Bass Tip Of The Week: Sight Reading For Bass -Funk Bass Lines
June 16, 2008 - *Subscriber's Area*
If you take an analytical approach to sight reading standard notation and break it down into its fundamental elements, you are left with two primary components consisting of notes and rhythms. In order to begin sight reading standard notation for bass, you must have two pieces of note-based information committed to memory including the notes on the staff in the bass clef as well as the position of those notes on the fingerboard. Since there are only 12 unique pitches in the Western-based musical alphabet, memorizing their positions on the staff in the bass clef as well as on the fingerboard of your instrument is a relatively easy task. The much more challenging aspect of sight reading standard notation is experienced in learning to instantly recognize rhythms because unlike notes where there are a relatively few number of them, the rhythmic combinations you could be potentially presented with in a piece of standard notation are practically limitless. Once you have the notes on the staff as well as on your instrument thoroughly internalized, the position of those notes will never change. The only thing about those notes that is going to change will be their function as they are applied to different chord types.
In this lesson, you are presented with 63 funk bass lines, and each groove has been written in a different key in an effort to increase the proficiency of your note recognition skills when sight reading standard notation for bass. Unlike the rhythmic recognition exercises which we discussed previously where you begin practicing them at a tempo that is as slow as you need it to be in order to play the rhythms perfectly in time without making any errors, I recommend that you start reading through these note recognition exercises at a challenging tempo to acquire maximum results. The tempo that you choose to begin with will be at your discretion. To track your progress, read through all these bass lines against the steady, even pulse of a metronome or drum machine. Start with a tempo that isn't too slow because that won't provide you with much of a challenge, but at the same time, don't begin with a tempo that is too fast which causes you to create errors. From there, continually increase the tempo with each subsequent pass through these choruses.
Because this lesson is quite lengthy, I would recommend breaking down these examples into smaller sections to make them more manageable. At first, try to read through these bass lines one chorus at a time without pausing. Eventually, your goal should be to play through complete pages in their entirety without stopping due to a mistake. If any errors occur, stop and correct them before proceeding, and if you are having a particularly difficult time with a measure, decrease the tempo significantly so that you don't allow yourself to become frustrated and continue to reinforce bad habits through inaccuracy. Most musicians will overlook the significance of elemental exercises like these and rush through them in a sloppy fashion in order to get to more advanced material, but don't sacrifice accuracy for speed because this will be counterproductive to our long term goals. The best sight readers can be presented with standard notation, sight read that material perfectly on the first take, and make their performance sound like a prepared piece of music that they have been playing for years.
If any of the exercises seem easy, simply increase the tempo. No matter how fast you can read through these lines error-free, you can always improve your note recognition skills and heighten the degree of difficulty by increasing the tempo. Becoming a proficient sight reader of standard notation on an advanced level is a process that takes dedication and time. This isn't a subject area that anyone is going to have completely mastered within just a couple weeks or even a couple months.
After you have successfully completed reading through these funk bass lines, go back and practice transposing each groove to all of the other keys. You can also commit these bass lines to memory to utilize in live performance situations.
Although these exercises may seem somewhat dry since memorizing notes on a sheet of standard notation and your bass isn't the most exciting task you will ever devote time to practicing, great strides can be made in your ability to sight read standard notation over a relatively short span of time by concentrating on these basic note recognition exercises. By becoming a proficient sight reader, you will see your options as a working bassist increase exponentially because you will be able to more effectively communicate with other musicians. There are so many gigs available which require the ability to read standard notation. Whether your goal is to become a commercial session bassist, a member of the college jazz ensemble, bass chair of the local symphony orchestra, play in the school musical, or provide support in your community church, becoming a proficient sight reader will only increase your opportunities and chances of obtaining these gigs. Not only does being able to sight read greatly increase your value as an in-demand bass player, but as an additional benefit, it also makes your practice sessions much more productive since you are able to use that time more efficiently and cover more material. ... Read More!
