Many great volumes have been written on the subject of written music, so I won’t bother trying to cover it all. Suffice it to say that learning to read music is invaluable.

Speaking for myself, I had been playing bass for many years before I went back and learned to read. I’m SO GLAD that I did. Regardless of whether or not music is your vocation, it is an enormous asset. When you’re called in to “sub” for the normal bass player, it won’t require that you cram to memorize 25 tunes - rather, you can take a quick glance through a handful of charts, ask a few clarifying questions, and proceed to sound like a long-time band member over the course of the gig. In addition, having the ability to read will open up a whole world of instructional resources to you. If music is your current or potential vocation, you’re SERIOUSLY limiting your employment opportunities by not reading.

The good news is that it really isn’t that hard. Sure, it will take some work, and requires consistent practice in order to be functional. But getting to the point that you can navigate your way through a normal rhythm chart isn’t beyond any player’s abilities. Learning what some common rhythms look like when written out is not that difficult, and will help alleviate unnecessary anxiety when someone hands you a chart on the gig. Definitely check out Joseph Patrick Moore's Reading Music for Bass online courses at MusicDojo for a more comprehensive look at reading music.

What I’d like to do is spend a bit of time looking at a basic rhythm chart, and discuss some of the standard “roadmap” stuff (repeats, D.C.’s, D.S.’s, Codas), as well as dynamic & phrasing marks.

FIGURE 1

With just a rudimentary grasp of chart reading, Imaginary Tune could be performed convincingly on the very first run-through. Let’s go through it sequentially...

First, you’ll notice that the “flat” symbol (looks like a lower case “b” on the 2nd line of the staff) indicates that all B’s are to be flatted. A quick perusal of your fingerboard will reveal that the F major scale is 
F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F. Therefore, this tune is in the key of F major (or D minor, the relative minor).

You’ll also notice that the text under the first measure of the tune specifies: “Piano Intro”. Our keen discerning faculties should clue us in that we should probably refrain from playing a big rock-n-roll slide at this point in the tune! Rather, we’ll lay out on the first staff, and come in lightly on Bar 5 (where the text specifies that the first time through, the band should come in at a soft dynamic level).

Quick note: the diamond in Bar 4 indicates that all instruments playing at that point should play a whole note, held through the full bar (of course, pianists generally would interpret it here as “play rolling arpeggio in a Liberace-esque manner”...but I digress).

At Bar 5, you’ll notice a large “A”. This is referred to as a “rehearsal mark”. It simply assists by giving a clear reference for the musician (easily visible, even when quickly glancing over from another sheet of the score). Rehearsal marks are usually placed at the beginning of new sections of a tune (e.g., beginning of the verse, chorus, bridge, outro, etc.).

You’ll also notice that there’s a “Start repeat” barline (the doubled barlines with “colon” to the right). That symbol indicates that at a certain point, we’ll be jumping back to this point in the tune. Just make a quick mental note for now.

Each bar has 4 slashes, which represent quarter notes (if the song was in a different time signature - say, 3/4 - there would only be 3 slashes per bar, etc.). The slashes simply mean that the arranger or composer isn’t specifying or dictating a certain specific part to play (in which case the line would be written in standard notation); rather, the musicians may spontaneously conceptualize and perform their own parts as they freely interpret the tune in whatever musical style the band chooses. How cool is that?

So we would just play along and follow the chord changes, keeping things at a fairly low level dynamically.

Then, at Bar 12, we see that there is an 8th-note build up into the chorus, or B-section (indicated by the crescendo “hairpin” below the staff). That would have us gradually increasing the dynamic level over the eight 8th-notes (“1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and”).

At Bar 13, we see our second rehearsal mark (“B”) at the beginning of what is presumably the chorus section. There’s also text below the staff that indicates “Band in Big”...so we’re apparently rocking at this point. Lastly, there’s a symbol that resembles an “S” with a diagonal line through it and two dots: that is a “D.S.” sign (Dal segno, which means, “from the sign”). Make another 2nd quick mental note; I’ll explain this when we’re directed to jump back to this bar at some point later in the tune.

We’re dynamically big as we plow our way through the chorus. At the end of Bar 19, it specifies “to Coda” (with accompanying “bulls-eye” symbol). We will ignore it on our first time through this section, but make a 3rd mental note! That instruction will be applicable later in the tune.

At Bar 20, we kick in to the first ending (compare it with the 2nd ending, reflected at Bar 25). We are also to bring the dynamic level back down (see the diminuendo “hairpin” below Bar 20), presumably to get ready for the 2nd verse.

You may notice that Bars 21 through 24 look a LOT like the first 4 bars of the tune. Bars 21 through 24 are essentially a “re-intro”, but this time with the full band playing (at a softer dynamic level following Bar 20).

At the end of Bar 24, you’ll notice an “End repeat” barline (again, the doubled barlines, but this time, the “colon” is to the left). This instructs us to play through Bar 24, then jump back and play from the preceding “Start repeat” barline at rehearsal mark “A” (Bar 5). See how that works?

So now we’re on our 2nd time through the “A” section. The text below Bar 5 indicates that we should be playing a full groove this time (instead of our “band in lightly” approach from the first time through, which probably involved a lot of tied whole notes, cymbal tinkles, etc.).

Everything’s pretty much the same through the verse and chorus (“B” section), except that both sections are probably dynamically bigger (which makes sense - we’ve already played through the full tune once, so we should probably lay in a bit more now that the tune is established).

As we approach Bar 19, we again notice the “to Coda” comment...but it still doesn’t apply! “Deep breath...paaaaaatience....”

This time, we’ll play through Bar 19 and jump right to Bar 25, the “2nd ending” (already played the first ending). Bar 25 shows another crescendo, so we’ll build into the next section of the tune (indicated by rehearsal mark “C”, which looks to be the bridge section of the tune).

You’ll notice that the arranger or composer now is specifying that we play the written rhythms. These are simple, VERY common rhythmic phrases that should be part of your memorized “vocabulary” of rhythms (i.e., they shouldn’t require you to stop and count through, but rather, you intuitively should know what these rhythmic figures sound like).

So we’d play through the rhythms reflected in Bars 26 through 28 of the “C” section, then play the written line in Bar 29. This is very common for a rhythm chart: the composer or arranger only notates the parts where it’s important to play a specific line (might be a unison line with some of the other instruments, etc.). You’ll notice that Bar 29 contains the only actual notation on this chart.

As you’re playing through the written line on Bar 29, notice the text above the staff (“D.S. al Coda”).

Here’s where we tie back in to those three “mental notes” from earlier!

“D.S. al Coda” is directing the musician to jump back to the “D.S.” sign (Bar 13) and play from there until we’re directed to the coda (i.e, “To Coda”), at which point we’d jump to the coda.

So that means that we’d go from the end of Bar 29, take the D.S. back to Bar 13, play through the “B” section until the end of Bar 19, at which point we’re directed to jump down to Bar 30 (the coda) to finish the tune. Or, to put it in musical terms, we’re supposed to go from the bridge (“C” section) back to a final chorus (“B” section), then play an outro section (coda) to end the song.

Bar 30 has a diminuendo, directing us to bring the dynamic level back down, for a soft conclusion to the tune.

The text below Bar 33 (“rit.”) indicates that the guitar player should play a Lee Ritenour lick at this point. Just kidding. Sorry. Actually, it stands for ritardando (or more commonly referred to as a ritard), which is simply a direction to slow down the tempo.

That nicely sets up the final whole note in the last bar of the tune. The symbol above the diamond is a fermata sign, which generally directs a musical pause, but which is frequently used in this manner to indicate that the note should swell (quickly build then drop off, dynamically).

There you have it! Really not that tough, was it? It’s just a matter of getting familiar with the symbols and conventions of written music.

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A couple of other things that are common to see in this sort of chart would include:
D.C., or da capo, which simply means go back to the beginning of the tune.
al fine (pronounced “al fee-neh”, vs. “all fine”!), which means “end”.

So a note indicating “D.C. al fine” means “go back to the beginning, and play through to the end”. “D.S. al fine” would mean “go back to the D.S. sign and play through to the end”.

Lastly, some of the classically trained folks are wondering why this chart doesn’t reflect dynamic notations like “p”, “mp”, “f”, etc. It’s actually not uncommon to see them on a chart in a pop or “non-classical” setting; however, for many rhythm charts, the intent is to leave most of that to the discretion of the musicians “in the moment”. That allows greater freedom to interpret the tune differently from night to night.

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TIPS

  1. When you get to the gig, scan and read through any noteworthy or potentially challenging passages (e.g., written lines or rhythmic hits, unfamiliar time signatures, passages where the chart indicates a bass solo, etc.).

  2. See if the road maps are clear, or if there are chart errors (e.g., “D.S. al coda” marks with no apparent D.S. signs, etc.). Talk through with the musical director prior to downbeat, if possible.

  3. Take a highlighter and make the charts exceedingly clear. If I have the time, I will frequently highlight repeats, D.S. signs, codas, any important dynamic or articulation directions, written passages or rhythmic hits, etc. Those all help make it easier when the time comes to play down the tune.

  4. Most importantly, the best way to develop your reading...is by reading. Read often; consistency is the key to getting comfortable with it.