The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 20

[Major-Minor]

The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 20

Getting started with Music Reading - in C Major

Many basschatters have contacted me requesting some extra help to get their reading skills under way.
So I'm going to do a series of sessions designed specifically for those of you who can already play the notes, just can't read them. So there will be no theory, no help with fingering, just pure simple sight reading with the occasional "rudiments" pointer.

Each session will be a set of playalongs in each of the keys. This one is all in C major.

I've written a series of 4 bar phrases, each of which is repeated, with the bass part missing on the mp3's on each of the repeats. So play along with me for the first of each 4 bars then you are on your own for the repeat (but you have piano, guitar and organ playing in octaves with you).
Each piece ends with a 2 bar phrase, repeated.

I'll tell you the names of the notes just once in each piece - after that you have to memorise what they look like.

This Session is restricted to just semibreves (4 beats long) minims (2 beats worth) crotchets (single beat) and quavers (2 quavers to a beat), and all pieces are in 4/4.

Each mp3 example starts with one bar of drums.

This Session is all in the key of C, so no sharps, no flats, just the natural notes that you can play in the first position. If you want to do fingerings that take you out of 1st position, that's fine - but you may just find it easier to start off in 1st.

The "double bar-line" indicates the start of each new phrase or it's repeat.

MBBC20a
[attachment=47376:MBBC20a.pdf]
[attachment=47381:MBBC20a.mp3]
A minim lasts for 2 beats, a semibreve for 4. Crotchets last 1 beat and there are two quavers per beat.
Two quavers will often be joined together with a beam across the top. Sometimes if there are 4 quavers together (over 2 beats) they will all be beamed together.
(We will start to use single quavers and dotted crotchets in the next Session which will be in the key of F.)

A "tie" joins 2 written notes together ie the 2nd note is not re-articulated. The 2nd written note simply shows how long the "sounding" note carries on for.



MBBC20b
[attachment=47377:MBBC20b.pdf]
[attachment=47382:MBBC20b.mp3]
Here I've pinpointed the "bass clef" and the "time signature".
The bass clef sign is curled around the note F (the second line down), indeed this clef was once known as the "F clef".
The time sig is always 2 numbers: the lower number represents the basic beat, in this case crotchets (quarters), the upper number tells us how many of these beats per bar there will be, in this case 4. So there will be 4 crotchet beats in each bar.
So 6/8 would be 6 quavers (8ths) per bar (2 lots of 3 quavers).



MBBC20c
[attachment=47378:MBBC20c.pdf]
[attachment=47384:MBBC20c.mp3]



MBBC20d
[attachment=47379:MBBC20d.pdf]
[attachment=47383:MBBC20d.mp3]



MBBC20e
[attachment=47380:MBBC20e.pdf]
[attachment=47385:MBBC20e.mp3]

This one has a half tempo feel from the drums.



I'm keen to know if the way I'm presenting this "Reading" Session is helpful to you.
Please PM me and tell me whether it works for you and let me know if there is anything I can do to improve it. I'll be starting work soon on the next one - playalongs in F - so all opinions will be very helpful.

The Major

[peted]

Subscribed! I shall be going through these at some point this weekend. I've been working through a book on sight reading and it's just started to go out of 1st position and I'm lost again. I have gone back to the begninning in the hope that I missed something somewhere.

[Bilbo]

I have just gone through this and need to say that I wish this was around when I was learning. The Major's charts and play-a-longs are a fantastic resource for anyone who is trying to get started but who hasn't got a teacher (or can't afford one). There is enough material here to get anyone started and to keep them entertained for a good few weeks. I was caught out a couple of times on the last pdf (my turn to feel foolish, Pete).

Quality material.

There is no excuse for not being able to read at least at a functional level. As Marcus Miller said 'why wouldn't you'?

[Major-Minor]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='808748' date='Apr 16 2010, 06:24 PM']I have just gone through this and need to say that I wish this was around when I was learning. The Major's charts and play-a-longs are a fantastic resource for anyone who is trying to get started but who hasn't got a teacher (or can't afford one). There is enough material here to get anyone started and to keep them entertained for a good few weeks. I was caught out a couple of times on the last pdf (my turn to feel foolish, Pete).

Quality material.

There is no excuse for not being able to read at least at a functional level. As Marcus Miller said 'why wouldn't you'?[/quote]
Thanks for the kind words Bilbo !

The Major

[thepurpleblob]

This stuff is so useful that you should seriously consider starting a dedicated website so that it is all organised more sensibly. Finding the posts is a bit of a challenge in itself at the moment.

[Major-Minor]

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='814709' date='Apr 22 2010, 10:02 AM']This stuff is so useful that you should seriously consider starting a dedicated website so that it is all organised more sensibly. Finding the posts is a bit of a challenge in itself at the moment.[/quote]
All the Boot Camp Sessions can be found through the index which Rich has pinned at the top of Theory and Technique.

Sessions 1 to 19 are not graded ie I have dipped in and out at various levels of difficulty in the hope of attracting interest from a wide spectrum of basschatters.

From Session 20 onwards, I have started at basic reading level, and will increase the demands on new readers as the series develops.

The Major

[thepurpleblob]

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='815262' date='Apr 22 2010, 05:54 PM']All the Boot Camp Sessions can be found through the index which Rich has pinned at the top of Theory and Technique.

Sessions 1 to 19 are not graded ie I have dipped in and out at various levels of difficulty in the hope of attracting interest from a wide spectrum of basschatters.

From Session 20 onwards, I have started at basic reading level, and will increase the demands on new readers as the series develops.

The Major[/quote]

D'Oh!

[Oggy]

THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU.

I'm using book / CD combinations at the moment, its hard going but I'm getting there.

Your sessions will make the process even more interesting.

Oggy

[Luulox]

Thanks very much for taking the time to do these lessons. Just started trying to read music and they are a great help.
Thanks again
Pete

[xilddx]

[quote name='Luulox' post='1020606' date='Nov 11 2010, 07:55 PM']Thanks very much for taking the time to do these lessons. Just started trying to read music and they are a great help.
Thanks again
Pete[/quote]
Me too, these are truly fantastic!

I am at the point where I can sing very simple charts like the [b]C Major Playalong (a)[/b] above, and am reasonable at reading and singing note times. I can still only barely recognise the note names but I can see the relationships between the notes to some degree now, like recognising triads, some scale degrees and such. Of course, this is all fairly easy in C, when I am faced with a simple key sig, I lose it and am ten times slower, at least

When I am not playing bass with the music in front of me, I carry these charts around with me, and try to sing them in my head while reading them on the tube or at lunch, seems to be good practice.

I can finally see how it might be possible for me read the dots like we do words and sentences, it seemed like an impossible task a few weeks ago. Simple charts like playalongs a and b above, in the key of C, I can look at a bunch of notes in a bar and quite quickly see how it would look on the bass and hear how it sounds in my head. It really is most encouraging!

Major-Minor, you are an absolute gem for doing these, really! We owe you very much gratitude

[OmeDunk]

After almost 7 years still more than usefull

Cheers Major!