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Reading Bass AND Treble Clef

#5
There’s the mnemonics of the clefs, which is great for some people, e.g. Every Good Bird Does Fly on the ledger lines, and FACE on the spaces. A more useful long term alternative, and this will sound like a smarta** statement but it’s not meant to be, is learn the basics of piano (there’s a ton of free stuff online). Reading multiple clefs will become a byproduct of understanding contrapuntal playing. That said sight reading is like any other language, if you don’t use it regularly, you’ll lose it.
 
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#6
When I first started with treble clef, I had to go in slow motion, flipping every note I saw down one whole line or one whole space. After one month I didn’t have to go in slow motion anymore. After two months I no longer needed to jump down a line or space. By that time I just knew treble clef.
 
#7
Axtman said:
I can read bass clef notation okay but when I try to read treble clef it scrambles my brain and I get confused. Those of you that can do it, how do you keep them straight?
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i regularly (daily) read treble, bass, alto, and tenor clef. i was not a good sight reader as a student, but when i was starting out playing professionally/more seriously i found myself reading all the time and just getting better at it.

the number one thing I think holds people back is your expectations of yourself. any of my advancing bass students end up learning tenor as well as treble clef, so i've been through this quite a few times.

realizing that, even though notes are all just dots/they look the same, you can become fluent and it's not as hard as you think is a big part of it.

once that is out of the way, accept that you'll mix notes up for a while and this is part of the process. clef-lexia as my professors used to call it.

go very slow and read a tiny bit every day. half notes on the first few lines of the clef can take weeks. i do think flashcards help but not really that much - nothing replaces the experience of actually playing what you see, even if it's super slow and you are stopping to count/figure out what note goes where.

it's also very worth the effort. none of my students ever regretted putting time into learning a second or third clef.
 
#9
Axtman said:
I can read bass clef notation okay but when I try to read treble clef it scrambles my brain and I get confused. Those of you that can do it, how do you keep them straight?
Click to expand...

Um…experience, I guess? :shrugs:

I will note that when I am holding a bass in my hands and looking at music written in bass clef, all seems right in the world… and, when I am holding a guitar in my hands and looking at music written in treble clef, all seems right in the world as well. But put a bass in my hands and treble clef sheet music in front of me, and there is definitely a moment of complete confusion!
 
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#10
I started out on piano (at age 6) so I was used to bass and treble clef reading before I started on bass a few years later. I just try to include reading in both clefs in my practice routine as regularly as possible. Like any kind of reading, regular repetition is the key to fluency.

FWIW, I don't actually see too many fully written parts that have much treble cleff, but that's just me and my situation.

good luck OP
 

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