Dumb question: Pino doesn't read music?

[peterpalmieri]

This is all relative. my sight reading skills are pretty good. Some would say my sight reading skills are great others would say Not so much. Depends on the audience.

I wonder when pino says he doesn't read if he means on par with the caliber of musicians he's around Or can't read, as in he can't recognize the notes and rhythms to a nursery rhym.

Big difference.

 

[markjsmithbass]

I think a lot of these reading threads get so long and heated because many non-readers like to justify their lack of reading ability. Maybe they feel hostility from readers.

I never felt like that before I could read (I taught myself to read after 4 or 5 years of playing). I just felt like I was lacking and felt embarrassed when put in musical situations where it was required. It took me about 6 weeks to nail the basics of reading to a level where I could function OK in a live sight reading setting with relatively straightforward basslines. Then it was just a steady improvement through experience. I think a lot people have no idea where to start with it and think it's going to take forever. The biggest problem for many is that feeling of being a complete beginner again. The ego takes a big hit and you have this initial barrier to negotiate a little like learning words as a baby. But once you're up and running it's great and you feel like you've improved as a player way more than you might from practicing scales over and over like some people do.

Of course, a bass player can sound amazing without that skill but it's a bit silly to cite examples of great playing non-readers as a dismissal of people that do read. The tone tends to be along the lines of "Readers can only repeat what's written, parrot fashion. Non-readers have soul and feel the music. I know which I'd rather be". As Jimmy said earlier, that is absolute crap. There are terrible players that can read to a good standard and vice versa. However, I suspect a lot of people are unaware of actually how all-round brilliant some of the guys are out there. I don't mean big names. I mean unknown guys on the circuit doing all the standard, simple gigs, shows and sessions. In a musical climate where you might be fighting for gigs, it's worth covering every base in your playing. Of course, if you have no intention of playing music professionally then this is all irrelevant anyway. But remember that the op concerned uber-session guy Pino Palladino and his lack of reading in a 'professional' setting.

 

[MegaSwing]

True. But don't let this be an excuse to not learn (as so many do)

+1
It is a big mistake to take comfort from a bad example.

 

[mike313]

...I think a lot people have no idea where to start with it and think it's going to take forever. The biggest problem for many is that feeling of being a complete beginner again. The ego takes a big hit and you have this initial barrier to negotiate a little like learning words as a baby. But once you're up and running it's great and you feel like you've improved as a player way more than you might from practicing scales over and over like some people do.

Yeah, I totally second this.

Also, studying sight reading has many collateral benefits.
For example:
- Knowledge of notes positions on the neck (a really underestimated matter, even by very good and experienced bass players) will dramatically improve.
- Familiarity with the various modes and scales will deepen. This is especially useful for us, bassists and guitarist, who tend to be "position oriented" musicians more than "note name oriented" musicians, like piano or woodwind players are.

 

[markjsmithbass]

Yeah, I totally second this.

Also, studying sight reading has many collateral benefits.
For example:
- Knowledge of notes positions on the neck (a really underestimated matter, even by very good and experienced bass players) will dramatically improve.
- Familiarity with the various modes and scales will deepen. This is especially useful for us, bassists and guitarist, who tend to be "position oriented" musicians more than "note name oriented" musicians, like piano or woodwind players are.

This is such an important thing to realise. I notice so many students and players in general have a hard time negotiating certain areas of the neck because of a lack of confidence in the notes in those regions. I see more people trying to sort that problem out than people learning to read and they don't realise that sight reading COMPLETELY remedies that issue. Before I learned to read I had the usual problem feeling at home in the dreaded 7th to 12th fret area. After a year or so of sight reading I knew every single note on the neck with immediate and natural recall. People forget that sight reading is more about reading rhythms than it is about reading pitches. The pitches need to be firmly locked in muscle memory because you can't be trying to figure out what the notes are and where to put your fingers while trying to rodeo time's arrow.

 

[Bob_Ross]

trying to rodeo time's arrow

That's a fabulous euphemism for sight-reading rhythms! Definitely gonna steal that!

 

[devnulljp]

I just felt like I was lacking and felt embarrassed when put in musical situations where it was required. It took me about 6 weeks to nail the basics of reading to a level where I could function OK in a live sight reading setting with relatively straightforward basslines.

That's exactly how I feel about it ... sat in with a big band and felt like a chump fumbling my way through the charts. I was genuinely surprised that it's possible to become a session player and not be able to read.
How did you get up and running in 6 weeks? That's pretty fast -- any pointers? I'm in the process of just trying to identify the notes, which is made a bit harder by being kinda able to read treble clef. The notes are not in the same places and I keep gravitating toward playing the notes as though they were in treble clef.

I feel like it's a real slog so any tips would be appreciated.

 

[BassyBill]

In the context of rock music, having a good ear is more valuable than being able to read music.

Having both is great, though.

 

[tfer]

When I started to read, the first thing I'd note was the Key signature. I would then find a position on the neck where I could reach the notes over a couple of octaves (a 5 or 6 string bass is great for this).

For instance, if the song is in E, place your middle finger on the 5th fret of the B string - that gives you access to every note over almost 2 full octaves without shifting. Then, I'd read the intervals more than the notes. Once you have a couple of landmark notes, it becomes a simple matter of reading the interval above or below that note.

Before you know it, you'll be reading the music and not the intervals.