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Improving your sight reading.

mebusdriver

mebusdriver

Jun 11, 2001
900
23
42
USA, Warner Robins GA
#1
Looking for some recommendations on how to improve my reading skills. My main problem is rhythm and playing charts with tons of sharps or flats. Can anyone recommend a good book, video, lesson, or charts with a lot of rhythm studies or someone that explains how to approach the charts with several sharps and flats?

I'm in the beginning stages of reading. Still mainly playjng everything in the first position the first couple times thru. But a lot of the material my band has been covering lately has gotten harder. A lot of funk so the rhythm stuff is getting harder to read. And a lot of charts transposed to fit our singers voice so the keys are raised or lowered accordingly. Making the connection with what position to play the charts in with all those flats and sharps is baffling me.

I'm one of those slow leathers that has to rep stuff over and over again. So anything that has a ton of practice material and examples works well for me. Thanks
 
#2
Simply put, the best way to learn it to do every day for a long time. You don't need a specialised book to do it, only new sheet music and chord charts to read on a regular basis.

Check out the Real Book, in treble and bass clef. It's a book that has a ton of standards from the past. Actually, check out any fakebook that has songs with chords and notes you can read.

Take those books, and try to read through a song everyday. Go as slowly as you need to, but DO NOT STOP playing until you reach the end of the song. Set a metronome so you always have a reference of time. Once you've gotten through the song, go back and work on parts you missed and refine it until you can get it right. By practicing it like this, you'll improve both your sight-reading (reading down a tune the first time you see it) and general reading skills.

For specific rhythm, look up the Standing in the Shadows of Motown book with transcriptions from James Jamerson. Also look into Latin music and read the parts from any instrument (you'll learn treble clef as well this way).

To get a better grasp on how to use chord chards, look up scales that correspond to different chords (this will improve your harmony skills). Also find recordings of songs you have chord charts for and see how the bassist in the recording makes his/her way through the tune.
 
#3
Rudreax said:
Simply put, the best way to learn it to do every day for a long time. You don't need a specialised book to do it, only new sheet music and chord charts to read on a regular basis.

Check out the Real Book, in treble and bass clef. It's a book that has a ton of standards from the past. Actually, check out any fakebook that has songs with chords and notes you can read.

Take those books, and try to read through a song everyday. Go as slowly as you need to, but DO NOT STOP playing until you reach the end of the song. Set a metronome so you always have a reference of time. Once you've gotten through the song, go back and work on parts you missed and refine it until you can get it right. By practicing it like this, you'll improve both your sight-reading (reading down a tune the first time you see it) and general reading skills.

For specific rhythm, look up the Standing in the Shadows of Motown book with transcriptions from James Jamerson. Also look into Latin music and read the parts from any instrument (you'll learn treble clef as well this way).

To get a better grasp on how to use chord chards, look up scales that correspond to different chords (this will improve your harmony skills). Also find recordings of songs you have chord charts for and see how the bassist in the recording makes his/her way through the tune.
Click to expand...

Awesome!! Thanks man. I just got ahold of about 20 gigs worth of charts , books, and instructionals from a band member. So it looks like I've got all the material I need. I just gotta start going thru it. I just didnt want to approach it wrong and waste a bunch of time. Right on man. Thanks again.
 
#4
I think there was just a thread on this, but one thing I would do is always use a metronome when sight reading, otherwise it's hard to keep tempo and you're tendency will be to slow down. I'd also record myself to see how you are doing. It's hard to be objective when you are in the heat of the moment.

Good luck. It's a skill that will serve you well.
 
#5
I have a bunch of tower of power charts and the thing is there are a lot of recurring patterns. My suggestion - take a few charts and transcribe a dozen of the funky syncopated lines on one sheet of paper. get to know what the sound is of the various 1 measure phrases. SING the Rhythms first - if you cannot sing you can not really play it.
The play them slowly at like 50 - 60 bpm - singng the rhythms along - then speed up to where you can play them at 120 bpm. Slow and steady and sing - you do this for 1 week 30 minutes a day and you will kill the rhythms. If you have to place a slash mark on the paper wher each beat is so you can better see the subdivisions.
For other keys make it additive meaning start in C and work your way around the cicle of fifths learning what # or b is added for the next key. Then, yep you guessed it transpose those 12 lines you learned so well slowly by saying the notes as you play them.
 
#6
mebusdriver said:
Awesome!! Thanks man. I just got ahold of about 20 gigs worth of charts , books, and instructionals from a band member. So it looks like I've got all the material I need. I just gotta start going thru it. I just didnt want to approach it wrong and waste a bunch of time. Right on man. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

IMO, if you don't spend at least once a week reading in real time i.e. rehearsals or gigs with actual people you will only get but so far with your reading.
 
#7
You can learn a lot by writing too. I would suggest regularly making up a riff and transcribing it.

My other usual suggestion is learn to read Latin /Afro Cuban bass lines. They are great for learning because 1.) The note choices are often roots and fifths so you can focus on rhythm, 2.) they are quite syncopated, getting you used to notes and riffs on off beats, and 3.) the subdivisions rarely get smaller than 8th notes.
 
#9
Thanks guys. I read every day now. Well, for the last two months. I'm in a guard band so we only meet one weekend a month for rehearsals. So we try to get as much material covered, in our limited, time as possible. Every member of the band is twice my age and very seasoned. Needless to say we rely heavily on "playing the ink". I'm definitely the weakest link when it comes to that part. Hahaha. So I've gotta catch up quick. Thanks again!! TB never fails!
 
#10
There are two book I highly suggest to improve reading:

- Reading Modern text In 4/4 by Louis Bellson
- Sight Reading for the Bass by Ron Velosky

The first one if to improve your rhythm reading and the second to improve your quick sight reading. If you do both page after page without rush and giving yourself the time to learn accurately you won't have any problem to read good and than you can move to the next step, working on real music charts.
Anyway if you need any help feel free to PV. I have a reading class program and I will be happy to help you.
Cheers. Enrico
www.enricogaletta.com
on YouTube
on Twitter
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
#11
lfmn16 said:
I think there was just a thread on this, but one thing I would do is always use a metronome when sight reading, otherwise it's hard to keep tempo and you're tendency will be to slow down.
Click to expand...

I may be in the minority here, and I am not trying to start a flame war, but whenever I hear ALWAYS...

When I first read through a piece of sheet music, I am only deciphering, not sight reading. It is frustrating, infuriating, demotivating and depressing, to have a metronome on during the first read through. It is hard to figure out both the notes and timing AT THE SAME time. You are still looking for the next note, and many clicks are going by...

When I took piano class back in college many years ago, only one girl in the class could sight read the notes and the timing at the same time. You could put a piece of sheet music in front of her, and she could play it right off. We all tried, but she did it. She was really good. That takes years of practice.

First as an exercise, I decipher the key signature, and play the major scale of the key signature. Note any sharps or flats. Then play through a couple of times, without any timing going on. Then go for slow timing. If there are any tricky syncopated parts, I count them out loud. Then speed it up. Eventually, it starts to sound like the song. I may not be right from the purist standpoint, but it works for me.

My point: Unless you are getting paid for sightreading, you can play through a couple of times before you turn the metronome on.
 
#12
Woodstockz said:
I may be in the minority here, and I am not trying to start a flame war, but whenever I hear ALWAYS...

When I first read through a piece of sheet music, I am only deciphering, not sight reading. It is frustrating, infuriating, demotivating and depressing, to have a metronome on during the first read through. It is hard to figure out both the notes and timing AT THE SAME time. You are still looking for the next note, and many clicks are going by...

When I took piano class back in college many years ago, only one girl in the class could sight read the notes and the timing at the same time. You could put a piece of sheet music in front of her, and she could play it right off. We all tried, but she did it. She was really good. That takes years of practice.

First as an exercise, I decipher the key signature, and play the major scale of the key signature. Note any sharps or flats. Then play through a couple of times, without any timing going on. Then go for slow timing. If there are any tricky syncopated parts, I count them out loud. Then speed it up. Eventually, it starts to sound like the song. I may not be right from the purist standpoint, but it works for me.

My point: Unless you are getting paid for sightreading, you can play through a couple of times before you turn the metronome on.
Click to expand...

I know that Carol Kaye recommends playing the notes out of time first and then the rhythm and then putting the two together.
 
#13
bassinplace said:
I know that Carol Kaye recommends playing the notes out of time first and then the rhythm and then putting the two together.
Click to expand...

So does Ed Friedland...

"Regardless, you should practice out of time until you get more familiar with the changes and where they lay out on the neck. Trying to play in time before you know where to go will just be frustrating. There is no time line, you move on when you're ready."

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f22/building-walking-basslines-lesson-1-a-673787/index18.html
 
#15
To clarify what I meant by that. I can get thru a chart no problem. I stick to the changes and play the roots and get thru the song first try no problem. But it's very boring and mundane, and a little discouraging when everyone is hitting all the rhythms and I'm just riding out the changes.

Second and third time thru I start to pick up on the "important" parts and get some of the syncopations down and catch more of the key melody parts. Usually after about 5-7 try's I can get a piece almost perfect. But.... We don't play tunes 5-7 times. We usually run a song once, then redo a section that everyone had trouble with, then we move on to the next tune.

So it's not so bad. But when you go from playjng Midnight Train to GA, to Peg by Steely Dan, to Diggin on James Brown by Tower of Power, to What Time It Is by Chicago.... You gotta hit the rhythm changes. So much of the songs rely on the rhythm changes and melodies to make it right. So practicing is one thing. But getting it right in a rehearsal setting is pretty important with my limited time.

Thanks for all the help!
 
#18
Learning to read? As Jaco says in his video ~5:30, "Just hard practice. You gotta put in lots of hours."

I feel for you, bro - I'm in the same position. I've been playing for years and years but I'm now going back to learn all the fundamentals (like reading) I skipped. I learned how to read G Clef in school on another instrument so that definitely helps. It's frustrating to have to play Mary had a Little Lamb when you've been able to play Rush and Maiden tunes for 20 years.

+1 on the metronome! It's amazing how much people spend on gear but don't have a $10 metronome. That thing will do more for one's playing than any other piece of equipment.
 
#19
I sat next to a guy on an airplane who composed music for shows and also played piano and bass. He told me about an exercise that takes about 15-20 minutes to play through that had just about every rhythmic pattern you could imagine in it. He said once you're used to reading that you just spot the rhythms. They become part of your sight reading vocabulary and you don't need to figure them out, you recognize them when you see them. Unfortunately I don't know what this was or where to find it, but wish I did... Anyone heard of this?

In terms of sight reading in different key signatures, you mght buy the Simandl 30 Etudes. They are in pretty much all the keys. There is a version with a CD that has the piano accompaniment. It's for DB. (Ignore the bowing instructions!)

Jim
 
#20
jsbarber said:
I sat next to a guy on an airplane who composed music for shows and also played piano and bass. He told me about an exercise that takes about 15-20 minutes to play through that had just about every rhythmic pattern you could imagine in it. He said once you're used to reading that you just spot the rhythms. They become part of your sight reading vocabulary and you don't need to figure them out, you recognize them when you see them. Unfortunately I don't know what this was or where to find it, but wish I did... Anyone heard of this?
Click to expand...

My high school orchestra teacher wrote something similar for us to use as a warm up. That was for a full orchestra though (didn't just work on rhythms, but also bowings/listening within the ensemble, etc.), I'd love to see something just for electric bass.
 

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