it difficult to read it and play bass. I guess there's just some disconnect. I'm probably just so used to using air and fingers on one hand that I can't get used to just using two hands or something. I'm switching over to upright next fall semester though, so I should get the ability up by that time.
Wow, I went up to NYC for a vacation and saw that my little poll got quite a few more responses!
Good discussion so far, I've enjoyed reading everyone's stories/thoughts.
It's fun to see how different players of the same instrument can require a completely different skill set in order to get their own job done.
-EtoG
Good discussion so far, I've enjoyed reading everyone's stories/thoughts.
It's fun to see how different players of the same instrument can require a completely different skill set in order to get their own job done.
-EtoG
Cool discussions. I've played classical piano for 15 years longer than bass, so I got a pretty good head start on reading the bass clef. With the exception of solo covers of baroque works, I've never had to read bass music. Tab and your own ears are just too damn easy to use!
