• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How's your reading?

Rate your reading...

  • A

    Votes: 16 6.7%

  • B

    Votes: 32 13.4%

  • C

    Votes: 52 21.8%

  • D

    Votes: 45 18.8%

  • E

    Votes: 35 14.6%

  • F

    Votes: 42 17.6%

  • G

    Votes: 17 7.1%
  • Total voters
    239
#41
Febs said:
I wouldn't go so far as to say I can sight-read "anything playable." (I wouldn't be able to sight-read Jaco's version of Donna Lee, for example. ) But I can sight-read just about anything that I ever reasonably expect to encounter on a gig.
Click to expand...

I'll bet a lot of us are in that same boat -- which probably says more about the expectations of arrangers, composers, and bandmates vis a vis bass parts than it does about bass players' sight reading ability in general.

I spent most of the 1990's playing in Debris (http://debris.rednotebook.org), an avant-garde instrumental ensemble that undertook seriously challenging compositions routinely (if not exclusively). We were reading the proverbial fly-poop. Music influenced by Elliott Carter, Anthony Braxton, Frank Zappa, Milton Babbitt, Ornette Coleman...dense, thorny, rhythmically asymmetrical and melodically angular, just nasty nasty stuff. By which I mean beautiful, of course. I have never in my life worked so hard to nail a bass part as I did on some of those pieces

...and yet 99.9% of the music I have had to read on any other gig prior or since has required maybe 25% of the sight-reading chops that band did. When you get on a bandstand and find yourself staring at a part that makes you think you're a B or a C reader, consider yourself lucky! It's so rare for bass parts to demand more than Somewhat Better Than Average reading that those charts should be cherished as an opportunity.

I miss the discipline of having to read those Debris charts. I'm sure my reading has gone downhill in the decade since, as I never have the need to work on the really hard stuff anymore.
 
#42
i'd rate myself as an A-/B+ i played trombone for years and got the basics, then 2 years of playing behind a competitive Show choir, and two years of honors Jazz band in high school. With a passion for everything from classical to motown, my reading chops have just improved all the time.
 
#44
onlyclave said:
I chose 'B'. I'm a pretty competent reader in all clefs and the only things that really hang me up are tied rhythms and some fast cut-time stuff.
Click to expand...

Same here. Running into sixteenth notes and rests always throws me at first. Cut time gets me too unless I think of it fast standard time. I was in jazz band in high school on bass and trombone, the trombone playing especially got my reading chops up. Played tuba too, and some quintet gigs also helped a lot. I picked "B".
 
#45
I answered "F", becuase I can make my way through the rhythm OK (not fast, but not stumbling slow either), but I've never really learned to note read.

I play mostly by ear and chord charts, and I've been using the lessons in Bass Player mag to get the rhythm, but still rely on the underlying tab for the notes.
 
#47
When it comes to reading music...I am the holy grail of fail.
I ride the fattest whale of fail I can find in the sea...
I hoe the rows of the fail farm and....oh there I go, getting carried away.
You get the picture, I cant read music at all..:D
It all started with my jazz band teacher twenty some odd years ago, who upon his desperation for a bassist, let me play and passed me with an A just to keep me! I was a freakin first year drummer in marching band for gods sake. I played for a year and never picked up a bass again until june of 08.
I use Tabs once in a while, but I am ordering a couple of books off Amazon about music theory. I definatly want to know how to read notation.
I need more caffination now please.....:D
 
#48
The interesting thing is how people who are saying similar things can rate themsleves differently. All down to expectations of ourselves, I suppose. I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to play Jaco's version of Donna Lee at tempo perfectly on sight, first take! I would guess that's pretty much impossible.

To clarify a little and aid discussion, this is what I would expect to be able to read pretty much perfectly on first sight and half asleep (what was that I said about expectations?)

Link Removed

I could just about attempt this next one after spending maybe an hour or two on it (although treble clef throws me now as I rarely read piano music these days). It would take me a lot longer to get it dead right, though.

Link Removed

Also a little tricky, but for very different reasons:

Link Removed

This last one would take me a LONG TIME to tackle as there's very little repetition:

Link Removed

It's true that some musicians on other instruments often (not always) have better reading skills because the sort of parts they get presented with demand it. I know a few pianists and horn players who'd have very little difficulty with any of these examples.
 
#50
i wasn't really taught music much in elementary school,
and i recall being handed a slide trombone at some point and being expected to be able to sight read.
after picking up the bass at 11 and playing by ear, i was busted by my music teacher in the jazz band junior year of high school because i couldn't read good bye pork pie hat. he freaked that i couldn't read, and i asked him to show me. his response? too late for you! and he kicked me out of the jazz band. thanks mr. wynn, you douche.
i graduated hs and took music in community college, but touring got in the way so i never finished the program.
i chose f.
 
#51
I'm a D, probably. I understand all of it, except for how to make it flow without a hitch. Unfortunately, I never needed to do it on a regular basis because I had a great memory.

I once knew a trumpeter in the Baltimore Symphony who would literally play written music forward, backward, upside-down, and in different clefs to train himself to see and hear every possible variation. He said the trouble with reading music is that anything less than perfect is wrong.

No pressure there, is there?
 
#52
I put it as an A. I read music pretty much all the time, and half the time I go into a rehearsal at a musical without looking at the book (most of the time, I don't have it in advance), and read it down fairly easily.
 
#54
Bruce Lindfield said:
Same for me in Jazz, I'm reading lead sheets all time, but am only rarely given a written bass line - I often feel guilty how the horn players read really complex stuff at the drop of a hat - but that's because they are doing it all the time in big bands etc.

I try reading heads of Jazz tunes all the time and my other thought for reading practice, was singing bass in choir...;)
Click to expand...

If you do big band, orchestral or show work, you see lots of notes. The stuff I usually do requires me to be able to navigate a lead sheet and/or read actual notation with ledger lines above the staff and below. Marches tend to be a little tricky as they are usually in cut time and notated for the range of a Tuba.
 
#55
How about this?
atushi.gif
 
#56
i said D. i have grade 6 in theory (closer to grade 7) i can read in in Bass treble and Alto clef and understand a fair amount of italian directions etc... The reason for the D is my sight reading it is awful.

I could learn a piece from written music given time. i can transpose both keys and instruments i.e Horn in F down to middle C type stuff. wrangling with key sings whilst sight reading is a pain, but i know that all i gotta is practice
 
#57
I used to play for our community theater - shows like 'Annie' and 'Always Patsy Cline' - playing those charts is a great way to build reading skills as they play in all the keys and various meters. A great way to start reading is grab a hymnal and play the bass parts - they can get you used to reading the dots in various keys (yes even those with flats) - they are within the range of the instrument and the rythms are simple enough to allow you get used to reading before moving on to something more challenging. (I generously give myself a 'B'.)
 
#58
Bruce Lindfield said:
I often feel guilty how the horn players read really complex stuff at the drop of a hat - but that's because they are doing it all the time in big bands etc.
Click to expand...
The readers who really impress me are often piano players. The other day, I played a jazz trio gig, and the pianist showed up with a bunch of hard bop sextet arrangements a friend gave him, and told us that he wanted to play that material because he was curious to hear how it sounded. He gave the drummer the drum parts, I got the bass parts, and for himself, he had taped together the piano parts, the trumpet parts (in Bb), the alto parts (in Eb), and the tenor part (in Bb). He then proceeded to sight-read those four charts at the same time, transpose the horn parts and play a reduction of everything, on the spot.

I kept the bass charts, here's one page. It's a good example of what I'm supposed to be able to read at first sight:

splitkick.jpg
 
#59
bassybill said:
I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to play Jaco's version of Donna Lee at tempo perfectly on sight, first take! I would guess that's pretty much impossible..
Click to expand...

But in a way that's missing the point! :eyebrow:

Donna Lee is a Jazz standard that Jaco has taken and improvised over a few choruses after playing the head.

So it's not a written piece, it is improvisation and I have played that tune many times in a Jazz context and nobody would expect you to play transcribed solos note-for-note and even the head is never played exactly as written every time..:hmm:
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back