Hopefully Josh will answer, but what I would recommend is to abandon the idea of needing to perfect sight-reading for now, in terms of learning songs. Pick some shorter songs, and use the tabs or sheet music to memorize sections of it, and make notes of the sections themselves.
Most songs are structured, so these notes would look something like this for a hypothetical song:
Most songs will only have a few different types of patterns to learn, each a few measures long, repeated for each song section. So you can learn those from the tabs, and just keep notes for the song structure.
I’ve played several instruments over the years and while I can read music, I have never been able to sight read at speed on any of them, and just use sheet music to learn the songs initially and then as a roadmap of when to change patterns I have learned. Probably frowned upon, but it worked for me.
You’re not a computer that gets programmed to read sheet music as an exact reproduction of a song. Sheet music is a tool for you to be able to reproduce a song efficiently by what ever means works for you. Don’t be forced in to feeling you need to sight read perfectly now to be able to learn songs with sheet music or tabs.
@Rich.B have you tried the song pack that is included with the B2B course? Fifty songs, with tabs, grouped into three difficulty categories. You can play back the tabs, so you can hear how it’s supposed to sound, and you can slow down the tempo while you’re practicing. Highly recommended!
@Rich.B, In addition to what @howard and @Mike_NL said above, I’d just think of what my favorite songs are (maybe ones I know the riffs to?), look up the tabs, and go from there.
YouTube has lots of cover videos with tabs, but they can be tricky. . . Between knowing how the songs should sound and the tabs, you can work it out. If a cover does not have a tab, try to study what frets the bassist is playing in the video.
Don’t even worry about it, it comes with time. And sight reading is utter nonsense (as in having to to play). Yes it is guitar, but this guy can’t sight read:
Nor can I. I have an entire album out and have like 1,000 original riffs. I also started not knowing full songs, still don’t know many that aren’t mine unless we do a cover. Play, learn your scales, keep learning song fragments you like (as in don’t stop doing that just because it isn’t full songs) play to drum tracks, and try to make your own bass riffs.
Full songs that tend to be easy though, Foo Fighters, CCR, AC/DC, Nirvana. I learned that if you tend to key in on the singer, they are the ones who queue you the changes are about to happen (if you lose count).
Thank you! Most of what I share is learned through experience and it’s stuff that would have been nice to know going into it. That said GOING INTO IT with reckless abandon was also HOW I learned most that I have. I can’t express enough how valuable just DOING is. And what is the worst that will happen? Your song will suck? You play some wrong notes? It’s inconsequential!
As I watched, thinking I would be able to tackle the medium, not even close. I am able to “play” the notes but am I really playing?? I do appreciate the casual perspective regarding the solo action. Meaning, you don’t have to be busy on the fretboard with a solo face in order to play a solo. Thanx For That
First Song: Technically, haven’t learned a full song!! Yet. But my first riff was BoB Marley’s Three Little Birds. Trying not to worry about every little thing, Don’t Worry
There was great advice up above from lots of folks, and there’s great stuff to take away from all of it.
I just wanted to chime in with a “yeah, me too.”
When I started bass, I captured riffs and parts, and never learned songs all the way through… except for Stone Temple Pilots “Plush” - that one got me through.
I never played songs all the way through until I was in bands.
For me, it was boring. I didn’t have the feeling of playing along with the song, playing background rhythm parts while there were solos and singing and cool guitar riffs was really boring to me.
I love it live (and loved it live when I was playing) because there was a drummer and a band, and everything made sense in context, and I could sense the importance and connection of what I was doing. But backing things up in my room at home was a struggle.
So - no shameful secrets!
My recommendation would be… play with real people. (dammit, Covid!)
If you can’t do that, just enjoy learning riffs. Build enough riffs and parts, and you’ll have a song.
For your points 3-5: If you want to play a song, I’d say forget everything about what you think a bassist should know. You don’t need any theory, you don’t need to have a named fingering technique to apply, and there’s no way to learn other than the way that you can do it successfully.
It sounds like you’re doubting yourself more than anything.
The only thing that you need to play bass is the ability to make the right sound at the right time. ‘How’ you do that is up to you. It’s only helpful if it moves you forward.
If it’s paralyzing, forget the technique, and just get in there and make the sounds any way you can.
Sound first - every thing else a distant second.
Adding above, Gio makes an excellent point. Making the sound happen is the most important thing, HOW you do it is secondary. To drive this point home, look at Rick Allen, the drummer for Def Leppard. Famously has one arm, but still plays in a high profile Rock Band. It’s ACTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE for him to use “proper technique”. He had to find a way to still get the sounds on his drum set even down a primary limb. Listen to some Def Leppard. Do your ears tell you the drummer isn’t using proper technique?
This is me in a nutshell!! While I try to convince myself I made my peace with it, it really still bugs me (mostly because you read everywhere that it is all about learning songs)… but, if even Gio had this experience, we can all learn to accept it as part of our musical maturation process
Awesome, a new video for me to check out. Idk how I missed it for almost a week, but getting on it right now.
We have a thread about our first songs we learned.
I put down Paranoid by Black Sabbath, it was the first song that I sat down and learned the whole song from start to end, breaking the mold of just learning the popular riffs and leaving the rest of the song alone. a bad hobbit I had as a young guitar player. so when I got to the point in playing a bass, a few months after B2B when I wanted to sit down and learn a song from beginning to end, to do a cover, I did paranoid.
I was just browsing songs, and found a play along, played it til I was comfortable and then recorded a cover that I had posted in the covers thread a while back.
TBH, I learned this song, and picked it because I was having bad thumb pain from practicing and learning the intro solo to NIB for so many hours, so many days in a row, that I should have been taking some days off.
I just could not leave the bass alone, and had to play, so I found something that I was somewhat familiar with from playing the guitar riff many years ago, and it is a song I know very well, and most importantly, I could basically play it without using my thumb at all, so by forcing myself to learn that song, I took a day off using my thumb.
I then continued playing things and trying to learn to fret without using my thumb, and because of that, I was able to learn to not play with a death grip, and it helped my playing overall immensely!
cheers Brian
Toby