upright to help sight reading...?

[funkyhoney]

alright, well i've recently joined one of my school bands, and i have trouble keeping up sometimes as my reading/theory skills are sub-par.
But i can get free lessons on upright from my school, and was wondering what any of you guys who play it would think about this.
i wanted to learn upright for a while, and because its not a fretted instrument and is the sam tuning as EBass, would it help me to learn to sight read better (or at all) seeing as how it cant be used with tab? And then in turn would that help me sight read for bass guitar? by that i mean, as long as i know my fretbord i should be able to sight read adequetly?

sorry if that a bit confusing, but any advice/expiriences would be good

[IPolkaLikeThis!]

It would force you to read music more often, and that would help with your sight reading. And it would help with your intonation alot, and help your ear out. Plus it is a cool instrument, and its always fun to learn how to play another instrument.

[funkyhoney]

It would force you to read music more often, and that would help with your sight reading. And it would help with your intonation alot, and help your ear out. Plus it is a cool instrument, and its always fun to learn how to play another instrument.

exactly what i was thinking, great.
yeah, i cant actually afford one but i think my school hires then out. and free lessons in class time, im not complaining.
so gotta get me an Electric upright one day

[blizzard]

Do it, Upright is wayy harder then electric so when you change back it feels so much easier. Also it will improve your ear and you will learn scales down the neck a whole lot better.

[funkyhoney]

Do it, Upright is wayy harder then electric so when you change back it feels so much easier. Also it will improve your ear and you will learn scales down the neck a whole lot better.
but since i already play electric, upright should be somewhat easier than if i played a differant instrument? or not instrument at all?
and i suppose it will open up new horizons with electric playing as well.

[gaslight]

Upright is great to learn for a few reasons, playing both electric and upright bass will double your employability as a musician/teacher, you'll probably get into lots of cool jazz from it.

If it makes you sight read more, you'll get better at sight reading, simple as that. It isn't really neccessary to get better at reading, you can do that just by reading more with your electric, but I think regardless of sight reading, learning upright is an oppurtunity worth investing in.

With your question, learning to sight read for upright bass will help you with reading the actual notes on the page when you read for electric, but you'll of course have to adjust your left hand style because of the physical differences with the instrument.

If you just want to build up your electric bass sight reading, simply sit and play and read through as much music as you can from bass method books/transcription books, whatever. Or just sit down with manuscript paper and write yourself out some sight reading to practice. Whatever you do, don't settle for just practicising reading scales up and down, it won't help very much past the early stages.

[Akira]

I would suggest learning upright if you have the chance to get free lessons, but I don't see the logic in doing it to get better at reading.

[blizzard]

but since i already play electric, upright should be somewhat easier than if i played a differant instrument? or not instrument at all?
and i suppose it will open up new horizons with electric playing as well.

Moving from electric to the upright would be easier then taking upright as your first instrument. However what I tried to get across is that Upright is a lot harder to play then electric bass.

[Alma]

It will help your aural stuff more than anything.

Upright is initially harder than electric, obviously because of the inotation etc...but once you've got the hang of it it isn't exactly that hard, but yes it is harder than electric.

Take it up, it will make you a better bass player, and you will be more versatile.

Double bass players are wanted men :)

[blizzard]

Upright takes alot more strength to play as well :)

[Alma]

Upright takes alot more strength to play as well :)

Yeh, you've got use more hand strength to fret a note. Lots of regular practise will make your hands very strong and it won't be a problem.

I should practise double bass more, my hands are stuffed after about 30 mins on the thing.

[fleakeepr666]

Yeah, and if you fret the string a little off of where you should on your fingertip, you just might pinch a nerve. :upset:...

[mastrrbasser]

technique is completely different, so you will need some help with that. You pluck the strings at the end of the fretboard with the side of your fingers(not the tips like you're used to), and your pinky and ring finger on your fretting hand act as one finger most of the time. I found that to be one of the toughest obstacles to overcome.

[funkyhoney]

awesome, thanks for all that guys. :smash:
i'm thinking i will take up the opportunity, seeing as how its free, and it can only be beneficial.
i could always stop with no cost to me if i dont like it (as if)

[Alma]

Good luck Ryan.

[The Forgotten Bassist]

I'd go for it, should improve everything that's already been meantioned. Plus it's always good fun learning a new instrument