Sightreading exercises for five string

[sonicnuance]

I have a bunch of instructional and music books for the four string but I was looking for something to help me with sightreading on the five (with a low B).

Any suggestions? There doesn't seem to be much out there.

I have Simandl, Chuck Rainey, Carol Kaye and Trumpf instructional stuff as well as Mozart Symphony and Piano Sonata scores btw.

Thanks

 

[uprightben]

Why not transpose stuff you already have down a fourth? Or, you could use across the strings fingerings to use the fifth string in upper positions.

 

[sonicnuance]

Why not transpose stuff you already have down a fourth? Or, you could use across the strings fingerings to use the fifth string in upper positions.

Both excellent questions.

For the first, if you mean transpose by hand then my answer is I don't have time for it at the moment and would rather pay someone to create an instructional book. If you mean transpose in my head that's an interesting suggestion. I can read bass and treble cleff and have a hard enough time keeping those two straight. I feel transposing in my head while sightreading will just confuse me more.

Using the upper position on the fifth string is something I'm doing now, and is very helpful. It is also a different sound which is nice to have in my bad of tricks.

Thanks

 

[jweiss]

Check out the Sightreader Master software. It is configurable for 4, 5 and 6 string basses.

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[onlyclave]

IMO, if you're worried about the 5 extra notes you're getting with your B string then learning to sight read that isn't a big deal. It's just 5 more notes. More importantly, shift your hand up a perfect fourth and do all of your old sight reading exercises in a new position. Having a 5 string bass doesn't just mean that you have 5 new low notes to play, it means you now have more flexibility.

 

[Ian McLaughlin]

1 of 3 responses is useful, lol.

 

[thumbknuckle]

Cello music is great for this. It will come out an octave lower than on a cello but there is tons of great music out there.

Suite 1 for Cello Solo, by J. S. Bach (1685–1750)
Cello Suite II - BWV 1008, by J. S. Bach (1685–1750)

That should keep you busy for a minute.

 

[GastonD]

Steve Bailey's book on 5-String Bass focuses on this issue.

 

[BassChuck]

Get a beginning or Intermediate Bassoon book. Lots of easy things there. Bassoon does go down to Bb, but you can deal with that. Cello books are good too, and Cello goes down to C, so you have a little room there. With both Cello and Bassoon, if you get Advanced books, you'll run into Tenor Clef, and while that might be fun, you just don't see it much with EB. (even DB doesn't get it much.. a little in orchestral music). But then you can just skip over the Tenor Clef stuff.
Google Bassoon, Trombone, Cello Etude books and see what there is. I've gotten tons of pdf's free. Takes a little bit of looking.