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Software to practice sight reading?


Gruuve

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Hey folks:

 

I read rhythms really well in standard notation, but I'm slow at reading pitches. I'm looking for a simple no-frills cheap or free piece of sofware that will show me notes on standard notation (bass or treble clef), let me click a letter to identify the note, tell me if I right or wrong, then repeat the process with a different pitch. In other words, something to help me practice sight-reading pitches. Do any of you bass educators have any suggestions? I'm searching Google, but there's just so much stuff to wade through...I'm hoping someone might be able to recommend something.

 

TIA!

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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Dave,

 

you "should" try to get to a stage where you don't think of what the note is when you see it -- you simply play it. I'm uncertain of the best way to get to that stage!

A man is not usually called upon to have an opinion of his own talents at all; he can very well go on improving them to the best of his ability without deciding on his own precise niche in the temple of Fame. -- C.S.Lewis
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Make flash cards.

You can carry them anywhere and maybe you should.

 

I have students take a page of music, something with an enormous amount of notes like a Bach cello suite, and write in all the note names.

 

There are only five lines and four spaces. This is not like memorizing mulitplication tables.

 

In the time it takes to read and post to this thread you should be able to memorize at least two notes.

 

The normal written range for the bass goes from low E below the staff to high G above it. That's two and a half octaves for a grand total of 18 notes. That's not really a lot of notes to memorize.

 

Buy some books and open them up and try to read every single day for at least an hour.

 

Then get out some manuscript paper and write down all the notes you play in all the basslines you know.

 

You will learn to read.

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I'm very happy with what I found online: "Absolute Fretboard Trainer." Cost me $20.

 

I did it a couple hours a day for about 6 weeks and got the entire fretboard and musical staff down cold. The difference in my ability to sight read is tremendous - I just blow thru stuff now comparatively speaking. Why? Cuz I finally learned the notes and don't have to check 'is this the right note?' left and right. And of course the increased success has made reading music so much more fun.

 

AFT is set up really well in my opinion and gives you all you need to learn notation at your pace. It has the kind of 'locate the note' drills that you described. Easily the best music-related $20 I've ever spent.

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I'm with Jeremy on this one.

 

To be a good sight reader, it is really not important to even know the names of the notes. When you sight read, you don't perform by calling out the note names...you play pitches. (There are dozens of other reasons why knowing note names is important, however.)

 

You need to associate a note with a finger. The absolute best way to do that is to practice playing notes...and the best way to learn anything is sequentially.

 

Take the Simandl book (jeremy and I and others have all commented that we are "working" on an edition of Simandl with electric fingerings) and play from half position. Recognize that the fingering marked is for URB, where we don't use third finger. You can use the marked fingering or adapt it to the way you finger.

 

Master the "usual or half" position, beginning with the exercises labelled "e, f, g, h" and corresponding to the 4 strings on the bass. Then play the exercises and 2 scales.

 

Proceed up the neck of the bass, following this same protocol. You'll rapidly become adept at reading charts...I'll bet 4 weeks of practice at it will change your life. Small price to pay.

Yep. I'm the other voice in the head of davebrownbass.
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I don't know, my first reaction was, "Treble clef?!" Pardon my French.

 

Sight reading is one talent I'm blessed with. Best way for me to do it is to just not think about it. Second nature, like reading a book.

 

Now if I could just memorize stuff... :rolleyes:

 

Good luck, Dave.

 

ATM

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Jeremy and Dave Brown:

 

The issue is that I have to stop and think about what the note on the standard notation is...once I know that I know where to find it on the fretboard. So, I don't exactly understand what you guys are suggesting in regards to the Simandl method???

 

However, two things strike me: Learn to associate the note on the standard notation with a fret and string rather than a note name. Hadn't thought about it that way.

 

The other thing that's a great suggestion is to write out all the bass lines that I play in church in standard notation. In fact, that's how I learned to read rhythms so well...back in high school another drummer and I used to transcribe drum kit parts from Rush songs... :freak:

 

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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That is the point, Dave.

 

 

In my orchestra classes, my students are sight readers...even in the sixth and seventh grade.

 

In fact, beginning in the seventh grade and proceeding through high school students annually must participate in a contest where they first play 3 selections on stage for adjudication, then they play the "sight-reading" portion of the contest. In that room, I get between 7 to 10 minutes to explain a selection we've never seen before. In high school, it will be a multi movement work with tempo and key changes and often repeats, DC and Codas.

 

During this instruction period, they are not allowed to play or rehearse in any way, and I'm not allowed to perform for them. After the teaching period is finished, time is called, and I must be absolutely silent while the students perform the selection. To be given the top rating, the orchestra performance must be effectively "stage-ready." On the first and only reading.

 

This is a high pressure event for everyone, but my high school orchestras have generally beeb given the highest rating.

 

And my point? If you ask half my orchestra what note they just played, they'd have to stop and think a second.

 

Think about it physiologically. If you are reading a note, have to interpret it before you can play it, more brain circuits are involved. You don't tie a shoe that way (even though you did when you first learned.) Tying a shoe, driving a clutch and virtually every other activity is done at a level below conscious thought.

 

When sight reading, thinking about what note you must play just gets in the way.

 

People often talk about reading 2, 3 or more measures ahead. This happens, but not like a computer buffer storing notes. It works like this:

 

I look at a line, and it instantly organizes itself in my head..."Okay, here are 3 measures of root-five on a Bb chord, then an eighth note scale beginning on the second step, ending on the ninth, resolving to a Bb whole note. Now here's a IV chord."

 

This happens virtually all the time, even in extended classical works. In fact, when I fail to read a passage (Tuesday night we're playing Beethoven's Third Symphony) it is because the passage is so complicated that it can't be analyzed as simple patterns of scale and chord notes...Beethoven might use, "root-third-Aug. 4-five" through several chords in eighth notes. I have to study those things a while.

 

The same kind of thing happens when reading jazz chord charts. We see: Fm7, Bbm7, Eb7, Abmaj7, Db maj7 and we don't think notes...we think "begin on an F and approach a Bb in a m7 way", or "in the key of Ab" or something like that.

Yep. I'm the other voice in the head of davebrownbass.
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Originally posted by josh a:

Does that "Absolute Fretboard Trainer" come as a cd? Why do they want your address?

They need your address so they know where to send the anthrax....j/k

 

I dunno why, all I know is that Absolute Fretboard Trainer Professional is on my computer right now and it worked out great for me.

 

I never got a CD, maybe it does. Mine was a download.

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Grizzly Bears Don't Fear Anyone.

Angry Cheetahs Emerge Growling.

 

That's the bass clef.

 

Elegant Gorgeous Babes Drive Ferraris.

Find A Cheaper Elephant.

 

That's the treble clef.

 

Get a piece of music paper.

Draw the Grand Staff on it.

Write all the letters on the lines and spaces.

 

Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

I can tell you the names of every note in a piece of music. I can tell you the name of every note I played on last night's gig....three hours of jazz tunes, some of which I knew and some of which I had never played before.

 

Of course, I can't say the names as fast as I can see them (or hear them) and play them.

 

For the ones I had never played before, I walked over to the other side of the stage, looked at the piano player's music, memorized the chord changes by looking at them once, and walked back to the other side of the stage.

 

It helps if you can see a chord name and know what it sounds like. It also helps if you see written notes and can tell what they will sound like without an instrument in your hand.

 

I was not born with these skills.

I practiced many, many hours, probably 8 to 10 hours a day between the ages of 20 and 30.

 

There are no shortcuts.

 

The Simandl method is a proven method of learning to read. To learn how to read music, you read music. I don't see how you wouldn't know the names of the notes after going through the first few pages. Then as you go through the next hundred pages, you learn them better.

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Wow Jeremy, did you really practice 8 to 10 hours a day for a decade? That's truly impressive. I take it you were making money playing music and didn't have a 9 to 5. I do have a 9 to 5, and I can only do 15-20 hours a week of practice. I'm definitely going to quit my job in a 1.5 years, and I'm thinking about taking a year to practice bass full time. How did you manage so much practice?

 

I liked this computer program cuz my brain works best with repetition: my grammar in Spanish, which I took for years in school, is terrible but I still retain a good vocabulary cuz I'd make flashcards and it'd get locked in the old cabeza. That's just how my brain works best, focused repetition. My teacher, like you, said I'd learn as I practiced reading music, but the focused repetition worked much faster for me. Some people can 'learn on the fly' better than others.

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He he...I learned the bass clef as "Good Boys Do Fine Always" and "All Cows Eat Grass". But then I'm in the Southeast. ;)

 

Yup, I'm with you on the value of sight reading. In high school, I made 2nd chair percussion in North Caroline All-State Band my senior year, and the actual reason as I understand it was because I sight-read the percussion piece that was part of the audition the best out of my competitors. That was a long time ago (like in 25 years...yikes!), but somehow the rhythm reading stuck. But, what stuck was reading rhythms...I just want to get close to the same level of reading pitches.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions and explanations guys!

 

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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Dave

If you have Cakewalk recording software on your computer, there's a fun way to practice reading.

 

1. download a midifile of a tune you like, usually the name of the tune followed by .mid

e.g. mustangsally.mid

 

save it to your hard drive and open the tune in Cakewalk. select the bass track and click the staff view icon (music note icon) on toolbar. It will open the bass track in bass clef with the notes written. When you click play the tune the notes will go by on screen in time with the music. You can slow it down, speed it up, whatever and you can practice sightreading along with playing.

 

Of course this is only after you've gotten to the point of being able to read at least a little bit. There's a great book by Ron Velosky (great player/teacher who died a few years ago.) His parents still sell the book. It's published by Denim music and is a very readable and extremely well organized approach to sightreading music starting with whole notes. This is a great book and if you work through that and play along with written music you'll be well on the way to understanding how everything works. Unfortunately in sightreading there are absolutely no shortcuts. You just have to put in the time.

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Hey, here's a thought I had last night...based on the comments that what you really need to do first is associate a note on the notation with note on your bass (and the note name comes second). Is there any drill software that anyone knows of that will show you note on standard notation, then detect what note you play on your bass and tell you if it's wrong or right (versus letting you type the note name or click on a fretboard picture with your mouse)?

 

I seriously doubt this exists, but it's certainly technically do-able. As long as you were dealing with single notes and not chords, a fairly simple pitch-to-midi converter could determine the note from the bass guitar. The software would of course have to be written to take advantage of this. So, essentially, you'd plug your bass into whatever interface, start the drill mode of the software, play each note it shows you on your bass, and it would tell if you if you were right or wrong. This takes the "recognize the note name, then find it on the bass" step out of the equation. And while we're at it, why not allow the drills to be loaded as midi files rather than randomly generated by the software...that way you could buy or build your own libraries of bass lines to drill with. Anyway, just a thought...

 

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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When I was just starting, my bass teacher printed me out sheets and sheets of random note excercises - all in quarter notes, but I learnt how to read bass clef very quickly. If you have even the free version of Finale or something, you could probably do that.
SWR Amps: Amplify your furniture! Errr.... future.
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I am with Jeremy and Dave. Simandl, Bk. 1. I have my students go through this book. I review this book myself.

 

It won't help you with ryhthms, but you will know notes, and you will know them all over the fingerboard. It has helped me with playing more in the middle of the neck instead of down in first - 3rd position all the time.

 

The problem with sight reading and learning to do it is that you need NEW music all the time. Once you've read or practiced something you can't really use it for sight reading practice again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Folks:

 

I bought a copy of Noteable Software's music "flashcard" software. Here's the URL:

 

http://www.noteablesoftware.us/

 

This does exactly what I needed. I've reduced my time to recognize pitches on standard notation from about 3-5 seconds to about 1-1.5 seconds thus far...plan to keep doing the drills until I've got the pitch recognition for a bass clef to consistently under a second, THEN start hitting some transcription books.

 

I may also pick up a copy of the Ultimate Fretboard Trainer mentioned above a little later, but for the immediate skill I was hoping to sharpen, the $30 for this notation quiz software is well worth the expense in my opinion.

 

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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Originally posted by jeremy c:

Make flash cards.

You can carry them anywhere and maybe you should.

www.playthebass.com has, in a really slick PDF format, flash cards for both note on a staff and various keys (Major or minor).

 

You print them out, attach the "back" to the "front", cover with laminating paper and cut on the dotted lines. I still have the set that I printed out three years ago in my BassBook. Oh, did I mention it was free?

 

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

 

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Oh, one other thing I should probably mention. Noteable will detect notes entered via midi keyboard (according to the docs) as well as pecking keys on the computer or clicking the key on the displayed piano keyboard (no bass guitar display). Since you can send it the note value via midi, I'll probably try hooking up the old Boss DR-5 drum/rhythm machine that I have. This old box has an analog input and a pitch-to-midi converter built-in. It's pitch detection is slow, but it seems to track fairly accurately as long as you're playing single notes (which is exactly what these sight-reading drills call for). So, with any luck and a little bit of persistence, I may have that setup that I talked about above where it shows me a note on standard notation, I play it on one of my basses, and it tells me if I'm right or wrong, measures my response time, etc. This would be way cool if I get it working...

 

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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As a result of this thread I've ordered the Simandl method from Amazon.

 

I look forward to receiving it to help out with my reading skills, of which I have some - but they're quite poor.

 

I find that currently, reading note values on the staff is fairly easy. I still take a moment to decide where they should be played on the fingerboard though, particularly in the middle of the fingerboard.

 

The things that I find slow me down are:

 

1: Remembering the key signature, and subsequently which notes should be flat or sharp.

 

2: Reading rests, and rhythms.

 

3: Reading notes on ledger lines.

 

:thu:

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Originally posted by Dave Sisk:

Hi Folks:

 

I bought a copy of Noteable Software's music "flashcard" software. Here's the URL:

 

http://www.noteablesoftware.us/

 

This does exactly what I needed. I've reduced my time to recognize pitches on standard notation from about 3-5 seconds to about 1-1.5 seconds thus far...plan to keep doing the drills until I've got the pitch recognition for a bass clef to consistently under a second, THEN start hitting some transcription books.

 

I may also pick up a copy of the Ultimate Fretboard Trainer mentioned above a little later, but for the immediate skill I was hoping to sharpen, the $30 for this notation quiz software is well worth the expense in my opinion.

 

Dave

Let us know what you think of AFT.

 

Sidebar: I speak a couple different langauges not quite fluently, but I swear learning to read music has improved my linguistic capacities. Far from a scientific breakthru - music is a language after all.

 

I really can't wait until I can be fluent in reading music...and I'm off to practice.

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Hey folks:

 

I hit milestone today. I've gotten my pitch recognition (well, on the bass clef anyway) down to just under 1 second pretty consistently, and with only an occasional mis-read. That's pretty darned good considering that in the first few drills, it took me 3-5 seconds to recognize the pitch.

 

The ultimate goal of course is instant recognition (just like recognizing letters of the alphabet as Jeremy astutely observed), but this is a 300-500% improvement from where I started, so I'm pretty pleased. However, I'd imagine trimming it down shorter than the 0.5 second mark will be a stretch (if the software can even measure at that level of accuracy), but at that point I'll have what I was after: improved sight-reading skill decent enough that working from books of standard notation is no longer a cumbersome task. Cool beans :thu:

 

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

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