jazzbo said:
Yup. Absolutely. It's a whole lot easier for me to work on note reading when I'm trying to read something that I enjoy, as compared to trying to read a bunch of scales I've stared at and played over and over before.
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Learning to read notation sucks
- Thread starter Guss
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Yup. Absolutely. It's a whole lot easier for me to work on note reading when I'm trying to read something that I enjoy, as compared to trying to read a bunch of scales I've stared at and played over and over before.
If you find music written for the electric bass boring, you could always go to your local library and borrow books with sheet music there. I borrowed books with a whole bunch of children songs, and they're all in treble clef, so I sit down and transpose them to bass clef and then I'll play them. I think that is great practice, at least for me, the not so experienced sight reader.
Guss said:
There is one reason why you are not motivated. I'd put money on fact that you sit down motivated to read, but when getting into it, you get distracted easily, find yourself reading something over and over and oddly forgetting what you read, and eventually you will just stop. Well, here is the answer my freind. You've passed over something that you don't understand. Seriously. Could've been a word, a symbol, but something you didn't understand. So, what you need to do is get a good music dictionary and a guitarists tablature dictionary. Whenever you see something that is unfamiliar to you, or just doesn't make sense or you notice that you're losing interest, stop. Look for something you don't understand. Time signatures, dots, italian terms, you get the idea. Look it up and then make sure you REALLY get it before continuing. You will find that your practice time has become productive and you will grow as a musician much faster. Try it, you'll see. If you've got questions about this, PM me. I'd be happy to help.
Guss,
Research supposedly shows that we learn best when we are in the position of teacher rather than student!
Thus, consider finding someone who wants to learn notation - and teach it to him or her.
Of course, you'll have to learn it yourself to pass on the correct information (but you'll be thinking like a teacher - not a student - so it will probably be easier).
This may sound ridiculous, but it's not.
For me, thinking "like a teacher" works a lot better than thinking like a student. I learn quicker and more completely.
And I have found this approach helpful in several areas of learning outside of music.
Good luck - this could work for you!
Research supposedly shows that we learn best when we are in the position of teacher rather than student!
Thus, consider finding someone who wants to learn notation - and teach it to him or her.
Of course, you'll have to learn it yourself to pass on the correct information (but you'll be thinking like a teacher - not a student - so it will probably be easier).
This may sound ridiculous, but it's not.
For me, thinking "like a teacher" works a lot better than thinking like a student. I learn quicker and more completely.
And I have found this approach helpful in several areas of learning outside of music.
Good luck - this could work for you!
Yeah it does suck. I never had the patience for it eithier. I can just play by ear or tab....BUT ultimatley I know it must be done in order to take my playing to the next level. Let's face it I don't know about you but rock has limitations. I want to get into the jazz, blues, etc. Has anyone took a song that was tabbed and then took the sheet music in standard notation and sort of used both, used the tab as a guide for site reading standard notation? Just wondering if that would be bennificial?
Honestly, one of the best ways I've found to learn to read is to transcribe a tune I learned by ear. There's a great piece of software called G7 by Sibelius. I actually use that for my transcriptions, and it plays back as midi, so I can figure out if I'm on target rhythmically. There are cheaper alternatives out there, like Melody Assistant, but G7 is really smooth and easy to use. Now, you could "cheat" by simply entering notes using the fretboard, but the thing I've found is it's usually not pitches that are hard with notation, but rhythms.
--Len
--Len
I've just recently started down the road of learning to read standard notation. I was kinda forced into it because I bought a Jaco book which was all written in standard.
So what I'm doing is this. I put my fretboard chart with all the notes in front of me along with a bass clef chart (all cows eat grass and good boys do fine allways).
Then I decipher the standard notation with these carts into the musical alphabet and just write it out like DFGB or whatever.
I then find the notes on the fretboard and choose ones in the area of the fretboard that seem apropriate.
It's a slow process but a good one in my opinion because I feel I'm learning not only how to read but learning where the notes on the board are as well as how they sound.
It's like anything else you can read all you want about it but until you apply it most likely it won't sink in. Just needs a lot of good old fashioned hard work.
So what I'm doing is this. I put my fretboard chart with all the notes in front of me along with a bass clef chart (all cows eat grass and good boys do fine allways).
Then I decipher the standard notation with these carts into the musical alphabet and just write it out like DFGB or whatever.
I then find the notes on the fretboard and choose ones in the area of the fretboard that seem apropriate.
It's a slow process but a good one in my opinion because I feel I'm learning not only how to read but learning where the notes on the board are as well as how they sound.
It's like anything else you can read all you want about it but until you apply it most likely it won't sink in. Just needs a lot of good old fashioned hard work.
Quote:
Also don't play in time until you learn the piece. Learn the piece you are working on freely then put everything in time, then add a drum machine or metronome if you want something to play along with. The bottom line is you can't play something in time if you don't first know it. So learn it first then add time.
Really good advice posted above.
When I first started to learn sight reading, I'd do it to a metronome or drum machine, and would get extremely frustrated because I couldnt keep up with it, was making mistakes, etc. Its a motivation killer, (at least to me) and made me give up on it for a little while.
Also don't play in time until you learn the piece. Learn the piece you are working on freely then put everything in time, then add a drum machine or metronome if you want something to play along with. The bottom line is you can't play something in time if you don't first know it. So learn it first then add time.
Really good advice posted above.
When I first started to learn sight reading, I'd do it to a metronome or drum machine, and would get extremely frustrated because I couldnt keep up with it, was making mistakes, etc. Its a motivation killer, (at least to me) and made me give up on it for a little while.
I think better advice would be to keep the metronome going, but slow it down to a point where you can stay in time, even if it has to be reallllllly slow. But always keep time, the rhythmic values are 50% of what you're looking at on the sheet, it is unwise to ignore it.tim99 said:
leanne said:
I almost always agree with using a metronome.
Id have mine on when doing very simple rhythms, but when it came to more complex rhythms Id turn it off and read the line, once I got a better grasp of counting & playing the rests, rhythms, etc, Id turn it back on. This worked for me, but of course YMMV.
