Yup - I agree, there are loads of other tunes/pieces we could be discussing in this context, as I have been trying to say!
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How's your reading?
- Thread starter BassyBill
- Start date
Yup - I agree, there are loads of other tunes/pieces we could be discussing in this context, as I have been trying to say!
No worries, mates. I get fixated on things a lot too. 
I have a question: how do you improve your ability to read 16th note patterns with rests, etc? I'm sensing the whole reading thing has to do with recognizing and knowing common patterns, especially when it's the same style of music. I'm trying to improve as far as being a funk/r&b type player. Any suggestions?
I have a question: how do you improve your ability to read 16th note patterns with rests, etc? I'm sensing the whole reading thing has to do with recognizing and knowing common patterns, especially when it's the same style of music. I'm trying to improve as far as being a funk/r&b type player. Any suggestions?
No worries, mates. I get fixated on things a lot too.
I have a question: how do you improve your ability to read 16th note patterns with rests, etc? I'm sensing the whole reading thing has to do with recognizing and knowing common patterns, especially when it's the same style of music. I'm trying to improve as far as being a funk/r&b type player. Any suggestions?
Memorize all the combinations of 16ths and rests, like you would the multiplication table. Having said that I gave myself a C
I can read, and practice it daily, it gets better with time. I've done some pit stuff, and it gave me such a headache I swore I'd get good enough where the gigs wouldn't kill me. I'd take my charts home to study, admired the guys who just didn't worry bout a thing. Show up, play the chart, go home.No worries, mates. I get fixated on things a lot too.
I have a question: how do you improve your ability to read 16th note patterns with rests, etc? I'm sensing the whole reading thing has to do with recognizing and knowing common patterns, especially when it's the same style of music. I'm trying to improve as far as being a funk/r&b type player. Any suggestions?
With the funk/RnB thing it's as you say, learning how common rhythms sound especially the 16th's after and before the down beat. Practice these and internalise how they sound by themselves then put them into context, maybe a simple drum loop then play then downbeat and then the 16th straight after or before the next downbeat.
This should give you the sense of movement and swing that these notes cause and would then begin to make things easier when confronted by a barrage of 16ths.
I agree that we should avoid ruining the thread any further with pointless discussion fuelled by incomprehension.
As regards playing complicated phrasing, including dotted eighths, 16th notes and equivalent value rests, I've found it helps to separate reading the phrasing from reading the pitch. Just sit down with your sheet of music without your bass and tap the phrases out. Or play the phrases as ghost notes whilst muting the strings on your bass, if you prefer. Once you have the phrasing right, then start to work on playing the right notes. Deal with one phrase at a time if you need to. And if you get really stuck on a phrase, try re-writing it with note values all doubled, then play it first slowly and then speed up.
This will help you "wood-shed" a piece until you get it right, and if you keep immersing yourself in this sort of practice your reading/recognition will improve to the point where you can start working a bit more on sight reading (something I'm trying hard to improve in recent weeks and months). Working through unfamiliar charts with a metronome or click works well here - start slow, speed up. But don't spend so long on one piece that you get to know it so well that you're no longer reading it.
As regards playing complicated phrasing, including dotted eighths, 16th notes and equivalent value rests, I've found it helps to separate reading the phrasing from reading the pitch. Just sit down with your sheet of music without your bass and tap the phrases out. Or play the phrases as ghost notes whilst muting the strings on your bass, if you prefer. Once you have the phrasing right, then start to work on playing the right notes. Deal with one phrase at a time if you need to. And if you get really stuck on a phrase, try re-writing it with note values all doubled, then play it first slowly and then speed up.
This will help you "wood-shed" a piece until you get it right, and if you keep immersing yourself in this sort of practice your reading/recognition will improve to the point where you can start working a bit more on sight reading (something I'm trying hard to improve in recent weeks and months). Working through unfamiliar charts with a metronome or click works well here - start slow, speed up. But don't spend so long on one piece that you get to know it so well that you're no longer reading it.
Singing or reciting mnemonics can help - drummers do this with difficult rhythms!
Going back to "Do I Do" by Stevie Wonder - if you sing along with the part about "Candy Kisses" and "Chocolate Covered Kisses etc." - then you are singing 16th notes!!
Easy!
Going back to "Do I Do" by Stevie Wonder - if you sing along with the part about "Candy Kisses" and "Chocolate Covered Kisses etc." - then you are singing 16th notes!!
Easy! 
Can work out written score but it takes me a while. Cant sight read the more complex stuff yet...
Chord charts, anyone?
Chord charts, anyone?
I learned how to read simple charts in high school band class, and have never used it since.
I gave my self an 'E' for lack of 'E'ffort
I gave my self an 'E' for lack of 'E'ffort
I gave myself a D probably should have been lower though. I can read given enough time. I used to be able to sight read very well when I was in band, but that never transpired onto the bass guitar (I used to play trumpet). I think it was just the mentality behind the bass. I didn't think of it as that kind of instrument...at least not at first. Maybe it was because I started out reading tableture. Now, I can sight read tab very well, even if I just glance up at the staff above to get the rhythm (thats usually how bass books come anyway 
).
This is what happens to me. I will play through a few bars an then just memorize them and then I'm not reading the music anymore, I'm just playing from memory. Even if I take the time to write out the notes and everything, I'm still just playing by ear then. I guess I'm trying to play too fast.
).This is what happens to me. I will play through a few bars an then just memorize them and then I'm not reading the music anymore, I'm just playing from memory. Even if I take the time to write out the notes and everything, I'm still just playing by ear then. I guess I'm trying to play too fast.
I've been reading music since age 7 (in gradually increasing complexity, of course). Most of my reading is for choral singing, but I will read a bass part off sheet music when it's provided. Since I don't often play jazz, there isn't often the opportunity, since I work off chord sheets, or by ear.
A couple of years ago, we did a Brubeck piece from his Christmas cantata "La Fiesta De La Posada" and it was in 5/4. So I practiced, and at the performance, I read all the way through. It wasn't that hard, but it was Brubeck, and NO WAY was I going to rely on my memory.
A couple of years ago, we did a Brubeck piece from his Christmas cantata "La Fiesta De La Posada" and it was in 5/4. So I practiced, and at the performance, I read all the way through. It wasn't that hard, but it was Brubeck, and NO WAY was I going to rely on my memory.
I did a rehearsal yesterday where we played a new chart - "What is Hip?" by Tower of Power. Here's the bass part (what I got given wasn't exactly the same as this, but very similar).
http://www.lucaspickford.com/tranship.htm
No way would I have read that on sight! I got given the part last week and I reckon it took me 3-4 hours of solid practice at it before I'd nailed it. It went well at rehearsal, anyway. Phew...
How does 3-4 hours sound to you guys who are "A" grade readers? Not all of that time was working out the dots, of course. I had to get the chops together as well, it's not easy to play (not for me anyway).
There's some REALLY great music on that site, by the way. Click the link at the bottom of the page. Thank you, Mr Pickford.
http://www.lucaspickford.com/tranship.htm
No way would I have read that on sight! I got given the part last week and I reckon it took me 3-4 hours of solid practice at it before I'd nailed it. It went well at rehearsal, anyway. Phew...
How does 3-4 hours sound to you guys who are "A" grade readers? Not all of that time was working out the dots, of course. I had to get the chops together as well, it's not easy to play (not for me anyway).
There's some REALLY great music on that site, by the way. Click the link at the bottom of the page. Thank you, Mr Pickford.
Interesting example. I looked at the Pickford transcription you cited, and I'm (humbly, I swear!) confident I could nail that in one take
...BUT, that's because I've heard the tune "What Is Hip?" a million times and I'm reasonably familiar with how the bass part is supposed to go. So strictly speaking I'm not sure you'd call what I'd be doing "sight reading". (Although I'd certainly have my nose buried in the chart & would be 100% clueless if you took it away mid-tune, so I wouldn't just be playing from memory.)
If you whipped out an original chart in the style of "What Is Hip?" with similar phrases & figures but that was decidedly different from the ToP tune, my humble confidence would definitely drop. I'm definitely not an "A" grade reader in that sense!
If reading ability was gasoline, I wouldn't have enough to drive a pissant's go kart around a cheerio.
this, +10, when i played the piano i could sightread like satan but then i quit playing music for a year and then started bass, the year off didnt help my reading skillz
Ric5
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- Jan 29, 2008
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I find the less I read and the more I play by ear the better my playing sounds. But many times the fast track to learning a song is sheet music.
Wow - I'd be impressed in that case. For the reading, and also the technique. It's a tricky little number.
Give it a go and let us know how you get on!
