I just want to read sheet music.

[pbass888]

I use this with students its a great online resource cost about 4 dollars a month.Its starts with the basics and has great daily etudes.
Practice Sight Reading and Sight Singing Exercises Online – Sight Reading Factory®

Also use it to work on intonation with my fretless. I learned reading after I learned how to play. I feel its like learning to read the English language, it opens up the entire history of music !

Best
pbass888

 

[StatesideRambler]

This does help, I need to find more music written specifically for bass. Do you have any recommendations as to where to find it? I am an absolute beginner to this instrument.

I recommend Jamey Aebersold (jazzbooks.com) as a resource. It's jazz focused but there's a lot for bass that applies to all styles and many of their products have accompanying CDs. A lot will depend on what music you play. This one is $60 but it has three volumes with CDs and covers many styles:
jazzbooks.com: Product Details

I only recently went back to reading (after nearly 50 years) to join our community theater orchestra and I have been helped by Jim Stinnett's Sight Reading Book One (1472 measures progressing from rudimentary to fairly challenging). He also wrote Reading in Bass Clef which I haven't used but I've read good things about. He says it's his most popular book.

I bet a nearby college is likely to have a sheet music collection you could use.

Also check out Sher Music Co. (Jazz & Latin Music Real Books and Method Books | Sher Music Co.) and Hal Leonard (Hal Leonard Online) and Alfred Music (Invalid Link Removed), too.

HTH

 

[Spin Doctor]

Hello everyone! I've already seen multiple discussions regarding this question but I'm now even more confused. My original question was how to play middle c on bass. After reading MANY lengthy threads about music theory, and bass being written an octave lower, and middle c sounding like the 17th fret on the bla bla bla but actually being the 5th on the bla bla bla... I am so lost. My question is simple. I just want to be able to play bass from sheet. I can read sheet, I understand music theory. Please do not explain this to me. I need a starting point. If I am reading the music and see G as the note on the bottom line of my bass clef staff, where is it played in the bass? I hope I am clear enough. Thank you for your help.

Just get this book. It's cheap, it's easy and it works.

Comes with audio too, so you can hear what you're supposed to sound like. It starts you from the very beginning and gets you to the point where you can sight read notes and rhythm. You start trying to read out of jazz books and classical etudes, your head will explode. Just forget that. This book is specifically designed to teach you to read with a graduated approach to playing. I thought it was awesome. Once you get through it, you can move on to other stuff if you want. But this will put you ahead of 99% of bass players.

Simplified Sight-Reading for Bass

https://www.amazon.com/Simplified-S...ocphy=9007680&hvtargid=pla-645969414192&psc=1

 

[B-Mac]

I can't recommend this enough for getting a good grasp on reading for bass guitar
Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete... book by Ed Friedland

Ed Friedland is awesome and you've seen a bunch of his vids as the Bass Whisperer

 

[Msky]

I recommend Jamey Aebersold (jazzbooks.com) as a resource. It's jazz focused but there's a lot for bass that applies to all styles and many of their products have accompanying CDs. A lot will depend on what music you play. This one is $60 but it has three volumes with CDs and covers many styles:
jazzbooks.com: Product Details

I only recently went back to reading (after nearly 50 years) to join our community theater orchestra and I have been helped by Jim Stinnett's Sight Reading Book One (1472 measures progressing from rudimentary to fairly challenging). He also wrote Reading in Bass Clef which I haven't used but I've read good things about. He says it's his most popular book.

I bet a nearby college is likely to have a sheet music collection you could use.

Also check out Sher Music Co. (Jazz & Latin Music Real Books and Method Books | Sher Music Co.) and Hal Leonard (Hal Leonard Online) and Alfred Music (Invalid Link Removed), too.

HTH

I want to stay jazz focused anyhow so I will check these out.

 

[esoxhntr]

If I am reading the music and see G as the note on the bottom line of my bass clef staff, where is it played in the bass? I hope I am clear enough.

Are you reading a bass part, or something else? If you are reading a bass part, that G is on the third fret of your E string. You you are reading something else - like a tuba or piano part, it is the open G string.

 

[thehindteet]

Jim Stinnett's "Reading in Bass Clef" series is the best I've seen. They teach you reading through position playing, and they have tons of great examples of common rhythms that are representative of what you'll face in actual sight reading situations. Several of them include backing tracks as well. I love these and have recommended them to dozens of students over the years.

 

[Pirate Captain]

don't you mean "from charts"

 

[FenderB]

"I just want to read sheet music". So what's stopping you?

 

[Stumbo]

Here's a link to some sight reading threads on the topic: Learning Links for All Bass Players | TalkBass.com

Check this study guide out: a fretboard finger position diagram with related staff notes. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Low Down Brown]

and since he can't read sheet I'm out of luck.

So...you're sheet outta luck!

Seriously though, great thread and great responses. Insightful plus now I have even more books on my 'to-buy' list...

 

[96Brigadier]

I can't recommend this enough for getting a good grasp on reading for bass guitar
Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete... book by Ed Friedland
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Ed Friedland is awesome and you've seen a bunch of his vids as the Bass Whisperer

This is the series I used (and continue to use)... it's been great.

For rhythm only I like this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Understandin...standing+rhythm&qid=1559071410&s=books&sr=1-1

 

[vvvmmm]

I just wanna say that I loathe trying to sight read - no sheet.

 

[B-Mac]

I just wanna say that I loathe trying to sight read - no sheet.

It's invaluable especially when all you have is a tab and never ever heard the actual song.

 

[Pilgrim]

Here's half of what the OP wants, I think:

And here's the other half:

Open strings on the bass start with the E that's the third note from the left on the top graphic under "Notes on the bass clef." Every 4th note is an open string - E - A - D - G.

It took me a long time to realize that the first fret on the E isn't F-flat, it's F.

 

[Spin Doctor]

At this point, I'm not too sure what the OP wants or if he does himself. Everyone's throwing out pretty random ideas, lol... He said he wanted to read jazz, but unless you are sight-reading somebody else's solo, all you can read really is chord charts and simple melody lines.

 

[Robscott]

The G on the bottom line of the bass clef staff is the third fret on the E string.

This, ignore every other post

 

[dragon68]

<snip>...he can't read sheet...<snip>

I had to snicker when I read that phrase.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

My question is simple. I just want to be able to play bass from sheet. If I am reading the music and see G as the note on the bottom line of my bass clef staff, where is it played in the bass? I hope I am clear enough. Thank you for your help.

Post # 2 answered the question. Then we went off and had fun.....

Invalid Link Removed

 

[nnnnnn]

Sheet music for bass guitar and double bass is written in the bass clef an octave higher than it sounds for the same reason that guitar music is written in the treble clef an octave higher then it sounds: to minimise the need for ledger lines.

So with bass guitar sheet music the G on the bottom line of the bass clef is played at the third fret of the E string. This note is the lowest G that can be played on a piano keyboard. With piano sheet music, the G on the bottom line of the bass clef corresponds to the bass guitar's open G.

Having said that, if you're handed piano music and asked to play it on bass guitar there is no one right answer as to which octave will sound best to play it in, it will vary depending on the song and on which other instruments you're playing with. Generally, but not always, I would want to play bass guitar an octave below wherever the pianist or guitarist are playing, regardless of what the sheet music says, in order to fill out the sound that the band is making as a whole.