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Double Bass Too many pages!

Giggies

Giggies

Dec 23, 2008
9
15
Airdrie, AB
#1
I am a relatively new bassist, and I am playing in a small band for a local Christmas play. I'm finding though that the biggest problem I am encountering (aside from being a poor sheet music reader:spit:) is that I can't turn the pages in the middle of a song.

If I set up a second stand I can have 12 pages good to go, but I just cant seem to turn pages fast enough to not make an audible disappearance-reappearance not to mention find what bar we are at.
Most of the pages have 9 bars of music on them and we can sometimes fly through them pretty fast (some songs are around 30 pages)

Are there any useful tips for me, or do I just have to learn to flip pages like a mad man?:crying:
 
#2
Memorize everything you can, and only keep the pages open where you need to remember certain parts.

The more you practice, the more you remember too. What works for me is practice the music in order. I've learned 3 - 10 song playlists in less than 6 weeks doing this.
 
#3
This is tough for a newbie! Heck, sometimes it's even tricky for pro's!

Early on one of the first conductors I worked with said we had to not only be good players and readers, but we also had to become "expert page turners"!

AND- it's not enough to just turn them- you also have to do it quietly!!! :D

Technically, a good copyist should write out the individual parts taking page turns into mind- but sometimes there just aren't any good spots in the music to accommodate turns- or the copyist just doesn't care enough to bother. :rollno:

The memorization tip is good, here are a few more:

1- The old "Dutch Door" trick- this is where you physically cut the page(s) in half- east west wise if that makes sense. Lets say that you have pages one and two open and facing you. So now you've read through page one, you get half way through page two, and you turn the "top half" of page two (the part you just read) to expose the top half of page three- and now you can finish reading the bottom half of page two, and the page turn is done. Of course, now you have to turn the bottom too...so it's not "fool proof".

You also have to make photocopies of your music to do this- as some organizations might not take too kindly to you sawing up their parts...but you never know when you'll run into parts that have already been cut like this! :)

2- Take advantages of rests- especially if there are long tacet parts- you can make photocopies of the overlap- and while this technically makes even more pages, it will hopefully allow you more time to make your changes.

3- Get a stand partner and sit "first"! :D Second chair is responsible for turning pages! :cool:

Hopefully more folk will chime in with their tips- and I hope I have expressed my ideas clearly enough for you to take advantage of them- shout if you need clarification for any of this.

Good luck!

Joe
 
#5
I regularly play big band charts with 12-16 pages and it's all about having two or three stands and the charts taped up properly so you can spread the music out so when you do need to turn pages you can utilize open strings or harmonics for a few beats while you make the turn.

This works nicely when you have a big bandstand, but when 19 players are crammed onto a tiny stage, it's every man for himself. lol...can't say I haven't knocked a 10 page chart to the floor and had to finish it off reading off the floor. Luckily, that was during an electric tune.
 
#6
I turn pages with my left hand. I fold the lower right hand corner of the page up, to make a handle, and while keeping my bow on the string, I lean towards the stand as I get near the bottom, then quickly reach over with my left hand to turn the page. It works 95% of the time; the only time it doesn't work is when the publisher has the page turn in the middle of a passage. I have other strategies for that.
 
#8
Some suggestions:

Photocopy everything. Use a page slicer to cut the music into strips about 1 inch wide with one line of music on each strip. Place them closely spaced the way you like on another piece of paper. Use a long piece of clear tape to hold them all down. Then photocopy the new page.

Or write out the piece in pencil on staff paper. You'll know the piece really well by the time you are finished.

Play open D repeatedly with your right hand while reaching over with your left to turn the page.

If the director is the arranger, ask him/her to reprint your part in a better way. You are probably not the only one suffering this problem.
 
#10
Giggies said:
Most of the pages have 9 bars of music on them and we can sometimes fly through them pretty fast (some songs are around 30 pages)

Are there any useful tips for me, or do I just have to learn to flip pages like a mad man?:crying:
Click to expand...

It reads like you are using full band parts. Do your pages have the guitar, drums, voices, horns etc on it? (I don't see how only 9 bars per page can happen otherwise.)

Does you group actually have the individual parts for the pieces you are playing or only the full score?

If you only have the score, then make an individual part for only your bass. Some programs like Finale or Sibelius can scan in music and convert it, within certain limitations of accuracy. Is everyone else in the same boat as you? If so, it would be worth it to have someone enter the score in a notation program and extract parts for everyone. Or everyone can do their own parts.
 
#11
Thanks for the tips so far guys, so far I have just done the page corner bend, but I'm trying to rewrite some of the songs using the website Noteflight. That is a very slow going process though!

The music we have has the treble and bass clef staffs for the choir, and also for the band. Everybody in the band has the same music, but I seem to be the only one having troubles, or at least voicing my complaints:p
 
#12
longfinger said:
If you only have the score, then make an individual part for only your bass. Some programs like Finale or Sibelius can scan in music and convert it, within certain limitations of accuracy. Is everyone else in the same boat as you? If so, it would be worth it to have someone enter the score in a notation program and extract parts for everyone. Or everyone can do their own parts.
Click to expand...

Back in the olden days, we would photocopy the score, take a pair scissors, cut the bass parts out and paste them to another sheet. Inelegant, perhaps, but effective.

If you have a graphics program like Illustrator, Photoshop or Acrobat, I suppose you could scan the score in and cut and paste the bass parts on to a new document. A bit less antediluvian.
 
#14
This has worked really well for me. When ever I get to a page turn I do Hammer Ons/Tapping (I'm not sure what you would call it in this case) with my left hand and turn the page with my right. This works most of the time but for the faster, more complicated stuff, I try to memorize before and after the page turn. Then I flip the page when ever I get a chance.
 
#15
Mike Goodbar said:
Back in the olden days, we would photocopy the score, take a pair scissors, cut the bass parts out and paste them to another sheet. Inelegant, perhaps, but effective.

If you have a graphics program like Illustrator, Photoshop or Acrobat, I suppose you could scan the score in and cut and paste the bass parts on to a new document. A bit less antediluvian.
Click to expand...

This.

You don't need all the other parts. As someone said, this should have been done by the leader/conductor, esp. if you are a younger ensemble playing (less experienced).
 
#16
mikkejohansson said:
This.

You don't need all the other parts. As someone said, this should have been done by the leader/conductor, esp. if you are a younger ensemble playing (less experienced).
Click to expand...

Absolutely-there's no reason for you to have to make yourself nuts trying to play bass from a score. Tell the leader you have to have a proper bass part or you can't be responsible for playing all the notes.
 
#17
I had one chart where I had my former pianist turn the page for me in one spot where there were no rests. It was just a traditional rhythm section setup for a big band, however it did look a bit weird having the pianist stand up and walk over to my stand when she was playing on a grand. That was last year, that pianist has moved on to college and I haven't played a chart that had that many pages since.

If it's one of those charts where there's 4 pages then you flip the entire chart over, I photocopy the back pages and use two stands.
 

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