Do you consider reading music important?

[greghagger]

I also have a new Greg Talks video out today where I discuss whether we should read music or not. I thought this might interest you on this thread. 
 

I will do a separate post for this, but here’s the link for the video:

https://youtu.be/PJgEVCVdyi8

[wateroftyne]

I just dropped by to answer the OP's question.

...No.

(This answer is specific to me, etc.)

[greghagger]

6 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

I just dropped by to answer the OP's question.

...No.

(This answer is specific to me, etc.)

Thanks! 

(Always useful to have a specific answer). 

Edited October 25, 2019 by greghagger

[bass_dinger]

A late reply - apologies.

I consider reading music on the bass so important, that I reactivated my account to say so. 

I have just recently used this same forum to find written music, and downloaded it to sight-read.  To my utter surprise, I had somehow managed to improve my rhythm-reading reading skills, even though I had not read much music in the past two years.  I have no idea how I managed to improve my skills,. but I can now take a simple page of music and read it.  And . . . .  it is so incredibly efficient!  No need to learn a piece, no need to transcribe it, just play it!

So, I am sold on the idea of reading music.

Robert. 

[Bilbo]

My recent efforts to read guitar dots and treble clef have resulted in me rediscovering/reactivating dozens if not hundreds of books I have bought over the last three or four decades which have become increasingly viable as source material for me. It's such a massively useful tool aside from whether you read on a gig or not.

[greghagger]

1 hour ago, bass_dinger said:

A late reply - apologies.

I consider reading music on the bass so important, that I reactivated my account to say so. 

I have just recently used this same forum to find written music, and downloaded it to sight-read.  To my utter surprise, I had somehow managed to improve my rhythm-reading reading skills, even though I had not read much music in the past two years.  I have no idea how I managed to improve my skills,. but I can now take a simple page of music and read it.  And . . . .  it is so incredibly efficient!  No need to learn a piece, no need to transcribe it, just play it!

So, I am sold on the idea of reading music.

Robert. 

Great to hear your reply and sounds like you’ve really made excellent progress with reading music. It does open so many more doors and makes learning a much quicker process. 

[greghagger]

49 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

My recent efforts to read guitar dots and treble clef have resulted in me rediscovering/reactivating dozens if not hundreds of books I have bought over the last three or four decades which have become increasingly viable as source material for me. It's such a massively useful tool aside from whether you read on a gig or not.

So true, speeds up the learning process a lot! 

[paul_5]

I consider reading music to be an essential skill; I have no memory, so it really helps.

[greghagger]

On 16/10/2019 at 15:33, Stub Mandrel said:

As any amputee will tell you there's a big difference between the tools you have to use and what you can achieve with them.

Written music is just one perspective on a piece of music. There's far far more to a performance than just a crude indication of note pitches, lengths and dynamics. With my pathetic work-it-out-one-note-at-a-time skills it's not difficult to see how totally inadequate a conventional score is for communicating, say, Led Zeppelin, songs - even supplemented by text annotations by Bonham and Page.

Well before lockdown I had to record a Led Zep promo. We had a few hours to listen to the mp3s and read the charts we were given. The written music was extremely useful in speeding this process up and it also allowed me to know what these particular arrangements were in the session. A quick rehearsal and then we recorded. 
 

The written music was a great asset and pretty necessary in this situation.  The Led Zep bass lines aren’t that hard to notate. 

[RCMJ]

On 24/09/2019 at 15:24, Twigman said:

I used to be able to read treble clef  - I am OK getting the pitch right but reading rhythm eludes me.

Bass clef is still a mystery to me ( I can never remember the stave).

I wonder if the play a long videos I made might help you, I made them to help people learn some very simple rhythms. I explain a bit more on my blog page: http://rcmjbass.blogspot.com/2020/03/rhythm-playlist.html

Come and check it out , and please do let me know if it's useful, or not....!

[Stub Mandrel]

I thought the lockdown would be an ideal opportunity to learn to read music.

Then I thought nah.....

[Bilbo]

I sooooo value this skill. It takes me places I may otherwise never go with the 'rote learning' approach. It is not about reading on gigs, it is about access to material. Of course, reading a chart won't bring the music to life without other important information but it will get you to the point where that stuff matters much more quickly that learning by rote. It does replace good ears, it enhances them and vice versa. No brainer from where I am standing. My transcription archive is an attempt to make learning to read about learning to read rather than searching for stuff that's worth reading

[stewblack]

I faced a stark choice. Getting older and gigging with multiple bands I could not trust my memory to juggle so many sets. First I learned to play from chord charts but I added depping to my list and the number of songs rocketed. 

So I decided to dedicate the last of my fading brain cells to learning to read. This way if a song appears on a set list and I have it in my archive I can refresh my memory of it quickly. 

Effectively using transcriptions as an extra long term memory. 

Oh and it's a joy  Really great fun. 

[RCMJ]

17 hours ago, stewblack said:

I faced a stark choice. Getting older and gigging with multiple bands I could not trust my memory to juggle so many sets. First I learned to play from chord charts but I added depping to my list and the number of songs rocketed. 

So I decided to dedicate the last of my fading brain cells to learning to read. This way if a song appears on a set list and I have it in my archive I can refresh my memory of it quickly. 

Effectively using transcriptions as an extra long term memory. 

Oh and it's a joy  Really great fun. 

I've found exactly the same thing!

I now always write out whatever set I do with a particular band, if I don't get a call for a year or two,  I'll still have it written out and can jump in with the barest of preparation ( although I guess the preparation is the process of writing out all the charts.) and often no rehearsal.

 

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, RCMJ said:

I guess the preparation is the process of writing out all the charts

Absolutely but do it once and it's done forever.

[greghagger]

Hi everyone. Following on from starting this thread a good while ago, I have finally completed and published a reading music video course.  

It is called ‘Learn To Read Music For Bass Players’ and is aimed at at lots of you who replied to this thread. In the course I teach exclusively about how to read music, without beginner bass playing chapters.  So it’s not a how to play bass guitar course. 
 

You don’t need any previous experience reading music for the course as I cover from the basics right up to advanced level reading. 
 

I’m happy to give a 10% discount and you can private message me on here for the code. 
 

I will publish a new post about the course but thought you might also get an update when I leave this message. 
 

I hope the course is useful to many of you, and please ask me if you have any questions about it. 
 

https://gregs-bass-shed.teachable.com/p/learn-to-read-music-course-for-bass-players/