I’ve been supplimenting the lessons learning music notation/theory, it’s going well.
I’ve been mainly learning the bass cleff/staff,
Do I need to learn the treble cleff/staff?
Do i need a good working knowledge of both the music notation/theory and TAB or move mainly to music notation to progress going forward?
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Not immediately as the music you’ll be reading for the bass should be in bass cleff only.
If you decided to join a jazz band, for example, you might be handed some sheet music with just the melody in the treble cleff. So then you’d be in trouble. But for the most part, it shouldn’t be a focus while you’re still learning. I’d say stick to what you need the most.
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My take on reading
Sheet music is like reading maps, Tab is using GPS Nav.
Music theories are like Grammars.
If you want fingerboard flexibility reading Sheet music is better but the learning curve is steeper, but once your fingerboard proficiency is up to par your playing is more fluid. Theories has nothing to do with reading, none.
Tab offers the exact turn by turn playing but you are depending on the tab creators to provide you with the “right” path. If it suits your playing style then it’s great but if it’s not then there are a lot of learning to do. So love to play down the neck and incorporate lots of open strings, I prefer fretting every notes unless I need to create more time.
Theories are like grammars, most time you are using them correctly but have no idea what they are called. You don’t need to know all or learn all or even some before you start playing.
You don’t need any of these before you start playing. They are not the prerequisite to the path to become a good or even great player. It helps if you know how to read and write. Pino Palladino does not know theories nor read music, but he’s probably one of the most technical player with very sophisticated vocabulary. Jaco Pastorious didn’t know how to read music till he started touring then he spent pretty much every waking hours learning and practicing.
Strictly speaking, a beginner doesn’t have to know music theory in detail in order to be able to start playing bass. The “Toe in the Water” amount of theory that B2B presents is enough to steer an aspiring player in the right direction, at least up to a point.
Luckily, learning to use roots, fifths, thirds and patterns (Josh’s Blues Box, Funk Box) can provide a newbie with enough practical theory ammo to be able to hang in a jam.
In addition, learning B2B’s 100 Songs allows a beginner to expand that palette of basics to include more structured (potentially sophisticated) bass lines that were composed by pro players. Some of the songs are intentionally (and deceptively) simple, but each is firmly based in music theory. It just takes knowing how and why their exact note structure comes from, and what it means.
So, the short answer to the question: A beginner (including a B2B grad) does not have to learn music theory to be able to play music.
But, as to the implied question: Yes, knowing how and why music theory works in the context of song structure and, practically, in songwriting and creating fills and improvised lines in real time is very valuable.
For example, using the map analogy, it is eventually possible to reach a destination without a map. But it will take a lot of time and effort to get there by trial and error. A lot of time and effort.
Assuming music theory is a map, it provides a traveler/player with not only an overview of the travel route but also specific details every step along the journey, all the way down to the minutest milestones, turns and addresses.
Yes, many top artists learned to play without formally learning music theory in advance. But many became artists by the exact opposite approach, learning bass or some other instrument along with theory.
Whichever path you choose, given enough effort and practice, you can get where you want to be.
Personally, I took the non-theory approach to teaching myself guitar at 14. Over the decades, I played jams and in bands, writing tons of songs and lyrics along the way. But it was a long and winding road, learning how/what to play/write by ear, trial and error. It was frustrating to not know why that chord in a recording was in the song versus the simpler one I was familiar with.
When I took B2B decades later, I had already learned music theory in college. That knowledge and Josh’s excellent course design made learning how to play bass properly, with good technique, very easy. Following up, taking outstanding Talking Bass courses by Mark Smith provided deep insight into many aspects of theory for bass.
Anyway, it never, ever hurts a player to know music theory. It only helps.
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Also, as a bass player, learning bass clef is what you need to know intimately.
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My experience is that if you learn a clef up to the high notes, you can then learn shifting it up/down for another clef more easily.
For bass clef, learn everything up to the last fret on the highest (G) string. This enables you to play all the notes. Afterwards, learn to shift groups of that to another clef.
Don’t just mix learning two clefs, your brain will be like “this note could be an F or a D, who knows.”
Cheers
Antonio
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Since music is a language, think about how you first learn to speak: You probably listened to others, tried to copy the words they used, because you needed to communicate your needs.
Later you learned to read and then you learned the rules of grammar. As a native speaker of the language, you learned to use rules that you don’t might not even know exist, just because they sound “right” to you.
What do you want to do with music, do you want to learn music and memorize it and is that music mostly on tabs? Unless you’re playing for something like musical theatre, most music does not exist as standard notation. Notation is not that hard to learn if you’re using it but if you’re not, it’s a bit of a waste of time. When you know what you want to do, you’ll know what you need to learn to do it.
You need a basic knowledge of music theory which you can get from the bassbuzz course or in this video https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0?si=FNiaejxtAg107QL2
I suggest that ear training is usually more useful than being able to read standard notation as it makes it much easier to learn and transcribe songs. Listen to music, play a lot of music, learn good technique, don’t practice your mistakes. Music is a journey, don’t worry about what you need to learn when you don’t even know what you don’t know.
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Personally, I waste a lot of time understanding things and not doing them.
So, I agree with @sshoihet that applied theory or learning to apply theory/notation is a good compromise.
This is good advice. I know how to read bass clef but thus far that has been about zero percent useful in learning how to play the songs I want to play on bass guitar.
Play your bass. Most popular music isn’t learned by reading sheet music.
Also: I think we have a tendency to value traditional music notation “higher” than tablature but here’s the thing - tablature is a perfectly fine way of getting across what you need to know for a fretted instrument. If you know that the fifth fret on the E string is an A, then you know you’re playing an A. One is not like morally higher than the other. There are certain situations where you need to know musical notation but it’s honestly not a priority for this instrument.
Honestly in the years I read bass clef regularly most of the time the instruction was the same to my brain as the tab instruction is - this means “put hand here.” (Yes sheet music doesn’t specify where to play the note but 99% of the time I played a certain note in a certain spot.)
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For me, as a person who knows some basic theory (and maybe some pre-intermediate) sheet music is easier than TAB. At least on the sheet, I can easily recognize chord notes, intervals, and so on - at least more easily than on the TAB.
For me TAB is more like a helpful tool for those who can’t read sheet music than a “GPS navigator”.