tabs or old fashion notes

[Ross Brown]

That's great, mic, that you are getting into reading. It takes some slow concentrated effort to start, but once you can read basic lines from notation, you open up a huge world of possibilities.

 

If anyone here subscribes to Bass Player Mag, I just did a series of columns on sight-reading (May, June, July). I recorded the notation examples in each article and I am posting them here each month. The examples for the May issue are already up.

 

Enjoy!

 

[Phil W]

I wish I never saw tab. Finally starting to sight read now after 30 years. In between mostly played by ear and chord charts and theory.

[mic]

Phil W

can i ask how long you have been sight reading now?

[TempleOfTheBass]

I mentioned tabs easier for me but i decided to start learning notes. It'll only benefit me in the long run I think. Learning scales now omg how I loathe thee!

[jeremy c]

I love playing scales. All kinds of them.

[Bottom End]

Learning scales is the way I find new patterns. I play R-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and back down, and then R-8-R-7-R-6-R-5-R-4-R-3-R-2-R, and back up. Just alternating, or playing the scale in reverse, lets you hear what works sound right, and helps you learn the fret board.

 

Tab is an OK method to learn a song, I've used it often, but there are a lot of songs with no tabs, or incorrect ones. One way I use tabs is in the magazines or instruction books that have tabs under notation is use the tab but look at the notes the tab represents, after awhile you "see" how the notes on the page correspond to fingers on frets.

 

Piano notation in songbooks usually mirrors a lot of bass parts and riffs, another incentive to learn to read.

[Phil W]

Phil W

can i ask how long you have been sight reading now?

 

A few months on church gigs... I need to practise it more. It's slowly happening. TBH I don't need it on my jazz or world music type gigs...even at church I only use it on the classical stuff.

[Phil W]

Scales are a good way to learn the neck. The important thing is to immerse yourself in the sound of the scales and relate that to what you are doing. If you sing along you are embedding it further.

 

Don't underestimate the value of practising arperggios though.

[mic]

so in order to learn the neck, then you are doing a scale, would you say out loud, the note you are playing, like C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C ?

[Phil W]

That would be good! Or even better sing it up an octave (however badly) then you're teaching yourself ear training too. I heard that in a clinic once and never took my own advice - probably because my wife and son would kill me if I started to sing!

[hoytbasses]

I too find tabs confusing. I did learn traditional musical notation (on trumpet), but alas, I never learned bass clef. I know that if I put some concentrated time, I'm sure I could master the bass clef as a result (which I just might do so I can get some pit band work at the many theatres here). Knowing basic music notation makes it (relatively) easy for me to do work from a real book, even though I'm not a good reader.

 

If you're starting out, learn traditional note music. There are volumes and volumes of excellent bass exercise books at every level that you can take advantage of. You'll learn scales, arpeggios, and learn how to navigate sheet music. Then, you'll be able to follow along in fake books like a pro.

[johngoldsby]

If you start with very simple reading material, and read a little bit every day, then you'll steadily improve. It's a nice feeling to be able to put any piece of music on the stand and be able to make music out of it. If you start slowly and read every day, then you'll see and hear improvements in just a couple of weeks.

 

mic: Glad you like the stuff on my website.

[mic]

So far I practice reading about 1 to 1 1/2 hour a day. as I WANT to learn it, and I can feel a big difference already, have to say, it is so much more fun, to sit down and (try to) play sheet music.

One problem I do find is this: it is so easy to find tab music, but sheet music that is free (have a wife=no money) is not easy,(sorry wife if you read this)

 

Regards

Michael

[Bottom End]

Libraries often have sheet music.

[mic]

Bottom end.

 

you know what, i never ever thought of that, in this digital world, i have forgoten the librarie. going right over there after work. Thanks michael

[Bottom End]

NP. I too had forgotten about libraries, until I moved here. Fortunately my litttle town has a great library and is part of a great regional system. I still buy books, but now I borrow a lot more books, CD's, and movies than I purchase.

[Michele C.]

If you search for good music to read, my first suggestion is to use the filetype:pdf option in Google search. It allows to specify a file extension you are searching for, in this case pdf (but you might also try filetype:doc).

For example, you might try to search for PDF versions of So What, by Miles Davis. In most cases you will find scores and transcriptions.

There are also a few sites that offer good transcriptions. The first one that comes to mind is one that my fellow sax players use a lot.

Here is a random collection of bass transcriptions

 

Update: I found a paper on how to automate bass transcription from an audio stream, this might interest our editors :-)

[johngoldsby]

Mic: Look here for all of the Bach Cello Suites online. This is maybe not the music you are aiming to play, but these are beautiful lines.

 

Michele I looked at the scientific study on automatically transcribing bass lines. They claim a 75% success rate. I'll pay attention when they get close to 100%

[mic]

wow thanks everyone, you are all super.

i am going to try the pdf search in google.

john to me it dont matter what style it is (kind of), as it can only make me better, i for one will always welcome different styles, i am looking forward to try bach cello suites, as i am sure it will open a new world for me.

[jeremy c]

When I got my five string bass (years ago), I started working on the Bach Cello Suites so that I would have something to read that goes down to low C. That's the lowest note on a cello.

 

I'm playing the suites an octave down from the way the sound on a cello. Since a bass sounds an octave lower the written notes, that's no big deal. I've heard bassists play a suite at the intended pitch, which is very difficult.

 

I've never got past the first of the suites, but I've got a pretty good handle on that one, especially the first movement.

 

Just don't ask me to post my version on youtube. Not gonna happen.

[Michele C.]

You can play the first suite in the intended pitch on a four string bass if you use an open G and finger the D at the twelvth fret. There are couple of tricky positions, like a barre with the third finger, but it is manageable.

The finale has to be transposed an octave down if you have less than 24 frets.

Try this score, which is in treble clef

 

http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/arr/a4/bwv1007.pdf

[Phil-E-Phil]

There is a great deal of sheet music for some of the great orchestral works at the Petrucci Music Library and many of the works have bass parts.

 

http://www.imslp.org/

[mic]

:-) there is a lot out there, i just have to open my eyes and see. everyone thanks for all the link, there is a lot of stuff i need to try out now.

 

Regards

Michael

[Chad Thorne]

Welcome, TOTB! The Low Down guys are really great, but it's good to see another female on this forum.

Yes, welcome! And if I should forget some time (as I have in the past) that there are women on this forum and make a remark more suitable for an all-male audience, please excuse me, as Groove Mama has done...

[mic]

ok update, tabs or old fashion notes...... yesterday it for the first time really struck me what the deferens really is, and yes I know it so simple, and i should have seen this a long time ago, tabs as brilliant as they are, they dont have value, so if you needs to play a tie note, you would really have no clue how long to hold it for..... So simple and still I was not able to see it until yesterday, I saw an old tab in my folder :-)

[Imogene]

 

Just don't ask me to post my version on youtube.

 

I won't, but might hold out hope that you'd maybe reconsider?

[Eric VB]

The nice thing about learning to read standard music notation (SMN) is it is universal (more or less).

 

I learned bass clef in the school band (trombone/tuba) and, of course, it carries over to bass.

 

At church I play from SMN ... ringing bells in the handbell choir.

 

As I've spent little time reading other clefs it can take me a little while to adjust. However, the intervals are the same so as long as I start on the right pitch I'm usually good to go.

 

For cover bands playing popular music, though, SMN can be a bit tedious. Besides, nobody wants to watch a rock band with their eyes glued to a piece of sheet music all night. Ultimately you need to memorize your music.

 

However, unless you have extraordinary memory it's hard to remember all those songs. Especially if you only have a couple days to learn and memorize 40 songs you're not familiar with.

 

Usually I will transcribe a song's structure (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.), fill in the chords and use SMN sparingly to notate signature rhythms and/or passages.

 

If I'm really pressed for time I will look up TABs. At least they usually have the structure 100% correct. TABS often include chord charts; for rock songs these are usually accurate enough for bass work. (If in the original recording the bass is playing the root it doesn't matter if the chord is A7 or Amaj7.)

 

None of that, though, will help you on stage if someone calls a song you're not familiar with. Then you have no choice but to play by ear.

 

Tying everything together, of course, is music theory. If you can identify the chords being played then you will know which notes you can play.

 

Beyond that, with music theory you can recognize common chord progressions, (I-IV-V, ii-V7-I, etc.) and anticipate chord changes. For example, a lot of music composed on piano uses a circle of fourths, e.g. "I Will Survive" (Gloria Gaynor/Cake).

 

There's a lot to learn but you have to start somewhere. SMN is not a bad place to start.