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Post subject: Help reading music?
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 5:00 pm
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Once upon a time I could fluently read music and play the piano.

Fast forward three years and I can play guitar/bass smoothly without reading music and just knowing scales and the like 99% of the time, but now that I am playing bass in my school's production of Footloose and everything is written, I really need to start reading and playing for real.

Being able to read music is not necessarily the exact problem though, I can look at sheet music and tell you what notes are written, but I can't exactly find them on my bass/guitar by second nature, is there any thing you guys use to remember where things are?

Also does anyone know of a program where I could manually type in the sheet music and have it play back, potentially in a MIDI format? This part isn't necessary but it would certainly help.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 5:18 pm
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I'm not a strong reader myself. I've done several Broadway shows without reading, but it wasn't easy. I end up re-writing any single-note runs into tab and taping it into the book. :oops:

As far as software that can be used to enter music and then create a playable MIDI or WAV file using the score .....

Image

2 things about Finale though: it's not cheap, and not particularly user friendly.

There's also Sibelius which does the same or similar, but I've never tried it.

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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 10:46 am
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Reading and playing music should go hand in hand. However, sight-reading is a real challenge for most of us. Since you have the charts for the musical, just practice the hell outta them. You'll get them down.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 10:56 am
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TheMaxwell wrote:
Once upon a time I could fluently read music and play the piano.

Fast forward three years and I can play guitar/bass smoothly without reading music and just knowing scales and the like 99% of the time, but now that I am playing bass in my school's production of Footloose and everything is written, I really need to start reading and playing for real.

Being able to read music is not necessarily the exact problem though, I can look at sheet music and tell you what notes are written, but I can't exactly find them on my bass/guitar by second nature, is there any thing you guys use to remember where things are?

Also does anyone know of a program where I could manually type in the sheet music and have it play back, potentially in a MIDI format? This part isn't necessary but it would certainly help.


Try this:
http://www.anvilstudio.com/

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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 12:30 am
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I learned all that by doing/practicing--I didn't use any tricks or anything--time, effort, that kind of thing.

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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:59 am
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TheMaxwell wrote:
Being able to read music is not necessarily the exact problem though, I can look at sheet music and tell you what notes are written, but I can't exactly find them on my bass/guitar by second nature, is there any thing you guys use to remember where things are?


Write down C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
Cut the sheet into pieces, and fold them.
Draw one at random.
Find ALL places on your fretboard that has this note. Every single one. Without any book or cheat sheet - just your memory and your ears.
Pick all the spots, several times, until you don't miss.
Put the paper back.
Repeat.

When tired of this, try the same for chords. Award yourself extra points for finding more ways to play a chord.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 6:27 am
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I think my real problem is counting rests. I have to be very tight with the drummer. If I had a very busy line it would actually be easier than counting a bunch of weird half rests.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:03 am
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If you need to read for the Gig.. best to practice that particular skill set.
Suggest you go with something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Note-Reading- ... 0786602473

Spend about 15-30 minutes per day with it... You'll be fine ;)

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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:58 pm
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I more than about anyone else here FEEL YOUR PAIN. Been there, done that and literally got the t-shirt. I spent over four months playing electric bass on this show. I've been messing with bass since 1968 and "FOOTLOOSE: THE MUSICAL" was without any doubt whatsoever the HARDEST thing I ever did and it was very challenging but I did OK and actually hated when the run was over.

I also read music some, yes I know where the notes are. Do not beat yourself up over not being able to sight read this show. This book is INSANELY difficult for the bassist to pull off as written, especially on the electric bass showcase pieces. I don't know how much time you have to get prepared, but if you have less than a couple of months you might want to consider backing out right now in time for them to rope in some other sucker.

I will NEVER do another Broadway show EVER because this show was so much work with orchestra rehearsals, stage rehearsals, technical rehearsals, a couple hundred hours of home practice, etc. I guess I spent about 500 hours on this show all together. Lots of that was pre-production rehearsals before getting to stage rehearsals. You know, the hurry up and wait type rehearsals.

I first thought the cats who did this score were sadistic, but eventually realized that they were trying to make the music better and more interesting. The show music is nowhere near as simple as the film music. It is all jazzed up in about every signature piece. Ignore the film score recordings as they are NOT the same and far more elementary level. I figured it was just like the film when I took the gig, then I got the book and was instantly out of my depth. I decided I'd buckle down and get it done, and I did somehow.

What I did was go through and write down every single note on top for every single piece. (If you think that is a lame thing to do, I've seen AFM union string players who went to fine music schools do the exact same thing on simpler shows, so don't feel retarded having to do it here because you are in some pretty good company.) Next, I recorded the music director's keyboard direct on every piece in the entire show using a laptop and Audacity. Next I made CD's of her keyboard tracks sequenced in show order for myself, both electric Spanish guitarists and the drummer. The drummer was an ace and one of the best I ever worked with. Beyond this, I also accessed the original Broadway show recordings and found listening to the bass tracks on these recordings were just as helpful as having the MD's keyboard tracks. Again, ignore the film recordings, they are worse than useless!

There are two Broadway cast recordings and I suggest you seek one of those out at once. Some of the background pieces the bassist plays on which are played under spoken dialog are NOT on this soundtrack recording but most vocals are. The pieces not on the original cast recording are pretty simple anyway.

I practiced to the MD's recorded tracks the most since the MD is who everyone else follows, including the other keyboardist. There was a full orchestra, horns, woodwinds, percussion, two keys, two guitars plus me. To be 100% honest about it, I paid more attention to playing the right notes than which register I was playing the right note in, if that makes sense. I was more concerned with hitting a Bb and not as concerned with WHICH Bb I was playing or where I was playing it on the fretboard. The MD never said, hey that is the wrong Bb! Not once! Some pieces I simplified a lot that way, but others like the bass showcase pieces I tried to nail spot on as written and that was no easy trick with this show. There are something like 35 to 40 different movements for bass in this show and playing them all exactly as written at every performance can obviously be done, but not by me.

"Let's Hear It For The Boy" in the finale was a lot of fun to play and the biggest bass showcase in this thing. Some of the runs are amazing and I must have practiced this piece 1000 times easy.

TIPS for playing this or any other stage musical:
1. Use a compressor. The sound tech isn't going to ride level just for you, they are only worried about the vocals and dialog being heard in performances. They are going to do ONE and only ONE instrumentation mix, mark it and use it every show. It is very easy to get TOO LOUD and cover the other instrumentation in this show, or worse not be heard at all if you do not push out a steady level. Do NOT change your levels, EQ, compressor settings, etc at all from show to show. Leave everything exactly the same. I used a Tech 21 Bass Driver Deluxe patched into an Aphex Punch Factory compressor with great results taking the XLR direct out from the Aphex pedal itself to feed the stage snake. I never fed the FOH system with the amp at all, just the compressor pedal.
2. For my personal monitor I took the SMALLEST amp I had, which was a single 10 inch 75 watt amp which the sound tech turned backwards so it was pointing at my face and the back of the stage into the curtains so I could hear it fine pointed at my head, but it didn't project much at all anywhere else. There were floor monitors for the orchestra, but at one performance the monitors never worked until after the intermission when we told the sound tech they were dead. This was a near disaster since we couldn't hear the keyboards at all except bouncing back from the audience. If I didn't know by heart how the MD was playing this stuff it would have been a fiasco, but I don't think anyone ever knew there was an issue but for us in the band over the stage. I never turned the bass amp over about half volume and with the drummer behind plexiglass isolation I didn't need it any louder than that. In our production the band was playing on an elevated platform that doubled as "the bridge" set piece in the show. So my amp was just about level with the actors' heads on stage and anything pointing forward interfered with performers hearing themselves sing and even worse it also got picked up by the performer microphones and sometimes there were up to 6 miked up actors right smack in front of me.
3. For most pieces I used my number 1 passive first generation P-Bass which is the one I'm most comfortable playing. The guy on the Broadway recordings obviously used an active bass at least some of the time, so I used an active on bass spotlight pieces like, "Let's Hear It For The Boy." Dang I can still her that piece and those runs in my head 4 years later! But in hindsight I should have stuck with the passive because the level and EQ change with the active was too much which I didn't realize until I saw a video recording AFTER the run was over.
4. Make ALL THE NOTATIONS on the bass score you need to make including note names, tempo changes, key changes, ques, etc. At the last performance all sheet music will be collected and burned or shredded anyway. It is part of the contract obligation when you buy the rights to do a show like this that the actual sheet music is destroyed. Mark on it all you need to!

Here are links to two Broadway soundtracks. I used the 1998 one, the original Broadway score:
http://www.amazon.com/Footloose-Musical-1998-Original-Broadway/dp/B00000I8SN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391803407&sr=8-1&keywords=footloose+the+musical+soundtrack

This is a new revival recording and is said to contain one song in the book that is not in the original cast recording from 1998 but otherwise I don't know much about it:
http://www.amazon.com/Footloose-The-Musical-Footloose-The/dp/B005N4DOQU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391803407&sr=8-2&keywords=footloose+the+musical+soundtrack

Good luck, because this show was the hardest thing musically that I EVER managed to pull off and it took a LOT of work at home in addition to rehearsals. If you can't commit to a lot of work then right now is the time to back out. I hope you don't and choose to make it work because if you can play bass in this particular show, you can play bass for anything and everything.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:53 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
-Huge Quote-

As it stands right now I have the first five songs (Footloose/On Any Sunday to Learning to be Silent) to have down by Tuesday. The actual performances aren't until April but the complete run through(s) with the actors starts mid march I think. I think that having discography of the musical would be awesome, but every version I listen to are in a different keys than the version I'm playing, which just adds another step of transposing it in Audacity or something, and somewhat effects how much credibility I associate with the music in being accurate to the book. As far as equipment, my bass is a Squier VM Jazz (with the 70's bridge pup reposition) which is great for all the slap parts that I have to do, but my bass amp is a huge Peavey 600 watt head with a 1x15 Ampeg cab. Do you think it would make more sense to use an XLR to go to the PA and monitor it with a pair of monitor headphones? Or should I try to run the cab (either as a monitor or standalone). The sheet music is also actually rented, so I actually have to return the book and make photocopies of anything I want to write on.

My instructor (who I've known since middle school) has complete faith in me being able to do this, and ability wise I think I'm capable of playing all of the complex basslines in the book, but I'm just not sure. I do have a guitar teacher who offered to help me with this, but the timing isn't great, as I have rehearsals tuesdays and thursdays, and guitar lessons right afterwards on thursdays.

And to be honest the fact that I know could play this really well if my sight reading was better only makes it that much more frustrating, and I was the only bass player to audition, so my backing out would mean that the instructor would have to fill in for me (he's mainly a bass player, and can play the whole book cover to cover).

Also, my amp has a built in compression function, but I don't even really know what it does and I never use it.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 5:20 pm
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Yeah sure, you can do it. I'd copy everything and make notes anyway.

I am POSITIVE that the 1998 BROADWAY SOUNDTRACK is the SAME EXACT KEY and note for note the same as the show book I had. You are probably getting confused by the film stuff. Ignore the film stuff it is wrong as I said.

Don't now about the new revival version recording though. I used the '98 and it was THE SAME as the show book almost NOTE FOR NOTE.


Last edited by brotherdave on Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:19 pm
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Depending on where you are playing that behemoth amp might be too big or could be fine. Where I was even my 75 watt mini was too much. No built in compressor I've ever tired was worth a hoot either. NONE of them.

A GOOD compressor can keep your volume consistent and will also improve sustain which can be both good and bad depending on what you want to accomplish. I use two, the Aphex Punch Factory and the Mark Bass Compressore. Between the two the Aphex is favored for a more natural sound and has tons of compression which gives more sustain. The Mark Bass is a little more brash in tone and has a less natural compression I think and it is also harder to set since it has way more knobs.

I would only use phones as a last resort. Also it is hard to say to go direct ONLY without knowing what the PA is like and if there are subs. That is stuff you won't have to work out until technicals in March anyway.

If it was me, I'd put guitar lessons on hold till you get this show book down. I know I'd have to do that. I had two other projects going at the time I got roped into this and pretty much neglected them completely to get this down.

I do not recall there being slapping in this book. Except for the finale when I did some hard-pull-pops in the runs where it moves through that jazzy bridge which is probably the hardest part of it, but I didn't "slap" ANY. I do NOT thumb slap and never have. My instruments and their setups are not conducive to it. I did some PULL POPS in the Finale, in "LHFTB" and less in the opening number and did a slide in "LHFTB" at the end of the turnaround coming out of the bridge going back into the vocal.

This show has a lot of style changes in it but I managed to not slap anywhere.

Get the Keyboard player to record their parts for you then you for sure have the right keys.


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Post subject: Re: Help reading music?
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:39 pm
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I must be reading a different Footloose play. The Footloose I'm playing starts in F, whereas the Broadway version I listened to starts in A and has a different progression.

Also, I'm playing in a pit in front of the stage (recessed) so I probably have too much amp for what I have to do.

Also, I'm going to try my luck with a music OCR, because if I am successful with that, this whole play would be a breeze.

I might have been wrong about slap though, there is a bit of popping in this book, but I might just do a thumb slap for those though because I'm more comfortable with that and I can regulate how loud it is too.


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