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Sheet music for practice

stratovani

stratovani

Nov 18, 2007
3,653
1,131
Spencer, MA, USA
#1
Would anyone know where I could download some simple sheet music so I could practice my sight reading? I don't mean anything by Bach or Beethoven, just some simple stuff in the bass clef with no accidentals. I've tried Google but I'm not finding what I need. Right now I have Notes De Musique for my phone, and I'm still doing Good Boys Do Fine Always and All Cows Eat Grass, but I need to progress away from that. My eventual goal is to transcribe Ron Blair and Howie Epstein's bass lines from the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers songs that our Petty tribute band does.
 
#6
I found a great resource in my local library:

2908758.jpg


I picked this particular one, because it has staff for vocals, guitar, and bass.
Well, the bass notes for are supposed to be for piano, but they seem to work fine on bass guitar also.
 
#9
stratovani said:
Would anyone know where I could download some simple sheet music so I could practice my sight reading? I don't mean anything by Bach or Beethoven, just some simple stuff in the bass clef with no accidentals. I've tried Google but I'm not finding what I need. Right now I have Notes De Musique for my phone, and I'm still doing Good Boys Do Fine Always and All Cows Eat Grass, but I need to progress away from that. My eventual goal is to transcribe Ron Blair and Howie Epstein's bass lines from the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers songs that our Petty tribute band does.
Click to expand...
 
#10
Many years ago I improved my sight reading by playing through simple Bach pieces which are often rhythmically simple and freely available on classical sheet music websites at no cost. Once the note positions are secure you can move on to work on the more complex timings. For this, I would use classical cello sheet music. Again, freely available, you can find graded cello studies that give you more complex timings. Hope this helps.
 
#12
Anything will work. True the Simandl book and the Bach Cello Suites are the usual answers. And it's true that if you look at them, or listen to a recording they can sound really intimidating. But they don't need to be. Just get yourself a metronome and a nice easy tempo and give one count to every sixteenth note. The goal is to learn to ready a note and find where it is on the bass. Use them for that... you aren't going to sound better than Yo Yo Ma anyway, so whats the big deal. Take your time, learn something.
 
#13
Perhaps I should explain my rationale for using bach pieces. When you learn with simple songs, you can guess the next note so you do not read in the same way. Sight reading demands obedience to the score no matter where it goes. You can learn to interpret and alter phrasing later on. If you are reading 'Baa Baa Black Sheep for example, your internal knowledge of the song tells you where to go so you don't read it. However, unless you have a teacher by your side, you won't know if you got a more 'random' collection of note right or not. With Bach, there is a sense of knowing if you get out of the genre. This don't sound right if you don't pay them right, even though you don't know the 'melody' by heart. This works for getting the right notes as you don't have to worry too much about timing. Once you have the notes sorted out, a cello piece will do the same thing, only for complex timings of notes.
 

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