Learning notation

[lowdowner]

Does anyone have any recommendations for resources for becoming more familiar with musical notation and the bass clef in particular? I was to improve my bass clef sight reading and I'm finding that most resources include tabs with the clef notation and - apart from covering the tab up with masking tape each time! - i'm always distracted by the tab and then don't concentrate on the actual dots.

I want to become more familiar with playing from bass clef rather than tabs because I think it opens up some options with positioning and theory that you miss with tab (don't get me wrong, tab is *really* useful and I use it all of the time).

When I used to play a flute, because there was no tab available and everything was in standard music notation my treble clef sight reading became second nature and I never had to think about it much, but bass clef is becoming a challenge because it's just so easy to get by without it and rely on tabs or chord sheets.

I'm looking for theory and training books, resources for bass guitar music in bass clef notation (no tab), online bass clef sight reading courses, training software, or any other recommendations for becoming fluent with sight reading bass clef.

[MrCrane]

Stuart Clayton's series on Reading Music are good

https://www.basslinepublishing.com/bass-essentials.html

also Josquin Des Pres' Simplified sight Reading for Bass

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-Reading-Bass-Josquin-Pres/dp/0793565189

 

For tabless resources for bass guitar music, Standing In The Shadows of Motown could keep you busy for a while.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Standing-Shadows-Motown-Legendary-Jamerson/dp/0881888826/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528277392&sr=1-1&keywords=standing+in+the+shadows+of+motown

[lowdowner]

that's great, thanks

 

[BigRedX]

If you can already read the treble clef why do you need lessons specifically for the bass clef? Surely it's just a transposition exercise?

[lowdowner]

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

If you can already read the treble clef why do you need lessons specifically for the bass clef? Surely it's just a transposition exercise?

It's more to do with getting example sight reading exercise - so bass clef music for the bass with accompanying mp3s for example (to check that you're reading it right). With simple exercises/pieces through to more complex stuff. I don't need to learn how to read *music* but how to sight read the bass clef smoothly and accurately.

[SubsonicSimpleton]

There is a huge amount of classical scores over on imslp.org, so you have loads of cello and double bass parts in pdf format to go at - should be fairly easy to find youtube footage of performances/recordings to play along with.

[fretmeister]

I've got the Clayton books and they are very good

 

I also use exam board sight reading tests for double bass - just ignoring bow use.

Like this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1848493584/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

It's good practice and because it's graded it's easy to go back a step when I've been a bit slack!

 

The examples are quite short - couple of staves but the time and key signatures change with every one so it keeps the brain working.

[lowdowner]

The upright music resources are a great idea - should have thought about that! Thanks

 

[josie]

There's some discussion and suggestions here:

and lots of good resources here:

 

[ambient]

The Motown book is good.

[lowdown]

@lowdowner If your Flute reading in treble clef became second nature, you will be familiar with rhythms. They won't change in Bass clef.

The only thing different in the Bass clef will be the register/octaves. You just need plenty of practise with Bass Guitar/Double Bass charts.

Read, read and read on a daily basis.

 

There are a ton of accurate, transcribed Bass charts here (Link below). Get stuck in and work your way through them. They are free.....😀

https://freebasstranscriptions.com/transcriptions/

 

Example PDF.

ABBA-Dancing-Queen-2018-edit.pdf

 

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by lowdown

[NHM]

The Rockbass exam series is good as it has a play=along CD and you can pitch your reading ability against a standard. Also the Hal Leonard 'Big Band Play-along' series is fun, again sheet music with a play-along CD.

[lowdowner]

5 minutes ago, NHM said:

The Rockbass exam series is good as it has a play=along CD and you can pitch your reading ability against a standard. Also the Hal Leonard 'Big Band Play-along' series is fun, again sheet music with a play-along CD.

Great link, thanks for that!

 

[TKenrick]

15 hours ago, lowdown said:

There are a ton of accurate, transcribed Bass charts here (Link below). Get stuck in and work your way through them. They are free.....😀

https://freebasstranscriptions.com/transcriptions/

Example PDF.

ABBA-Dancing-Queen-2018-edit.pdf

 

Cheers for the shout out, @lowdown I was about to embark on some nauseating self-promotion!

[chris_b]

No Treble has bass transcriptions.

[lowdowner]

On ‎07‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 08:22, TKenrick said:

Cheers for the shout out, @lowdown I was about to embark on some nauseating self-promotion!

hi @TKenrick - your site seems to be down (just saying 'pageok' and nothing else … are you having problems?

 

[dmccombe7]

Not sure if this might help but i downloaded it from somewhere to get a better understanding of chords.

If not just download and store for future reference

 

Jeff_Berlin_-_A_Comprehensive_Chord_Tone_System_for_Mastering_the_Bass_1987.pdf

[lowdowner]

49 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Not sure if this might help but i downloaded it from somewhere to get a better understanding of chords.

If not just download and store for future reference

 

Jeff_Berlin_-_A_Comprehensive_Chord_Tone_System_for_Mastering_the_Bass_1987.pdf

thanks - looks useful, I'll take a look.

 

[TKenrick]

6 hours ago, lowdowner said:

hi @TKenrick - your site seems to be down (just saying 'pageok' and nothing else … are you having problems?

 

@lowdowner yeah, my hosting provider is having a mare and can't explain why the site has been down for 4 days... Hopefully normal service will resume soon, I'll keep you posted.

[knirirr]

I've been trying this app recently, which does seem to be useful:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/music-note-sight-reading-trainer/id874386416?mt=8

iOS only, it would seem.

[paul_c2]

I used www.sightreadingfactory.com which is good because it gives you graded sight reading examples (which also allow customisation) and also sounds the notes so you can play along with it. The tuning is a bit off from A=440 (its probably A=432, for understandable reasons) but that's not a major issue. When you have run out of the 20 free ones, deleting the cookie will work.

[jonno1981]

On 06/06/2018 at 10:30, MrCrane said:

 Josquin Des Pres' Simplified sight Reading for Bass

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-Reading-Bass-Josquin-Pres/dp/0793565189

+1. I learnt to read using this guide as well. Really broad range of examples with more focus on rhythms than reading pitches. I’ll dig out my copy and work through it!

[josie]

Josquin des Pres:

1 hour ago, jonno1981 said:

+1. I learnt to read using this guide as well. Really broad range of examples with more focus on rhythms than reading pitches. I’ll dig out my copy and work through it!

It's pretty dense though - imho the Stuart Clayton is much easier to learn from, as it's structured into smaller exercises and a more gentle progression with plenty of helpful explanations. The JdP is pretty much just the notation and gets harder pretty quickly. I'll go back to my copy to practice with once I've learned more from Clayton. Ymmv...

https://www.basslinepublishing.com/bass-essentials/the-bass-guitarist-s-guide-to-reading-music-beginner-level.html

[burno70]

Once you have enough material I'd recommend taking at least 10 minutes every day just to read through the sheet music. It's slow going at first but after a few months of consistent reading you'll be reading the notes out just as quickly as words from a book.

There's also loads of free phone sight reading apps, some of which you can set to bass cleff only so you can have a quick 'study' wherever you are.