(Sight) Reader's Digest

I didn't mention it specifically, but there are not any tablatures in any of the books featured in the previous post. To me, it is an advantage, being that without tab, there is more space available for additional content. It means, however, that one needs to be somewhat functional with reading standard bass clef notation, in order to reap the substantiation benefits from studying those resources. And not just those... For some reason, music reading seems to be a kind of "boogeyman" for the grand majority of self-taught musicians, especially in popular modern styles, i.e. pop, rock, funk, hip-hop etc. On top of that, such attitude tends to be prevalent among the guitarists, bassists and drummers. And it's a shame... Be as it may, before pointing some of my arguments, let's lee what the legendary bass groover Rocco Prestia has to say about the subject, in an interview for the Bass Player magazine. 

In the age of home confinement and remote recording, the significance of reading is really highlighted, even for those who do not have studio session player's career. A lot of people will probably say "I play my own music in my own band", but have you ever come up with a cool sounding riff, only to have it forgotten a couple of days later? Well, if you knew how to read and write music, that wouldn't have to happen! After all, I spent most of my most active playing years in a band that played own music, but being able to handle notation contributed to quite a few of ideas that were later incorporated in many of those songs. 

Even when it comes to being called for playing on other people's projects, only two of a dozen required sight reading to some degree. A few of those required reading charts, but my acquaintance with those also stems directly from reading standard notation, in terms of form markings etc. 

Finally, my biggest benefit actually lays in the fact that the ability to read opened so many new doors and avenues when it comes to access to music books, scored and other materials. In other words, with even the basic level of music literacy, you can get a lot of info from classical and jazz music materials, even those aimed at other instruments.

But, it is a lot of hard work, isn't it? Well, yes and no. developing sight reading ability requires consistency  - you have  to do it almost every day, but 10-15 minutes will suffice. As the matter of fact, after a while, it can even be done away from the instrument, if push comes to shove. And, there is even the great side effect of improved understanding of rhythm! 

Where do you start, then? There are plenty of good books or courses to help you with it, most of them good in laying a fair foundation. I will dedicate another post to reviewing some of those, but you may as well start here:

Musicians Institute - Bass ... by Angel Daniel on Scribd

Again, there is nothing to lose from learning to read music! Even the time spent doing it is not lost - it is invested...and the dividends are very much worth it.