What Percentage Actually READ Music?

[beatlefreak]

Tab's OK for picking out the notes, but gives you almost no sense of timing.

[jimk]

Tab's OK for picking out the notes, but gives you almost no sense of timing.

Yeah. That's my biggest pet peeve about tabs.
JimK

[winston]

In the past whenever I had taken the time to dissect a tab I found that many of them are so utterly wrong that they are useless. So now I won't even look at a tab.

[cjj]

In the past whenever I had taken the time to dissect a tab I found that many of them are so utterly wrong that they are useless. So now I won't even look at a tab.

Yeah, that's my biggest pet peeve about tabs...

[jakeox]

Interesting discussion. I have a two-part answer: yes, I read musical notation just fine, but no, I rarely read notation when playing bass. The latter has a lot to do with the style; how many rock bands do you show up for an audition for where they hand you sheet music and ask you to read along?

I learned to read music in an orchestral setting (french horn) and then in choir. For my first few years in choir I was a bass, so I read bass clef music. (At age 12 being able to sing a low A made me a bass -- at nearly 32 that's still as low as I go, which puts me nowhere near bass range. I sing with women who can sing lower than me. Thankfully my high range developed.) When I started playing bass around age 15, there just wasn't much sheet music to be had (aside from my ill-fated semester in the jazz band -- I had just started playing bass and couldn't keep up), so I learned by ear. Singers learn a lot of stuff by ear, too, so it was an easy transition.

I'm probably a little better at learning by ear at this point, but that's a personal preference. I still sight read complicated sheet music when needed while singing. I would say that being able to read musical notation also improved my ability to learn by ear, though. I mean, you hear certain recognizable intervals, and think, oh, that's a fifth -- I need to play up a string and two frets. Of course you don't need to know how to read, or even understand any theory, to play well, but I think it absolutely helps me to map what I hear onto the fretboard.

As for the debate over whether playing by ear and not reading music makes one a better improviser -- I seriously doubt it's related. The best improvisers that I know all have a deep and intimate knowledge of music theory that allows them to "discover" some really startlingly good note choices that would take most people months of trying things out to stumble on. I suspect a lot of people used to playing off of sheet music who aren't comfortable improvising have just not done much of it, and the people who learned by ear did a lot of noodling to get there. It's just different amounts of improvisational experience.

[weemac]

I can stumble through notation for Bagpipes (only 9 offical notes to choose from) but thats about it....

Eden.

[FretlessOnly]

Having played in a Symphony Orchestra (a local one), and studied music theory in college, I can read just fine, but I prefer not to. I agree that the inner voice is far more important. I once had a girl(friend) who was a very good piano player, but who could only do it from a lead sheet. If I asked her to play something in Cmin, she'd look at me blankly and ask for the sheet music. I just couldn't understand that.

So, it's different for me in different situations. For classical, it's obviously strict reading. For jazz, it's just reading changes and improvising lines over them, except for big band where reading parts is required. For the rest (rock, bluegrass, folk, etc.), it's generally no reading; although I have written out parts for songs I've written so I can remember them. But, that's rare, as I generally improv for most of the songs in my band.

[harrek]

I played trumpet, baritone, and some piano back in grade school and high school (marching band, orchestra, jazz band). So I learned to read music and music theory way back then.

So now 20+ years later I find myself wanting to play an instrument again and picked up a Ric bass to do so with. Guess I found myself listening to the bass parts in more and more of the music I like. In the first lessons I took I found (much to my instructors delight as he thinks it hard to teach theory to an adult) I can still read music with no problems. So count me in the reading music bunch.

However what I have also found out is that I am really poor at playing by ear. All my experience has been playing with sheet music. My preference is the various books with music and tabs for the bass. But these are few are far between. So if I really want to learn more songs, how do I get better at playing by ear? That's my real dilemma.

[jps]

.....how do I get better at playing by ear? That's my real dilemma.

Just play along with CDs. mp3s. etc. and listen!

[electrofaro]

How many of you actually read and rely on standard music notation to play- and how many use tab or just play by ear?

I can't read stardard music notation at all... I use tabs... with the risk of running through a song at 2 to 3 times the regular pace... but then I have the tendency to lose my way when playing slowly
I still have exceptional hearing at 32 but playing by ear never really worked for me - maybe I never really gave it a chance, really?

[Bighouse]

I play mostly by ear...it's difficult to do- you should see the callouses!

[harrek]

.....how do I get better at playing by ear? That's my real dilemma.

Just play along with CDs. mp3s. etc. and listen!

You make it sound so easy!

What I have tried to do is listen to a song I have the music for and try and learn it. Then I can go back to the music later and see how I did. With the Beatles complete book I bought it sure gives me plenty of music to try this with.

Of course I still want more good bass music books. I'd love to see a good Yes book out there.

[jps]

I didn't say it can be done in one pass! I have been leaning songs this way for almost 40 years; you learn all the various inflections and nuances that may be missed by reading only.

[cjj]

I find that it really helps if you use headphones and mix your bass output with the CD so you can hear what you're doing along with what you're trying to learn...

[whojamfan]

I play mostly by ear...it's difficult to do- you should see the callouses!

OUCH