Sight Reading for Bass (Two Easy Tools)

[@wanmorgan]

I've got the Book it's fantastic.I get a lot of work from being able to read. I would highly recommend working on this skill. Thanks for the video Janek.🙃

[@mikaelspence2689]

I was lucky my first bass instructor was a really good teacher and amazing player. I told him up front I wanted to learn everything possible he could teach me about bass. I learned to read notation really early on. I feel I'm a really good reader. I read music and play bass every single day. I'm able to just look up a song pull up the sheet music and basically just start playing it after scanning through it and playing it out of time a few times. Reading is a really big part in my playing and in learning to read it just sky rockets your playing in so many ways.

[@tonysoysonero]

Reading music is the principal frustration for the beginers bass players. Thank you for you advices.

[@AlexandarShmex]

I've used Stuart Clayton's books to learn notation. It's not that hard, but it's harder once you introduce sharps and flats. I tend to follow covers that use a hybrid notation-tabs. All the musical signs are used, like in notation, but there's tab. And I always try to sight-'read' everything. It helped my rhythmical development and eye/brain-finger connection immensely.

[@gregorywilliams744]

bro luv yur teaching got that book also great information

[@charliecarrot]

Super helpful video! I play string bass parts on electric bass in my local community concert band. I started off making tabs for my parts, but it didn't take long to get familiar with standard notation. One year later and my reading has improved so much on bass! Highly recommend joining something low key like that if you're wanting to increase your reading chops.

[@squidito2534]

I finally learnt to read in the first lockdown, that’s what I did with that time. I worked on it 6 hours or more a day. I was so motivated when I saw progress, I worked a lot with the Charlie Parker omnibook and the Jameson book. 4 years on, still reading something most days - getting better all the time BUT still all just bass clef. I keep commenting this, the tone of that bass is so insanely good

[@blueplateradio2]

Nice challenge and great rhythms. I didn't think that I would struggle with this! TY for the challenge!

[@ctodd122]

Finally got off my duf to learn how to sight read. I decided to do this thinking it could help me train my ear, become fluent on the fretboard and to see grooves in a different way. It also has really helped my rhythm.

[@jogmog589]

Just bought this off Amazon - cannot wait to get started - the best bass teacher 🙌

[@micahtiemeyerable]

As a bass player with a music degree I can tell you that MDs lose their minds when they meet a bass player who can read music and tattoo your phone number on themselves. Still I’m probably going to get this book because the faster and more confident you are reading what’s on the page, the less you have to worry about notes and can focus everything on feel and sound and everyone else’s parts.

[@StevenDoyleLuke]

New convert here, good info!

[@MisterYeti]

That's one thing I appreciate about Janek's books: they include the sheet music as well as the tablature. Very helpful for understanding the rhythms. I would love to learn more about interpreting the notes on bass. On a piano there is a specific key associated with each note, but on bass different frets can play each note. How do you decide as a bassist where to play?

[@janekgwizdala]

Only experience and trial and error will tell you which is the “right” place on the instrument for you to play something. Each position has a different sound and becomes a personal choice at the end of the day.

[@lauriebluesguy]

Reading is always a hard subject, the issue is that people (Like me at 59) can get by to a level without reading and only after a while realise what they've been missing out all these years. It's a subject that we all need to improve on, I can read very, very slowly but it's a key improvement area for me next year.

[@gcvrsa]

I started on piano as a child, so I do know how to read standard notation, but I more or less stopped needing to read standard notation after university, because from them on, I was playing all original rock music, and we used very information means of communicating song to each other, mainly just the chord progressions and song structures (intro/verse/chorus/bridge/refrain/outro, or as we usually just said, "the A part, the B part, the C part, etc"). I really should sit down and spend some practice time regaining those skills. I can still say in my head, "EGBDF and FACE", but I no longer really recognize the pitches on the staves at a glance without doing the mental calculation.

[@gcvrsa]

I don't read tablature, really, since I rarely play anyone else's music, and when I do, I figure it out by ear.

[@AJbassist]

lol I got Harmony Book AGES ago then i was oh this is in sheet , well then .......... my biggest issue growing up , is that nothing i played was in a set tuning , everything was in drop C d standard , drop d , e standard, drop b , now drop g and f even e so lil all over the place.

[@michaelanthony9068]

Thank you for this topic, and for saying that MANY players struggle with this. IS THE BOOK AVAILABLE SPIRAL BOUND? If not, I can get it done at my local office supply store, as long as there’s room in the margin. Thnx.

[@janekgwizdala]

It doesn’t come spiral bound but if you buy the digital version at my site it’s easy to get it spiral bound by printing the pdf. 👍

[@soulfred]

Go!

[@jc3drums916]

I just dabble in bass, but for me, the difficulty of reading isn't rhythms, but translating pitches to their locations on the fretboard. Same goes with piano. I can read the notes of a chord pretty quickly, but I can't always find the corresponding keys as quickly (and it slows down even more if I'm reading chord symbols and have to select the voicings).

[@MrVyrtuoso]

I incorporated my ear into my reading. So when I read I know in my mind what the sound is, and knowing the sound I can play it in any position on the fingerboard, and which position would be best really just depends on either what basic tonality is desired or which position best facilitates the easiest playing of the whole musical passage.

[@jc3drums916]

@@MrVyrtuoso What you're describing is something I've only heard of people with perfect pitch being able to do. As someone without perfect pitch, I was taught to read intervals, which I'm not great at. Small intervals usually aren't too bad, if I read the interval accurately, but sometimes that's a big if, lol. Larger intervals can be tricky if you ever need to cross two strings. It's easier when singing, since you create the sound you want without having to deal with moving your finger to the correct place.

[@polarbear3427]

Janek, a question. is there anything in te book ( or another book of yours) which has notations for the bass setup, i.e. when to activate a pedal, which combination of pedals etc? Are there special signs for delay, level of distortion, picking, plucking, slapping, muting, which string to use considering efficient play and timbre?

[@janekgwizdala]

I don't have a book specifically on signal chain and pedal setup, although one is definitely in the works. It's just a much longer-scale project to write about that because of how many options there are for different budgets, and how quickly technology changes in a lot of cases.

[@tabonejohann]

Although I can read I still need this book . One question! Does it contain cut time ?

[@janekgwizdala]

There are examples in 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 and 7/4, but not specifically in cut common time. The basic concept of how to divide a bar of music up still applies though, no matter what the time signature.

[@WizardOfArc]

I prefer standard notation for bass

[@lionsdenblog]

Dude, your channel is dangerous to an older bassist who wanted (and still desires) to be a better player. I’m looking into a Glockenklang Soul (amp) and Space Art Box for an amp. Have a line on an STR Sierra 5 string. Then… Sight Reading/Pentatonics/Practice to Performance books. After the confidence is built, this 62 year old if gonna look at getting some studio gigs!