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Double Bass fixed-do system or Anglo-American letter notation
- Thread starter Auspis
- Start date
I've rarely encountered it in the US, but outside of the US whenever I've been trying to naviagte music with multiple languages, the fixed Do was an extremely useful tool for spanning cultures and ultimately laying down a groove and making new friends.
It is this way in Japan. I find myself thinking more in fixed do and often trying to explain movable do.
"Symphonie en do mineur".
"mi bémol" and "fa dièse" but also "dièze" with z can be used along side "dièse" with an "s".
;-)
what I do for French speakers is write down..
A , B, C, D, E, F , G
because it is clearer on the page, and then pronounce them
La, Si, Do, Ré, Mi, Fa, Sol
A = La, B = Si etc..
ie write down : Ab maj7 and then pronounce it "La bémol majeur sept"
That is because in your history, you and the other musicians were all speaking english.
La, Si, Do, Ré. Mi, Fa, Sol ARE the note names in french.
Ayy, Bee, See, Dee, Eee, Eff, Gee are the sounds of the note names only in English, not in other languages.
That's one reason why movable Do for French (and Italian?) speakers is weird.
But in French, when reciting the alphabet for grammar lessons, it's different again, "ah, beh, cey, dey, eux, ef, jey"..... (approximately).
oh well. LOL.
It is best not to allow yourself to create hang ups. Music is very slippery and needs to be dealt with from every possible angle - especially when the double bass is involved. People love it when there is one answer, with the double bass there are thousands of "answers" and you need to deal with each one over time.
You need your eyes, you ears and your mind. I would forget the electric bass for now. Get a teacher that uses the bow and a proven classical method and start there.
You need your eyes, you ears and your mind. I would forget the electric bass for now. Get a teacher that uses the bow and a proven classical method and start there.
In some music schools, only fixed do is taught, and most music students don't have perfect pitch.
It's just the names of the notes, not a "system" for understanding the relationship between notes in tonal music. It's just the names of the notes but in French. When I was a TKD (Tae Kwon Do) student, we all learned to count to 10 in Korean because that's what our teacher did and that's the way he taught class - it wasn't tough to learn to count to 10 in Korean, and it's not tough to learn the names of the notes in French, either.
TL;DR
I have an interesting relationship with perfect pitch. I was in my second music college - transferred middle of sophomore year - before I realized I had it. Because I never made mistakes in dictation class, someone came up to me in the hallway and the conversation went like this:
"Steve, do you have perfect pitch?"
Me: "No, I don't think so."
"Steve, if I ask you to sing an F, can you do that?"
Me: I thought about it for a second then answered, "Yes."
"Steve, from now on, when someone asks you if you have perfect pitch, you should answer 'Yes' because you do. And, if you didn't have perfect pitch, we'd all hate you for never getting anything wrong in dictation, but since you have perfect pitch, we forgive you."
Can't make this stuff up! I grew up playing the guitar in a relative vacuum. I took lessons, I practiced, but I never did anything with other musicians until I got to college. No one ever raised the subject of perfect pitch to me before the above-mentioned conversation. Well, they did, but I always answered "No" and no one ever discussed it with me beyond that.
So, @Bob_Ross, in my first stint as a college music student, they taught moveable Do and they tried to teach it to me but I could never get the hang of it. One day, the teacher gave me something to sight-sing and I couldn't make sense of the syllables, and then she told me it was OK if sight-read it without syllables, and I did it perfectly. She just smiled and said that I didn't have to do the syllables any more but never mentioned anything about perfect pitch. So I think there is something to the idea that people with perfect pitch like fixed do better - it's how we hear.
-S-
I spent the summer of 2024 at the European American Musical Alliance. The ear training teacher is the head of ear training at Juilliard, Dr. Kyle Blaha. EAMA is based on Nadia Boulanger's teaching, hence fixed Do. It was my first experience with fixed Do, as my undergrad program used moveable Do.
Dr. Blaha's position on these things can be summed up as "it's better to be bilingual." But why? What is the point of having two systems?
Fixed Do facilitates the learning of the seven clefs: treble, bass, tenor, alto, soprano, mezzo-soprano, and baritone. The seven clefs facilitate transposing at sight, with makes score reading possible. For instance, Bb transposed is the same as tenor clef. Horns in F is mezzo-soprano clef.
Moveable Do teaches function: a minor 6th is not the same as an augmented 5th. A Bb is not the same as an A#. This is the mistake that perfect pitch students make, apparently, as Bb is more common than A#, so they call the 3rd of a F# major chord a Bb.
Dr. Blaha's position on these things can be summed up as "it's better to be bilingual." But why? What is the point of having two systems?
Fixed Do facilitates the learning of the seven clefs: treble, bass, tenor, alto, soprano, mezzo-soprano, and baritone. The seven clefs facilitate transposing at sight, with makes score reading possible. For instance, Bb transposed is the same as tenor clef. Horns in F is mezzo-soprano clef.
Moveable Do teaches function: a minor 6th is not the same as an augmented 5th. A Bb is not the same as an A#. This is the mistake that perfect pitch students make, apparently, as Bb is more common than A#, so they call the 3rd of a F# major chord a Bb.
No, we don’t.
Fixed Do isn’t a “system,” it’s the names of the notes. What’s different in different clefs is the different names of the notes.
-S-
I’m just relaying what I was told by the head of ear training at Juilliard. If you want to argue about it, talk to him (please don't bother him! just making the point that I am relaying what he told me teaching countless perfect pitch students - his experience.)
In fixed Do, the note names are the same, regardless of clef. It is the placement on the staff that changes.
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For example, if one is fluent in treble clef and bass clef, the following is possible, and easy.
Looking at the sax section in a big band score, the alto and bari saxes are in Eb. If you pretend that there is a bass clef on the alto and bari saxes, you will have the untransposed notes. For many people this is faster and easier than transposing a 3rd/6th every time you see a note.
For this to work, you have to really be fluent with the clef in question. My alto clef reading is better than my tenor clef reading, so the common Bb transposition isn't as easy as it could be for me.
If I want to improve my tenor clef reading, sight singing using fixed do teaches what note is on what line or space.
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No, you won't. You'll have the correct note names without accidentals. You will however need change the key signature to add three flats, take away three sharps, or some combination thereof.
Think of a C major scale in treble clef, now think of it in bass clef - it's the Phyrigian mode, E to E. It isn't difficult to also imagine three flats as your key signature to turn it into an Eb major scale.
Think of a D major scale in treble clef. To turn that into a F major scale, you'll need to take away two sharps and add one flat to the key signature.
Now consider actual music with accidentals that aren't in the key signature, e.g., an F-sharp in C major (the music is on the way to G major) becomes an A-natural in Eb major (the music is on the way to Bb major).
-S-
