How do you 'notate' or write down your basslines?

[AttitudeCastle]

I do everything from memory or just tab it on the fly.

I can read music in several clefs just fine (as I play Bass Trombone in an orchestra so it comes in handy! As well as some piano and singing from sheet music) but I always find ti difficulty working out how exactly what rhythm I'm playing (as in how to notate it) as usually I'll think it's something, jot it down, play it based on what I've written and I'm way off haha! Practise makes perfect I suppose though! Also I have many times thought I was in a certain key and made mistakes that way or missed key changes, turn arounds, that kind of thing.

It something I've always wanted to get better at, but have found writing things down takes too long when I'm in a rush.

Always use a hand recorder or similar where possible, and reverse engineer from there, great things!

[Delberthot]

I used to write out the notes to songs but found that I was just playing what was written than actually learning the songs so now I commit everything to memory. I find it much more fun and involving to be playing to the audience than staring at a sheet of music.

Means I can concentrate on my stage presence and bass faces


I can't honestly remember the last time I had to read a piece of music - maybe 2006

[BassTractor]

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1365291920' post='2037824']
Nobody ever heard of recording devices?
[/quote]

Well, recording was mentioned by three people before you wrote that, so statistically it's safe to assume that at least one in eight have heard about them.

Personally, I wouldn't know what to do with one - even after reading this.
I hear stuff, either in my head or played by someone, and write that down - and work on finger placement and phrasing later, with annotation.
I really hate writing notes, but a recording device doesn't give me notes, so I guess I'd be lost [b][i]with[/i][/b] one.

best,
bert

[lojo]

Not sure if your talking about original ideas , in which case when I did gig in an oringals band is remember them all as we practiced them alot.

If your talking covers, then I remember the lines , just need some cards with structures on for some of the songs where I can't confidently remember the arrangements.

If I could read and write music then I might write them down, who knows

Edited April 7, 2013 by lojo

[Bilbo]

Nothing cumbersome about conventional notation. I use it all the time. I have pop chord charts I use regularly that have a two bar sketch as an aide memoir to remind me of the groove. I also work with charts that are pages long. Every composition I write is fully notated and it is by far the most efficient system or recording ideas you may want to return to later.

Trouble is, most of Spoombung's stuff won't translate into staff notation.

[Spoombung]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1365330033' post='2038024']

Trouble is, most of Spoombung's stuff won't translate into staff notation.
[/quote]

Ah, there's the rub! A large proportion of my output as a musician has been about texture and ambiguous pitch so it never seemed appropriate to learn it - especially the electronic stuff. It is slightly more appropriate now but I fear I'll never get up to speed.

I do agree with everyone who has said standard notation is the easiest way and it's just a matter of learning how to do, however, as I've said before, I'm [i]far too slow[/i] at reading it and (writing it) and have to resort to the pictures and shorthand above. By the time I've sketched all that out I've got it in my head anyway and only need to refer back to it if I haven't played it for a while.

Our keyboard player (a very skillful and versatile musician) plays in about 5 bands (Scritti Politti is one of them) but only uses a crib sheet with my band (Prescott) because he says he hasn't been able to memorize the parts in the same way as he usually does because they don't follow convention.

The moral of the story is you are a much more [i]versatile[/i] musician if you can read music. You can play different styles instantly. Versatility's not where I'm at, unfortunately.

[Dad3353]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1365330033' post='2038024']...Trouble is, most of Spoombung's stuff won't translate into staff notation.
[/quote]

Not fair..! We were discussing music..!

[Myke]

[quote name='Spoombung' timestamp='1365332898' post='2038065']
I do agree with everyone who has said standard notation is the easiest way and it's just a matter of learning how to do, however, as I've said before, I'm [i]far too slow[/i] at reading it and (writing it) and have to resort to the pictures and shorthand above. By the time I've sketched all that out I've got it in my head anyway and only need to refer back to it if I haven't played it for a while.
[/quote]

Why don't you do what you do with the tab and stuff and then in your own time (If you have any spare) write it in notation? Means you get best of both worlds

[Spoombung]

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1365374006' post='2038842']


Why don't you do what you do with the tab and stuff and then in your own time (If you have any spare) write it in notation? Means you get best of both worlds
[/quote]

Yes, that's a good idea that I should get around to at some point.

[vmaxblues]

Spoombung, I am with you on this, I usually have the chord structure and orchestration written down, and particular bass parts tabbed. If I didn't have this aide memoir, after not playing a particular song for say 3 months, I would need to think about it all over again! its a memory thing, I am in two bands and need to juggle loads of songs and I am not lucky enough to be one of these guys that has a photographic memory and never forgets a song!

I can read and really must improve my notation and agree it is an essential tool, but at a practise when you are making changes on the hoof, notation isn't really an option.

Ignoramus of Hereford

[xgsjx]

I think writing down full details of electronic music or how multiple fx on an instrument are used can be tricky (if not uber complicated) regardless of what method is used & I certainly have a few tracks that I wouldn't even contemplate the transcribing of anything other than maybe the notes.

I do read tab & find pop chord charts handy for onstage (usually just in church). But I never use any written notation at a gig, all from memory.
If I can't remember the song, I'm not ready to play it live.


Have you considered braille?

[Spoombung]

My eyesight is bloody terrible these days...

I've never needed anything more than a set list to jog my memory before a gig.

[achknalligewelt]

Get a basic shape of what I want, then draft it thorugh several times. By then it's pretty embedded, though I tend not to play the same thing exactly twice anyway. If I could, I'd notate myself, but seeing as I read bass clef about as fast as I can read Japanese, I rely on my memory.

Horific practice, I know, but it's the only way I can do it. I've been lucky that I have had understanding collaborators.