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Topic: Using Notation |
Stefan Robertson
From:
Hertfordshire, UK
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Posted 13 Aug 2015 4:18 am |
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So I am learning slowly but surely that music notation is awesome in relating how, when and what to play. Its truly a universal language for music.
HOWEVER until I get my chops up its slow reading. Which is fine for now I guess.
Using tab although fast to copy is extremely tedious to write and I am finding can limit your comprehension on the instrument. Although the person who writes the tab in one of the programs like Tabledit is subconsciously teaching him/herself to read music. Cool huh.
Besides all the best music old/calssical/jazz/modern pop is available in sheet music for the most part. AND no longer will we have to transcribe and painstakingly rewrite from programs like Band in a box or Ultimate guitar tabs etc.
So my new quest is to learn how to read and play music at sight. I am self taught so am slowly learning but have come across some absolute gems.
Andy Volk's Lap Steel Guitar book he just published is great
Jamey Abersol Jazz sax book is awesome
and of course the Be all and end all "the ultimate Fake Jazz book"
Your thoughts or tips when tackling the daunting language of music .
_________________
Stefan
Bill Hatcher custom 12 string Lap Steel Guitar
E13#9/F secrets: https://thelapsteelguitarist.wordpress.com
"Give it up for The Lap Steel Guitarist" |
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Guy Cundell
From:
More idle ramblings from South Australia
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Posted 13 Aug 2015 4:45 pm
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I wouldn’t be too discouraged about the speed of your reading, Stefan. It is fairly difficult to pick it up at mature age you just need to keep at it. I know this from experience and am still not a great reader. I look at the fluency and boldness of my 13 year old boy with envy.
That said, there are a few things that might help. Firstly, the task is made difficult because both pitch and rhythm have their own challenges that are combined in any piece. A good idea is to practice them separately. Drummer Louis Bellson’s ‘Modern Reading Text in 4/4’ is a standard and there are many other rhythm only publications. For pitch, look for tunes that you already know maybe in anthologies. For tunes that I don’t know I sometimes use a book of 1000 fiddle tunes which don’t have much syncopation to cope with.
Range is a consideration as well so you want material that is going to sit well on the instrument. Higher note reading is going to be harder because there are more options as to where you play the notes on the neck. This free Django Reinhardt repertoire book is good in a lower range as are songbooks.
http://www.gypsyguitar.de/downloads/gg-downloads/fakebook_django_2008.pdf
Single note reading is far easier than interpreting chords. I say interpreting because for chordal material to be playable it needs to written specifically for a given tuning and there’s not much of that going on without tab.
I think that it is a very good enterprise to work on your reading because it opens so many doors and connections to other instruments and music. Bass guitar is probably the easiest instrument to read on and skills developed there are transferable and it is fun, if you have the time.
In my own journey I learned to write before I could read very much. I did this doing horn arrangements for my funk band in the 1980s. It was a slow and painstaking business but it also incorporated ear training. I got to a point where I was employed as an arranger but without formal training. When I auditioned for university I told the guy in the preliminary interview that if they gave me a reading test I would fail miserably. They must have liked my charts because they didn’t give me that test.
Luckily I don’t have to do too much cold reading but I still work on it. I think that there is definitely a place for tab, ensuring that the ‘fingerings’ are correct. Finding the best fingering can take time and is always up for revision. I’ve been working on this following piece for the last few days and find there are little adjustments to be made after trial and error. (The juice in this particular exercise is not only the technical performance problems but also what Bach’s harmony actually is. It is a solo flute piece.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQlRJO455JM
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 13 Aug 2015 6:39 pm
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My story is kind of the same as Guy's--I can write better than I can read. But I can read enough to get it after I spend some time with it. Too often we put ourselves on the spot by not really looking at the music and trying to assess it. You can think of the harmony sometimes as a framework for the melodic ideas--a rough framework, because the more adventurous the music, the more it goes outside of the framework. That is the linear side of music.
Anyway, we put too much pressure on ourselves to really be great readers when it really only matters when you are getting paid to play someone else's music. Learn to read through short pieces, gradually reading longer lines. It is really more important to focus on the rhythms.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Stefan Robertson
From:
Hertfordshire, UK
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 1:26 am
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Thanks Guys I definitely have an uphill task but in using the Jazz books that I found there is so much "hidden" that I am now discovering.
With regards to fingerings on tab. I feel more free with note names rather than fret numbers as that is how my mind is now being trained to relate music lines. I have forced fret numbers out of anything I look at. 
So in all the music books that have tab I have been writing down music notes names next to the tab beside my tuning doesn't lay out like c6th. So I am forced to transcribe anyway. 
_________________
Stefan
Bill Hatcher custom 12 string Lap Steel Guitar
E13#9/F secrets: https://thelapsteelguitarist.wordpress.com
"Give it up for The Lap Steel Guitarist" |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 7:27 am
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My tab is all written with the notation above the tab so you can see the correlation between the tab that the notes. Very educational.
However, I only write for E9th pedal steel. |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 8:56 am
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
Anyway, we put too much pressure on ourselves to really be great readers when it really only matters when you are getting paid to play someone else's music. |
It matters to me the other 99.9% of the time too!
| Mike Neer wrote: |
| It is really more important to focus on the rhythms. |
I love Bach, but you won't learn anything about reading rhythm from reading that Allemande that Guy posted. Also, where is the flute player supposed the breathe? |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 8:58 am
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I should have known you'd call me out!
I agree, I agree. I was just humoring the noodler in me. I've been spending mucho time reading through all my Monk transcription books and the lead sheets, although Monk wanted all his musicians to learn the tunes by ear. Even though he'd have the sheets in his briefcase, he wouldn't take them out.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Andy Henriksen
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 9:24 am
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| Earnest Bovine wrote: |
| I love Bach, but you won't learn anything about reading rhythm from reading that Allemande that Guy posted. |
Dang. And I was all proud of myself that I could clap along to the rhythm in that piece!  |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 9:25 am
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| yep, and if you can't read fast, read slow. I try to begin each day on the steel by reading thru a couple of pages from "1000 fiddle tunes" with the metronome. Some of the stuff "lays easy" on the steel, but sometimes it's very awkward to find positions where I can phrase the notes nicely. So I go back and slow it way down. That's not sight reading, but sometimes it leads to a new easy way to play something after playing it the hard way for a long time. |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 14 Aug 2015 2:12 pm
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I am glad to see music notation given its due place in learning and playing. So often I have heard ear-players make disparaging remarks like: "Oh well, if you really need the dots . . ."
I am a slow reader, only using it as a reminder when playing some passages. Tab has many benefits, but you may as well learn to write both.
My brother wanted to develop his sight reading, so he would go into junk shops and buy dreadful old sheet music by the pound. He'd play through the pile once, and then chuck it all away, and go and find another stack.
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Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother. |
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John Alexander
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Posted 15 Aug 2015 1:22 am Re: Using Notation
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| Stefan Robertson wrote: |
| Your thoughts or tips when tackling the daunting language of music. |
Try practicing the reading of notation away from the instrument, either singing or imagining what you read, to associate the notation with the sound of the music that is to be made. The idea is to get a better comprehension of written music than simply knowing what buttons to press on the instrument when you see the dots.
Ottman's Music for Sight Singing, is a great resource for this kind of practice. |
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Stefan Robertson
From:
Hertfordshire, UK
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Posted 15 Aug 2015 12:26 pm
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Thanks guys. The language of music really seems to be in notation. I am starting to appreciate and now learn music notation from other instruments. I can't deny though it's really slow going.
_________________
Stefan
Bill Hatcher custom 12 string Lap Steel Guitar
E13#9/F secrets: https://thelapsteelguitarist.wordpress.com
"Give it up for The Lap Steel Guitarist" |
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