Thanks everyone.
For Shoka42, here's how I've managed thus far. I already had a idea of the lengths of notes as they are written on the staff, and their relationships to one another: I really don't know how I got that, but there we are. To gain the idea of pitch, I drew a bass staff, named the notes including one small ledger line above and below the normal five lines. This equates to open E going up to C ' G string, 5th fret. OK, I know I'll need more lines above the C, but one step at a time!!
Using the Hendrix book I went through a song (Hey Joey, actually) and gave each note it's name, written in pencil. I took careful note to correctly identify the Key Signature in another music tuition book, then made sure all the sharps (and naturals as appropriate) were correctly named as required by the music.
At that stage I simply read the note names outloud to myself whilst noting where the dots were drawn: I ignored the note's duration at that stage.
I went over that lot again and again I don't know how many times! When I felt fairly confident only then did I strap on the bass. Putting Hendrix aside, I attempted some of the tunes in the cello book. I deliberately DID NOT pencil-in the note names. I then played, err - tried to play - the tunes.
It actually worked in a very slow and stilted kind of way. But, it actually worked.
The biggest difficulty, I found, was that I clearly looked at the fretboard more than I though, when I was playing. You can't look at the fretboard and the music at the same time!! So I am now clearly learning to read music and play the instrument without checking on my left hand.
It does work. Yes. It does work. But I find it very difficult and can't play like this for more than about 10 minutes. After that my concentration goes and I start getting ratty! I'm sure the time I can spend doing it will increase.
I've been doing this for about a week. The playing is definitely smoother and I seem to be hitting the correct notes more often without even thinking about it.
That's it.
John
