BASS
A SIGHT READING SHORT CUT USING INTERVALS | Adam Nitti
Hello again , brothers and sisters of the bass !
I think it is fair to say that many of us are a little intimidated when it comes to sight-reading . It certainly is not necessarily the most entertaining thing to practice , but it is a valuable skill for the complete musician . I look at reading as part of a language I need to be familiar with if I want to be able to speak it . In the world of gigging and recording , those of us who cannot read are forced to exclude ourselves from certain opportunities if they require competence in this area . What I have found is that many of us already know the notes on the staff , but we need a little bit of a jump start to get us sight reading at a reasonable rate of speed . With that in mind , here is an introductory concept I have utilized often which can help you if you find yourself suddenly needing to read a notated bass part .
Before I move on however , I have to come clean on one thing and admit the title of this column is a little misleading ... There really are no shortcuts to becoming great at sightreading . Improvement requires dedication and constant practice . Reading is not one of those skills that you just master overnight . It ' s a very progressive intuitive process that requires consistency and patience , and that ' s why you must practice it regularly in order to make it easier . If I don ' t practice my reading for a long time , I get rusty . Many of you have also discovered this for yourselves , and it ' s no fun knowing you are out of shape !
In simplified terms , the conventional way in which we learn to read might be outlined in a handful of steps :
1 . Identify a note on the staff 2 . Associate that note ’ s pitch with a location on the instrument
3 . Associate the note ’ s duration with an amount of time the note is held or sustained 4 . Play the note accordingly 5 . Move on to the next note and start over
Although not a very sophisticated explanation , these steps pretty much represent the challenge of sight-reading . All of this has to happen quickly and smoothly so that the music can be performed spontaneously as it is interpreted . One of the primary challenges of reading music on a stringed instrument like the bass is the need to know where to play the notes on the fingerboard . Because we have so many notes that can be played in multiple locations , the idea of finding a hand position that minimizes shifting and movement is often one of the hardest things to figure out in real time . Here is where a keen knowledge of intervallic shapes can give you a great deal of assistance .
Let ' s first identify some generic intervallic shapes on a staff that you should be familiar with . We won ’ t worry about specific qualities like major or minor right now . These are based on a C major scale ( Fig . 1 ):
Each interval ' s name is based on the inclusive |
distance in scale degrees from the lowest pitch |
to the highest pitch . For example : |
2 nd : |
C |
D |
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1 |
2 |
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3 rd : |
C |
D |
E |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
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4 th : |
C |
D |
E |
F |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
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5 th : |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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6 th : |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
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7 th : |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
Octave : |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
C |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
These intervallic distances correspond directly |
to intervallic shapes on your bass . Here are |
some intervallic distances based on the major |
scale ( Fig . 2 ): |
( Fig . 2 ) |
With all that out of the way , let me now share with you a little shortcut of sorts that might give you the confidence to try to tackle that chart you ' ve been afraid of for so long . It focuses on more of an adaptive or connective version of reading using your familiarity with intervallic shapes and their corresponding patterns under your fingers .
( Fig . 1 )