 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: wjk
Date: 2006-05-22 01:57
I'm struggling with reading notes in bass clef---seems counter-intuitive after all those years of reading notes in treble clef...any suggestions/ "tricks"?
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-05-22 02:20
Lines of the bass clef: G, B, D, F, A
Some popular mnemonic devices:
GBDFA Good Birds Don't Fly Away
GBDFA Good Boys Deserve Fruit Always
GBDFA Good Boys Deserve Fun Always
GBDFA Good Boys Do Fine Always
GBDFA Great Big Dogs Fight Animals
GBDFA Great Big Dragons Fly Around
GBDFA Grizzly Bears Don't Fly Airplanes
Spaces of the bass clef: A, C, E, G
Some popular mnemonic devices:
ACEG All Cars Eat Gas
ACEG All Cows Eat Grass
All of the above, suggested by thefreedictionary.com ...GBK
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-05-22 05:59
The best way to do it is to do it. I know this sounds flippant but it is true. It's the same approach as doing transpositions on sight (IMHO everyone should be able to read concert pitch on their instrument by sight). It seems really, REALLY hard until you spend some time just doing it. The learning curve is steep at first but it really becomes second nature quite easily.
Get things that force you to read in bass clef. The Bach cello suites are great for this since you know by sound if it comes out wrong. These can be done on soprano or bass, and they sound nice, too. Try things in other clefs. Viola music (in alto clef) is perfectly placed for clarinet, and it's actually a cinch to do transposition to concert pitch (you'll have to work out why for yourself). The more you get used to reading in other clefs the easier it becomes, and the more versatile (and useful) you become as a musician.
-Randy
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2006-05-22 09:49
The best way to learn how to read is to READ. No tricks. Make bass clef a special file in your mind. One day you may have to play Wagner in bass clef for bass clarinet in A, with treble clef a major 7th up with clef changes instantly so you've better start somewhere by just, reading.
Alphie
Post Edited (2006-05-22 09:51)
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-05-22 10:36
The best way to learn bass clef is to learn the piano.
No, I'm not joking.
(edit) And neither am I in "Reigate, B8, United Kingdom". Reigate is in Surrey, B8 is a Birmingham postcode, and I'm tens of miles from either of them.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
Post Edited (2006-05-22 10:38)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-05-22 11:36
I'm not a pianist, so I grew up knowing only treble clef. Then I started playing bass recorder and just had to do it.
I put everything else aside, got some parts and played nothing but bass clef for a week.
First, I tried reading everything down a third, mentally drawing a sixth staff line below and erasing the top one. Many people advise this, but it didn't work for me. There was still the mental effort of transposing.
I then did it right. First, I concentrated on the second space being C. Then I fixed the bottom line on G and filled in the notes above and below. Within a day, I got the notes within the staff fixed, and after a week I had the connections made well enough that they took no translation.
When you need to do it, you'll find a way.
Get a copy of Hindemith's Elementary Training for Musicians, which has excellent exercises, many of which are, despite the book title, horrendously difficult. Hindemith wrote that it was unprofessional not to be able to read any clef, including the C clefs on each line. Believe me, you haven't confronted difficult stuff until you have a part in mezzo-soprano clef dropped on you.
Ron Reuben, the Philadelphia Orchestra bass clarinet player, said he simply read and played bass clarinet parts in A and in bass clef. He got an actual bass in A, but the Wagner, Ravel and Stravinsky parts confused him, since they weren't what he was used to, and he sold it. At least for him, the transposition was no more difficult.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-05-23 07:24
Learning the recorder is another great way to learn your clefs....I play from facsimile scores where you can be reading from five different clefs in one sitting. You also learn how to quickly transpose octaves with ease. Plus, clarinettists have a natural advantage on recorder......the F recorders share the fingerings of the bottom register of the clarinet and the c recorders share the middle register fingerings.
Just another reason why the clarinet is truly God's gift to humankind!
-Randy
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-05-23 09:10
"And neither am I in "Reigate, B8, United Kingdom". Reigate is in Surrey, B8 is a Birmingham postcode, and I'm tens of miles from either of them."
At least both Reigate and Birmingham are closer to where you are (and where I am too) - my ISP says I'm on the other side of the Atlantic when I'm on the Sussex Coast!
I learnt bass clef fairly early on as I used to play bassoon, then I did double bass while at college and harp a bit later on, so once learnt it sticks.
Only trouble with bass clef is ledger lines above the stave when they get above G (three ledger lines) which I do have to take time to work out the notes.
And if you want to see what looks like a load of telegraph poles, look at the band part for 'Getting Sentimental Over You' for the solo trombone - all in bass clef but all in ledger lines, I think it goes up to top space treble clef E, but all written out in bass clef!
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-05-23 14:20
I've had several trombone players complain about that very part, but they all recoil in horror when I suggest that it should be in tenor clef...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-05-23 14:40
Many years ago at Interlochen, one of the conductors was Henry Smith, the Philadelphia Orchestra principal trombonist.
They sat him down in a jazz band and put out Night Train, which begins with a stratospheric trombone solo in imitation of a steam locomotive whistle, written in bass clef with about a million ledger lines.
He stopped, put down his trombone, picked up a pencil and began counting ledger lines, complaining "Why in the world didn't they write this in alto clef?" For him, alto clef was completely natural.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2006-05-23 20:33
How about:
A-C-E-G:
- All Clarinetists Emulate Goodman
G-B-D-F-A:
- Goodman Band Doesn't Feature Artie
- Good Boys Don't Fool Around
- Generally, Bandsmen Do Fool Around
(Credit me if you use them.)
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Author: allencole
Date: 2006-05-25 07:50
One important point of information here is what you are specifically trying to do. Are you trying to read transposed parts in bass clef, or are you trying to transpose must from bass clef in concert key to be played on a clarinet or bass clarinet?
Allen Cole
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Author: joannew
Date: 2006-05-26 19:37
The second time I played bass clarinet with orchestra the set of parts for one concert included band notation (written in treble clef, sounding an octave lower), bass clef notation, bass clarinet in A (in bass clef) and one piece with bass clef but occasionally reaching up to treble clef in the correct octave. Yikes!
Because I don't read bass clef often, I generally calculate each note - looks like an A so must be a-b-C! But when the parts get tricky there is no time for this. The key for me was to find the landmarks: where on the staff are you with all fingers down? with just left hand? open G? Once these are in place you can go from there.
And once bass clef becomes natural, reading viola parts in alto clef on the Bb is fun too!
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Author: BTBob
Date: 2006-05-31 00:51
To learn bass clef –I say double alto sax!
Eb music is just bass clef with a different clef and 3 extra flats. I have little trouble with BC as long as I remember I'm in concert key.
Alphie wrote:
"The best way to learn how to read is to READ. No tricks. Make bass clef a special file in your mind. One day you may have to play Wagner in bass clef for bass clarinet in A, with treble clef a major 7th up with clef changes instantly so you've better start somewhere by just, reading."
So that's *transposing* bass clef?
I'm glad I don't play classical.
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