Familiar melodies will help you make the association, and may help at first, but ultimately you will want to play novel pieces you have not heard before to really solidify your internalization of the bass clef.
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Transitioning to Bass Clef
- Thread starter katysax
- Start date
Familiar melodies will help you make the association, and may help at first, but ultimately you will want to play novel pieces you have not heard before to really solidify your internalization of the bass clef.
Begin by transposing. Everything in bass clef is one whole line or space lower (top line F in treble is 4th line F in bass; second space A in treble is first space A in bass, etc.) after a while you will discover you simply aren't transposing anymore--that you have learned the bass clef.
Ha ha. I know this too well. I played bass clarinet in a symphonic wind band. Play 2 measures then 99 measures of rest. Then play one note ten ten bars of rest. The band director liked super modern stuff so none of it had a discernible melody. It was hell but it made me a better musician.
This a thousand times!
One of the best tips you'll ever get from this forum. My early bass teachers had me do a lot with sax and clarinet etudes and studies. Some of the best bass method books out there weren't written for the bass.
since I strated on bass, I've learn both out of necessity and still can read both easily.
Ut/Tenor clef is seriously hard for me
Ut/Tenor clef is seriously hard for me
I've got the same problem! I'm a sax player and I think in treble clef. Sadly, playing simple songs that I know (like your Christmas song idea) doesn't help me because I just play it by ear and still don't learn to read bass clef... so I have to pick tunes I've never heard before to force myself to read.
I find that when reading bass clef - my mind resorts to "it looks like an A to me so it must be a C" which is really a slow way to try and read.
I'm very interested in all the answers you get as I'm struggling with this myself - I can play just about anything by ear and not have any idea what key it is or what pitches I'm playing (I'd have to look and see what I'm fretting if you ask me what the key is). I force myself to read bass clef - but once I figure out the starting note - I just read the intervals from there and can't seem to get my brain to read the note names -my brain still thinks A when I read a C
I find that when reading bass clef - my mind resorts to "it looks like an A to me so it must be a C" which is really a slow way to try and read.
I'm very interested in all the answers you get as I'm struggling with this myself - I can play just about anything by ear and not have any idea what key it is or what pitches I'm playing (I'd have to look and see what I'm fretting if you ask me what the key is). I force myself to read bass clef - but once I figure out the starting note - I just read the intervals from there and can't seem to get my brain to read the note names -my brain still thinks A when I read a C
A lot of things bass have been slow for me. However, switching reading came fast. Sight reading well will take a while just because of physical things you must learn. But comprehending the notes on the page? A couple of weeks for someone who reads treble. Get a beginner book and methodically go thru the exercises that teach the notes at least go thru the first. It will come fast. You will start doing the translating then very shortly after your brain will just start reading in bass.
I know these fellows mean well when they essentially suggest to mentally transpose everything up a third. Don't do it. I play classical guitar . It's written in treble clef. I had to make my way through in music theory and class piano when I was a conservatory student a very long time ago. What I became adroit at was looking at the middle line in bass clef, seeing b and mentally transposing it up third depending on the key signature. When I finally yielded to a life long desire and bought a bass I lapsed into my old ways until I finally bit the bullet and said enough. I got a stack of sheets only in bass clef and found a minimum of a half hour per day and sight read in bass clef on the bass. I see the middle line as d, the first space as a etc.. There is no translation. I'm not seeing truth and translating it into Italian's equivalent of vero. It needs to exist on its own. It took about two months. I didn't allow myself to look at anything in treble clef. The funny thing is that it gave me an insight into how the human mind works. So now when I sit down with my guitar, the score is in treble clef and that's what I see. With the bass in my lap I see bass clef. You can do it, but you need complete immersion. There is only bass clef. Nothing else. Good luck!
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Hello,
My 2 cts
When I started the bass a few years ago I learned bass clef (at that time I used Ed Friedland method to start up and the method teaches the bass clef) then I worked through theory stuff to understand what MalcomAmos said and so on… traditional path, nothing original.
I discovered along my bass journey, and sometimes the hard way that for a bassist, a good understanding of theory, chord construction and so on is by far more useful than a good reading capability (having both is the ultimate situation
but i'm far from that).Now I play in a jazz band and.. and everything is in treble key.
My personal experience is that :
- As strange as it can sound bass clef is not very useful for a bassist. It's good to have basic reading, but spending too much time on it is not a good investment. If you need to do this investment for some reason, using a method like Ed Friedland methods is a good way to learn the bass key in a bass playing situation.
- A good reading of treble key is highly useful on the other hand, because people you'll play with speak treble key not bass key. In fact, at least in the jazz world, everything , every body (but the pianist who uses boh) is in treble key...well to be honest in fact is even not in bass or treble key but in "chords sheet language". For example in real books the themes are written (and therfore need to be read) and usually most of them are quite simple. But the real work is with the chords sequence.
As a bassist you need to recognize chords and know how these chords translate in “bass neck language”.. but you’ll not have a lot of sheets in bass key to read, and when that’s happen (with a book for example) you will be in a “no hurry” situation, and have all the time you need to transfer your treble key knowledge and find you way in this bass key world.
It's only my personal xperience, ymwv
Luc
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The Christmas book came three days ago. I've been reading from it about an hour a day - playing both tunes that are familiar and those that aren't. It's coming really fast. Today I was almost as fluent as if I were reading treble clef. The thing is that if I don't keep at it this will be lost. I'm seeing the patterns and I actually have to work hard not to transpose. Playing the saxophone forced me to transpose a lot so its a habit. But I'm pretty confident that if I do this a couple of more weeks I'll be good enough at site reading bass clef to pass an audition to play in a beginning college jazz band if I want. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Same issue. played trumpet for many years (middle school through some of college, multiple ensembles, etc) and can read treble clef stuff with ease. But bass notation is like a new language...
I recently downloaded an app on my phone that helps me identify notes on the staff, but it's a "process".
I fear even after I get decent at that, applying it to the fret board will be a completely new challenge. BUT, the interest is genuine.
I recently downloaded an app on my phone that helps me identify notes on the staff, but it's a "process".
I fear even after I get decent at that, applying it to the fret board will be a completely new challenge. BUT, the interest is genuine.
