Learning How to Read Music (for older folks).

[IamGroot]

Lets say your 40, you work a day job and you are tired when you get home, so you want the most efficient way to learn how to read music at a high level.

My suggested method is to break the process down into sequential, smaller easier components:

1) LEARN TO READ JUST THE NOTE DURATIONS.
Youtube has a ton of great videos. Search on "Rhythm Reading". Practice 15min/day until it feels natural.








2) LEARN THE NOTES ON THE BASS CLEFF STAFF
When you are comfortable with rhythm notation, start this step.
Put away your bass. You want to be able to recognize the note value on sight. Make your mental link to the note value, not a location on a bass neck.
On bass clef, the lines are GBDFA, the spaces are ACEG ("A Cow Eats Grass").

Get some bass music from the internet and read out the notes. Sing in time when you get better. Practice 15 min a day, every day. Simandl is helpful here.
Learn from low E to high G three lines above stave.
NOTE, YOU WANT TO THINK NOTES, NOT FINGER POSITIONS ON THE NECK !

3) LEARN THE NOTES ON YOUR BASS
Pick a random note and find every place on the bass where it is.
Jaco said it, I believe it.

4) START READING BASS CLEF SHEET MUSIC ON YOUR INSTRUMENT.
Start out with easy material and practice perfectly.
When I started reading Big Band Charts for group rehearsals, I found I played most material in the lower end of the neck and only went up the neck to grab the higher notes. Its better to learn how to play sheet music comfortably in multiple positions around the neck.



5) FIVE AND SIX STRINGERS.
Learn the additional notes on those strings. Repeat steps 3 and 4. NBD

6) TREBLE CLEF (Optional)
I find this very useful as I play guitar and piano and routinely read treble parts on the bass. I often go weeks reading only treble clef.
Repeat Step 2 for the Treble Clef.

7) TREBLE CLEF, Eb TRANSPOSED FOR ALTO AND BARI SAX
Wanna play along with Charlie Parker and Leo P on the youtube videos?
Playing Eb instrument sheet music is ridiculously easy if you know "THE TRICK".
Imagine the sheet music is bass clef and add 3 flats to the key signature. Voila!!!
If the key is C or a flat key, this is straight forward. For F, think 1 1/2 steps up =Ab, and Bb is Db. Eb is of course C.
If the Key is a sharp key, subtract three sharps. So A on an alto chart is C in Concert, E is G, etc.
F is Ab

8) TREBLE CLEF, Bb TRANSPOSED FOR TENOR OR SOPRANO SAX OR TRUMPET/CORNET
I cheat here and just move my hand down two frets. One of these days, I will do step 2 for Bb.

 

[noeinstein]

Generally great advice for learning any complex skill. Thanks for all the references!

 

[Papageno]

Excellent post. I believe it will be useful to many people.

The key to success depends upon 2 crucial things:
- do this progressively, starting with very easy material, and slowly introducing further stuff.
- practice this as often as possible, every day; even if you have only 10 minutes available, make use of this for practice.

In addition, do not omit to train your ears: you don't want to read just the note names, you want to ear them. So sing what you read. Use a keyboard if you access to one; if not, there are plenty of piano apps for smartphone that you can use for that purpose.

 

[Papageno]

8) TREBLE CLEF, Bb TRANSPOSED FOR TENOR OR SOPRANO SAX OR TRUMPET/CORNET
I cheat here and just move my hand down two frets. One of these days, I will do step 2 for Bb.

For reading music written for Bb instruments, you can use the same trick as the one you used for Eb: pretend it is written in tenor clef, and correct the key signature (add 2 flats, or remove to sharps) and the accidentals.

 

[IamGroot]

For reading music written for Bb instruments, you can use the same trick as the one you used for Eb: pretend it is written in tenor clef, and correct the key signature (add 2 flats, or remove to sharps) and the accidentals.

WOW!!!!!. You are my hero - I think. I cant make it work. Can you give me an example?

 

[IamGroot]

Excellent post. I believe it will be useful to many people.

The key to success depends upon 2 crucial things:
- do this progressively, starting with very easy material, and slowly introducing further stuff.
- practice this as often as possible, every day; even if you have only 10 minutes available, make use of this for practice.

In addition, do not omit to train your ears: you don't want to read just the note names, you want to ear them. So sing what you read. Use a keyboard if you access to one; if not, there are plenty of piano apps for smartphone that you can use for that purpose.

Excellent advice.

 

[Rick Penrose]

Lets say your 40, you work a day job and you are tired when you get home, so you want the most efficient way to learn how to read music at a high level.

My suggested method is to break the process down into sequential, smaller easier components:

1) LEARN TO READ JUST THE NOTE DURATIONS.
Youtube has a ton of great videos. Search on "Rhythm Reading". Practice 15min/day until it feels natural.








2) LEARN THE NOTES ON THE BASS CLEFF STAFF
When you are comfortable with rhythm notation, start this step.
Put away your bass. You want to be able to recognize the note value on sight. Make your mental link to the note value, not a location on a bass neck.
On bass clef, the lines are GBDFA, the spaces are ACEG ("A Cow Eats Grass").

Get some bass music from the internet and read out the notes. Sing in time when you get better. Practice 15 min a day, every day. Simandl is helpful here.
Learn from low E to high G three lines above stave.
NOTE, YOU WANT TO THINK NOTES, NOT FINGER POSITIONS ON THE NECK !

3) LEARN THE NOTES ON YOUR BASS
Pick a random note and find every place on the bass where it is.
Jaco said it, I believe it.

4) START READING BASS CLEF SHEET MUSIC ON YOUR INSTRUMENT.
Start out with easy material and practice perfectly.
When I started reading Big Band Charts for group rehearsals, I found I played most material in the lower end of the neck and only went up the neck to grab the higher notes. Its better to learn how to play sheet music comfortably in multiple positions around the neck.



5) FIVE AND SIX STRINGERS.
Learn the additional notes on those strings. Repeat steps 3 and 4. NBD

6) TREBLE CLEF (Optional)
I find this very useful as I play guitar and piano and routinely read treble parts on the bass. I often go weeks reading only treble clef.
Repeat Step 2 for the Treble Clef.

7) TREBLE CLEF, Eb TRANSPOSED FOR ALTO AND BARI SAX
Wanna play along with Charlie Parker and Leo P on the youtube videos?
Playing Eb instrument sheet music is ridiculously easy if you know "THE TRICK".
Imagine the sheet music is bass clef and add 3 flats to the key signature. Voila!!!
If the key is C or a flat key, this is straight forward. For F, think 1 1/2 steps up =Ab, and Bb is Db. Eb is of course C.
If the Key is a sharp key, subtract three sharps. So A on an alto chart is C in Concert, E is G, etc.
F is Ab

8) TREBLE CLEF, Bb TRANSPOSED FOR TENOR OR SOPRANO SAX OR TRUMPET/CORNET
I cheat here and just move my hand down two frets. One of these days, I will do step 2 for Bb.

Hey i’m Learning to read music.... hey I am old....great advice and info.... rock on!

 

[Papageno]

WOW!!!!!. You are my hero - I think. I cant make it work. Can you give me an example?

The tenor clef is used for cello (and sometimes, but quite rarely, for DB). It has a C on the 4th line (counted from bottom up), so the lines are: D F A C E; from this (and a little bit of practice) you easily find where all other notes are. By comparison, the notes in treble clef are E G B D F (one note higher), that's why you can use it to read stuff written for Bb instruments.

I am personally am quite slow for reading tenor clef, due to lack of regular practice. If for some reason, I need it (for example if I want to read cello literature), within a day of practice, I manage to find my way (provided there are not many ledger lines), ..., and then I forget it due lack of continuous practice. Once you've understood how it works, it's easy to pick up the alto clef (used for viola), which has the C on the 3rd line, the soprano clef (C on 1st line), etc. Alto clef is what trumpet, clarinet, or tenor sax players would need to use (mentally adding 2 sharps) to read music written in concert C; I wonder whether some do this...

 

[IamGroot]

The tenor clef is used for cello (and sometimes, but quite rarely, for DB). It has a C on the 4th line (counted from bottom up), so the lines are: D F A C E; from this (and a little bit of practice) you easily find where all other notes are. By comparison, the notes in treble clef are E G B D F (one note higher), that's why you can use it to read stuff written for Bb instruments.

I am personally am quite slow for reading tenor clef, due to lack of regular practice. If for some reason, I need it (for example if I want to read cello literature), within a day of practice, I manage to find my way (provided there are not many ledger lines), ..., and then I forget it due lack of continuous practice. Once you've understood how it works, it's easy to pick up the alto clef (used for viola), which has the C on the 3rd line, the soprano clef (C on 1st line), etc. Alto clef is what trumpet, clarinet, or tenor sax players would need to use (mentally adding 2 sharps) to read music written in concert C; I wonder whether some do this...

The high Ledger lines for the bass are ACE GBDF. It was an aha moment for me.

I believe Alto clef and Eb transposition for alto sax and Bb from trumpet and tenor sax are all things

 

[Papageno]

The high Ledger lines for the bass are ACE GBDF. It was an aha moment for me.

I am not sure what ledger lines you are talking about. For the bass clef, the (high) ledger lines are C E G B etc. (no A here until the 7th ledger line). The succession of the notes continues the same as within the staff; no big mystery here.

I believe Alto clef and Eb transposition for alto sax and Bb from trumpet and tenor sax are all things

I don't get what you mean here...

 

[Joe Nerve]

Subbed. Thank you!

 

[CallMeAl]

Great advice here. From personal experience, I totally agree with separating the skills like this.

I’m a reformed trumpet player, excellent treble reader. So my rhythms are strong but bass clef is weak. The single best thing I’ve done is working on quarter note walking bass line reading. I do other reading too, but the quarter note studies allow me to zero in on the notes on the staff.

I’ve been working on reading for probably 2 years, and just now feeling where I can sight read pieces. It’s been slow going, but you can make progress. (I’m 41 with a day job, so definitely fall into the “few minutes a day” category.)

Also, nice to see you Groot. I thought you were done with us

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I would discourage anyone from using youtube or anything with a screen and instead work from this book a little bit each day.



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[31HZ]

In addition to several of the suggestions, I've also been using the "Complete Music Reading Trainer" app to help me stay sharp. Recommended.

 

[1958Bassman]

Lets say your 40, you work a day job and you are tired when you get home, so you want the most efficient way to learn how to read music at a high level.

My suggested method is to break the process down into sequential, smaller easier components:

I would suggest not being tired when attempting to learn, well, just about anything.

 

[1958Bassman]

Great advice here. From personal experience, I totally agree with separating the skills like this.

I’m a reformed trumpet player, excellent treble reader. So my rhythms are strong but bass clef is weak. The single best thing I’ve done is working on quarter note walking bass line reading. I do other reading too, but the quarter note studies allow me to zero in on the notes on the staff.

I’ve been working on reading for probably 2 years, and just now feeling where I can sight read pieces. It’s been slow going, but you can make progress. (I’m 41 with a day job, so definitely fall into the “few minutes a day” category.)

Also, nice to see you Groot. I thought you were done with us

I started playing guitar when I was 9 and when I was in 5th Grade, I started playing Trombone in band. I could read treble clef, but nobody bothered to tell me one simple thing- bass clef is just a third lower. I knew the notes below treble clef if bass clef wasn't there, but at the time, I was trying to 'overwrite' the note names in my mind when I had known treble clef since before 2nd grade and that caused a conflict. My solution was to learn the notes WRT the position of the slide and that got me to first chair in about 6 weeks.

This would have helped, a lot-

 

[mambo4]

The best thing about separating the rhythm is you can practice with no instrument.

I grabbed this a PDF of Cliff Engle's Sight Reading for Bass - Rhythm Studies , Eighth & Sixteenth Notes , printed these out , put them into a binder, and took it to the gym treadmill regularly.

The other tip that helps with lines/spaces is memorizing the circle of thirds
C E G B D F A , repeat. It is both the order of lines or spaces and the order of stacked chord tones.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I would discourage anyone from using youtube or anything with a screen and instead work from this book a little bit each day.



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+1
this book is a top drawer resource

 

[pineweasel]

I've tried over the years to learn to read the bass clef, and I've finally made some decent headway using this online course: Simple Steps To Sight Reading
This does exactly what the OP mentions, sequential smaller, easier components within a course framework. I've found it easy to make progress when each step is simple.

 

[GreyBeard]

As a retired band director of 40 years, the best method I ever used was called EASY STEPS TO THE BAND. It taught pitches and notes at the same time. Whole notes on 1 then 2 pitches etc. As soon as possible it introduced familiar tunes to support pitch and rhythm. I used it with 5th graders through 12th. I'm pretty sure a method book called ESSENTIAL ELEMENT'S has a bass guitar method book with CD that uses similar methods as EASY STEPS. Reading music while playing an instrument is one of the most brain intense things one can do. Don't over complicate it.