"Look, Ma, I'm sight-reading!"

[johngoldsby]

Being able to sightread well is like any other bass skill it's a combination of simple techniques that have been repeatedly and slowly practiced to perfection. If you sightread a little bit of easy material every day, then you train your eyes, brain and fingers to work together. A lot of us only, or mainly, use the ears and fingers to play what we play. Learning to read opens up worlds of great material and boosts our working opportunities. There are few good reasons *not* to learn to read music.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Not to derail Chad's thread but I have a Q regarding sight reading: today I was learning "In The Mood" from a "Swing Favorites" type Hal Leonard book. Since I am not a fluent reader, I work out bar by bar what notes to play.

 

But I find, once I get the notes under my fingers, I am playing from memory rather than by reading the notes. I go over them nonetheless, but I wonder if this is the correct way to go about it and whether this is normal (in the beginning).

[johngoldsby]

Sure, that's normal. It's part of reinforcing the note-brain-fingers skill that we use when we read notation. True sightreading, i.e. reading something for the very first time, only happens once. Everything after that is repetition, or reading practice. The bar-by-bar reading that you are doing is great the more you do that, the more skill you'll gain as a first-time sightreader.

 

PS> Chad won't mind the derail, I don't think.

[Chad Thorne]

EddiePlaysBass, you bastard, leave my thread alone! Nah, just kidding...

 

Postscript: Last show last night, shooting the breeze with the musical director after. I mentioned that I had just gotten the charts last Sunday night. He said, "Wait. You only got the score the night before dress rehearsal?" I allowed that this was so. "Dude, that's awesome! You did incredibly well with no time to practice!" That made me feel good.

 

He said he asked the director if he had heard any mistakes coming from the orchestra and the director, also a musician, said no; which, I maintain, is almost as good as there not being any mistakes...:grin:

[jeremy c]

You are the MAN, Chad!

[johngoldsby]

If they don't hear a mistake, then there was no mistake

[Chad Thorne]

You are the MAN, Chad!

How can I be the man when you're the man, Jeremy?

 

To be fair, the bass score was pretty simple. One of the biggest problems I had were passages in Db or Gb, which I don't typically play or think in. As long as I kept straight that 5 flats is Db and 6 is Gb [circle of 4ths, baby!] I was o.k. There were moments when I was confused...And the other problem was flaking out and losing my place in the middle of a piece. I also improved that over the course of the run. But thank God for good ears...

[Wally Malone]

Right on Chad, it looks like you were well received which means you may get the opportunity to do more of this kind of work in the future.

 

Wally

[Chad Thorne]

Right on Chad, it looks like you were well received which means you may get the opportunity to do more of this kind of work in the future.

 

Wally

Hope so, Wally. No late nights, no drunks, not bad money!

[EddiePlaysBass]

Hope so, Wally. No late nights, no drunks, not bad money!

 

Hang on! I thought those were the three main reasons for being in a band?

[Eric VB]

Chad, Gb is like G except one fret lower.

 

(Seriously, though, you learn all those flat keys when playing with wind instruments, especially in school band.)

[Eric VB]

A lot of us only, or mainly, use the ears and fingers to play what we play.

I may be the exception to the rule when it comes to EBG. I learned the notes on the neck from playing guitar and how to read from playing trombone; the first time I played bass it was from sheet music for the school jazz/stage band. I still have a copy of the horrible transcription of "Smoke on the Water". Outside of BP, though, it's hard to find good transcriptions of popular music.

 

Nowadays I keep my reading skills sharp by playing in a handbell choir.

 

Around here, the kind of gig Chad got is usually filled either by a former school orchestra bassist (9+ years of playing by reading mostly classical music) or someone with a music degree (and, in a traditional program, 4 more years of playing by reading). A lot of gigs are filled by word of mouth, it seems.

[Chad Thorne]

Hope so, Wally. No late nights, no drunks, not bad money!

 

Hang on! I thought those were the three main reasons for being in a band?

Used to be. No more! Now it's all about the Benjamins.

[Chad Thorne]

Chad, Gb is like G except one fret lower.

Yup. Once I had determined a section was in, say, Gb I just shifted down one fret and proceeded; then I was able to think in Gb.

[Imogene]

There are few good reasons *not* to learn to read music.

 

John, could you elaborate on that a bit? Because I couldn't think of a single one. Thanks.

[jeremy c]

He said there were few good reasons not to learn how to read music.

You are probably correct. I can't even think of one either.

 

Well, maybe there are reasons:

"I'm happy playing along with youtube videos and don't want to waste my time learning anything else."

 

"In the band I'm in, the guitarists tell me what to play and they're happy when I play it. What does reading have to do with that?"

 

"I'm in a grunge-core band and we don't use written music."

 

etc.

 

 

[Imogene]

Yeah, those are reasons. But I wanted to know what the "good" reasons are. Thanks jc!

[johngoldsby]

I actually can't think of many *good* reasons not to learn to read music. Jeremy cited some of the typical reasons. I could add to those:

- I'm only going to play solo bass the rest of my life, and play only original music. I'll never want to write that music down. I'll never want to play Bach, or any other music that might only be available in notation form. I'm not curious about any music in a method book or fake book. My bandmates, who I'll play with forever, also do not read and they will not want to play with my if I actually learn to read. I'm blind, but I've got great ears and I can play back anything I hear almost immediately.-

 

So, none of those reasons (except for the last one) are really good reasons.

 

That said, most of us play, or have played in bands, where being able to read is not so necessary.

[Chad Thorne]

I think people engage with music in the way they want to. Lots of people are happy playing whatever they play by ear and don't feel the need/desire to learn to read. I don't have any criticism of that. I think "good" or "bad" don't enter into it.

 

[johngoldsby]

That's very true, Chad. A person has to play music the way he/she wants to, otherwise it's not worth playing.

 

Any "good" and "bad" reasons are just subjective judgments.

[Imogene]

Thanks John for responding - great posts. I respect your point of view and thought this a great thread for that. Still reading your Jazz Bass book and what an eye opener it is. Thanks! and Merry Christmas to fellow forumites (especially now that 'black friday' is finally behind us!). And hope that you all had a happy Thanksgiving, anyone who posts here has tons to be thankful for.