bass clef YTS

[xilddx]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1049591' date='Dec 6 2010, 05:07 PM']I have not had much of a chance this last week because of other music related stuff but as long as it is music related it all counts I suppose and I have been analyzing tempos and stuff in relation to where I am in my book too. Every little helps.

Sounds like you are really going for it Nige, Nice one. [/quote]
I'm not getting much time to actually play the bass either at the moment.

However, I am at the point where I can sing very simple charts in C, 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 But I am getting good at the timing, even some quite complex timing in charts with a big mixture of note lengths, dotted notes, ties, etc. I can sing it in my head and play it on the bass. I can do most of the timing section in the Simple Sight-Reading for Bass book now.

When I am not with the bass, I carry some of Major-Minor's Boot Camp Sightreading in C 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. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=74284"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=74284[/url]

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. In simple charts 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! I have realised that knowing the note names extremely fluently is not quite as important to me at the moment as I thought it would or should be. I find that as I am starting to see what the scale degrees look like on the staff, I only need to recognise the first note in the bar, the rest often reads like a word, even a sentence, so my fingers and voice know where to go after I know what the first note is. I reiterate though, this is only in C and not with too many extended intervals!

To all those who have got started trying to learn all this stuff, write down your progress like I have above. When you feel daunted by the colossal task of learning to sight read, re-read what you wrote and you will realise how much progress you are making. When was writing this post, I realised that in one month, I have made enormous progress compared to where I was at the start.

To those imploring us illiterates to learn to read, Bilbo, Doddy, Jake, [i]et. al.[/i] Thank you! I now realise how stupidly closed minded I was about this and that I DO have time to learn how to read. All players will be better players for being musically literate - simply because of the way your mind will open like a flower, and be receptive and able to assimilate the great music and lessons available. I now realise that whenever I argued against the value of reading, I just sounded like an ignorant twat. I also know that learning to sight-read, learning theory, knowing my fretboard, learning lots of new music, improving my technique and facility on the bass, is NOT going to turn me into Alain Caron.

[stingrayPete1977]

Good work mate ,I was only thinking its been a while since this thread had an update. I was thinking of notes on an imaginary staff to see if I could remember where they go and I can! Im way behind you though but Im almost certainly at a lot lower standard in general as far as theory and stuff is concerned and probably playing too!

I am going to make things worse this weekend by purchasing my first 5 string too! It will give me more incentive to play at home (new toys and all that)which I will do whilst looking at the staff. As long as I keep nibbling away I will be happy.

[Doddy]

Nice one guys-I'm glad this thread keeps popping up.

Silddx-Sounds like you're doing great. If your pretty comfortable in C,crack on to G,so you're only dealing with one sharpened note.

Pete-I'm doing the panto in Lichfield until January 9th,so if you ever want to pop over and ask questions,give me a shout.

[stingrayPete1977]

Thanks Doddy, I think I need to get the book Nigel has, It sounds more focussed on what Im meant to be doing.

[stingrayPete1977]

Is this the one everyone else has?

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-Reading-Bass-Josquin-Pres/dp/0793565189/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292357073&sr=1-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-R...7073&sr=1-1[/url]

[xilddx]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1058919' date='Dec 14 2010, 08:05 PM']Is this the one everyone else has?

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-Reading-Bass-Josquin-Pres/dp/0793565189/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292357073&sr=1-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-R...7073&sr=1-1[/url][/quote]

That's the boy! It's brilliant!

Fingerboard Harmony for Bass by Gary Willis from the Bass Builders series is equally good, I got that too.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1058894' date='Dec 14 2010, 07:46 PM']Nice one guys-I'm glad this thread keeps popping up.

Silddx-Sounds like you're doing great. If your pretty comfortable in C,crack on to G,so you're only dealing with one sharpened note.

Pete-I'm doing the panto in Lichfield until January 9th,so if you ever want to pop over and ask questions,give me a shout.[/quote]
I'll do that soon Dods, thanks mate.

[stingrayPete1977]

Thanks Nigel I think I will get it sorted at the weekend then, This book I have is ok but its a bit odd in plces and its all in American!

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1058894' date='Dec 14 2010, 07:46 PM']Pete-I'm doing the panto in Lichfield until January 9th,so if you ever want to pop over and ask questions,give me a shout.[/quote]

Garrick action. Afterall this time in Lichfiled, you know, I've never been to a panto at the Garrick...!

[Doddy]

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='1059867' date='Dec 15 2010, 06:50 PM']Garrick action. Afterall this time in Lichfiled, you know, I've never been to a panto at the Garrick...![/quote]

Drop by and say hi.

[stingrayPete1977]

Im having a dabble on my [i]lurvley new Ray5 [/i]at working out the waitresses christmas wrappin but cant find any good dots? I found some but its cobblers! Anyone know a good site?

Its sparked me off learning again though and I defo have the right notes down now without too much trouble. Its not sight reading my any stretch of the imagination but I can follow a tune if I know how its meant to go and find them all in the correct octave off the staff, Thats got to be an improvement from a few months ago and was my only aim originally to be able to score a riff down at practice and be able to come back to it which we all agreed is reading music albeit basic.

I have some time off over christmas and will be spending some time on it too.

[stingrayPete1977]

It's all gone very quiet again round here?

Well I'm booked in for a lesson which may include reading and definitely theory with a certain BC member so watch this space! I will be in the pit in no time I'm certain

[ead]

Just managed 2.59, and am now compelled to keep going. Love the lowest ranking category description

[lojo]

Yes, my reading practice has hit a wall due to having to learn around 40 new songs for various covers bands, so any practice time now has been devoted to working those out

Still I made progress at the end of last year, and have something to build on at least

How are the other YTS boys doing ?

[stingrayPete1977]

That's the irony isn't it Lojo, Being too busy playing to learn how to read which is part of the against reading camps argument but I still think a basic knowledge for jotting down songs and riffs would help especially in the situations your in now with 40 tracks to learn. I have actually turned down at least one if not two good bands to try and free up some time at home to learn what my hopefully awesome teacher is going to show me! I'm not sure exactly what approach I'm going to take but the lessons will be based around theory,timing and staff reading. Playing in a band situation doing covers I think I have nailed as much as possible without expanding on the finer points now, your never too old to learn although the wallet might disagree!

[skej21]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1122910' date='Feb 10 2011, 05:29 PM']That's the irony isn't it Lojo, Being too busy playing to learn how to read which is part of the against reading camps argument but I still think a basic knowledge for jotting down songs and riffs would help especially in the situations your in now with 40 tracks to learn.[/quote]

I agree. Trying to quickly transcribe the tracks you're learning means you can use the notes as prompts in the first few rehearsals and transcribing lines is a great way to practice your reading without sitting down and playing through already notated pieces.

[stingrayPete1977]

That's it skej, if I just had a pad with the song title at the top, Key, Tempo and any riffs or walking bass lines written on the staff that would be just great for a quick refresher before gigs that don't come up every Friday at the dog and duck.
Looking forward to my first lesson in twenty plus years and the last ones I did were for guitar not bass. Doddy and Bilbo can start sending me some of their spare gigs with trumpet players in no time!

[clagooey]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1036926' date='Nov 25 2010, 08:57 PM']Note values are indicated by the stem.

Minim = whole bar
SemiBreve = half a bar
Crotchet = quarter
Quaver = eighth of a bar
Semi Quaver = sixteenth
Hemi Semi Quaver = 32nd (rarely seen)
Hemi Demi Semi Quaver = 64th (I've never seen one)[/quote]

I assume you accidentally switched the first two note values here...! I hope you don't mind me editing it slightly so people just starting out don't get too confused:

SemiBreve = 4 beats (whole bar in 4/4 time)
Minim = 2 beats (half a bar in 4/4 time)
Crotchet = 1 beat (quarter bar in 4/4 time)
Quaver = 1/2 a beat (eighth of a bar in 4/4 time)
Semi Quaver = 1/4 beat (sixteenth in 4/4 time)
Demi Semi Quaver = 1/8 beat (32nd in 4/4 time (rarely seen))

This website has a picture which might make things clearer as well: [url="http://howtoplaythepiano.webs.com/pianobasics.htm"]http://howtoplaythepiano.webs.com/pianobasics.htm[/url]

[Bilbo]

[quote name='clagooey' post='1123598' date='Feb 11 2011, 09:52 AM']I assume you accidentally switched the first two note values here...! I hope you don't mind me editing it slightly so people just starting out don't get too confused:[/quote]

Nothing accidental about it. I was plain wrong I have been operating on a misconception for a decade or more......

Thanks for the correction. - I have fixed it as you suggested to avoid confusing any newcomers (or 30 year vets who should know better). I have learned something today (about humility apart from anything else!!)

[lojo]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1122910' date='Feb 10 2011, 05:29 PM']That's the irony isn't it Lojo, Being too busy playing to learn how to read which is part of the against reading camps argument but I still think a basic knowledge for jotting down songs and riffs would help especially in the situations your in now with 40 tracks to learn. I have actually turned down at least one if not two good bands to try and free up some time at home to learn what my hopefully awesome teacher is going to show me! I'm not sure exactly what approach I'm going to take but the lessons will be based around theory,timing and staff reading. Playing in a band situation doing covers I think I have nailed as much as possible without expanding on the finer points now, your never too old to learn although the wallet might disagree![/quote]


I think its great that your taking a step back to do this, for me though, my desire to play somehow means that I constantly have a to learn list on my ipod, and each day bass time is working on getting these lines into my fingers, the shame is that the time consuming bit is learning structures, rather than lines, you can learn most of the parts of a pop song in 10 minutes, but remembering the which part goes where and hitting the changes without hesitation or replying on hearing others lead you is the hard part and im not sure reading will do anything to speed up structure learning? I maybe wrong

Anyway , slow progress is better than none, and at the end of the day, I play covers at pubs and functions, reading will be great when I progress, but I don't think it will change my gigging situation, as I play those gigs with readers and non readers on other instruments

[stingrayPete1977]

Im still playing quite a bit too Lojo just doing the stuff i want to do for now though, I think in a pub band situation it would be useful for numbers you don't do all the time. If something crops up that hasn't been in the regular set for a while that has a part that is easily forgotten you can whip out the dots for the Intro,verse,chorus and middle eight and be up to speed in almost no longer than it takes to play the track.

I think I have written your non us names in my MI book above the yank ones Bilbo tipex time although the fact I have hardly looked at it means I can't really blame anyone else! Hopefully my lessons will get me on a firm grounding to get started in ernest.

[lojo]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1124114' date='Feb 11 2011, 05:42 PM']Im still playing quite a bit too Lojo just doing the stuff i want to do for now though, I think in a pub band situation it would be useful for numbers you don't do all the time. If something crops up that hasn't been in the regular set for a while that has a part that is easily forgotten you can whip out the dots for the Intro,verse,chorus and middle eight and be up to speed in almost no longer than it takes to play the track.

I think I have written your non us names in my MI book above the yank ones Bilbo tipex time although the fact I have hardly looked at it means I can't really blame anyone else! Hopefully my lessons will get me on a firm grounding to get started in ernest.[/quote]

Yeah, I understand the jot your own dots down as reminders, but strangely I don't often have trouble remembering how things go chords, riffs and rhythm wise (mostly) but have a big issue with structures, this is the area I really need some tools for

Good luck with your lessons, I feel if I am ever really going to learn seriously I will need someone to help, but for now, its mostly as its been since the late 80s (only now its easier with the internet to learn songs, with clips an all, rather than kick rewinding tapes and lifting the needle on records )

Keep posting your progress Pete

Cheers

[stingrayPete1977]

Yes I will keep everyone updated as it goes along, Thanks.

[Eight]

Holy sh*t - I go offline for a few months and when I come back, BassChat seems to have flipped on its head.

Major kudos to all of you who made the choice to learn this stuff - I was forced to learn it as a kid, so people actually choosing to something which requires a bit of practice and effort always gets respect in my book.

Good luck, and stick at it.

[Linus27]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1036168' date='Nov 25 2010, 12:10 PM']I'm a bit confused as to what you mean,sorry,but I'll have a go anyway

If you have a bar of 4 crotchets you will play each note to the value of one beat. If you then change that to four quavers,played on the beat,you will be playing the notes in the same place,but they will last for half the duration-a quaver followed by a quaver rest.

So it goes from playing 1,2,3,4 to 1(+),2(+),3(+),4(+) with a rest on the 'and' of each beat.

If you go down to semiquavers it's the same thing- you'd play the first one and then rest for the next 3- eg 1(e+a),2(e+a),3(e+a),4(e+a). You are still playing on the beat,but only for the duration of a semiquaver.

Hope that's not too confusing.[/quote]

Bloody hell, I understood that I even tapped my thumb along as you explained it and then it was confirmed I was right when you explained the method.