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Reddit mentions of Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments

Sentiment score: 14
Reddit mentions: 18

We found 18 Reddit mentions of Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments. Here are the top ones.

Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments
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    Features:
  • Develop your speed and accuracy with this must-have book
  • Modern Reading Text in 4/4 has become a classic in all musicians' libraries for rhythmic analysis and study
  • Designed to teach syncopation within 4/4 time, the exercises in this book also develop speed and accuracy in sight-reading with uncommon rhythmic figures
  • A must for all musicians, especially percussionists interested in syncopation
  • Modern Reading Text in 4/4 has become a classic in all musicians' libraries for rhythmic analysis and study
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Found 18 comments on Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments:

u/Pink_Squier_Mini · 8 pointsr/jazzguitar

You need to start counting rhythms. You don't need a guitar to do this necessarily. There are a number of books with written out rhythms to practice, such as Louis Bellson's Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments, Ted Reed's Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer, and Gary Hess's Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms. There are numerous ways to practice the rhythms in these books - counting the rhythm while clapping a steady pulse, counting a steady pulse while clapping the rhythm, tapping a steady pulse with your left hand while clapping the rhythm with your right while also counting, and so on. When I say "count" I mean count out loud. Your goal is to learn to keep your place in measures while accurately executing and eventually feeling rhythms.

You can also do these steps with a guitar in your hand. Just pick a chord - maybe one you're trying to work into your repertoire - and play the written rhythm with that chord while you're counting.

This will probably seem awkward and "unmusical" when you first start, but trust me when I tell you this is going to radically improve your rhythmic vocabulary and time feel over the long haul. This is the kind of thing band and orchestra kids learn as a matter of course and most guitarists don't get because we don't learn to read in ensembles.

u/bassbuffer · 2 pointsr/Bass

The Louis Bellson Book

This is for jazz syncopation. Can practice this without the bass. Just tapping your foot and tapping your hand on your knee or whatever.

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The Applebaum Book

This is for more modern/contemporary pit band / session type of stuff, but still valuable.

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There are also smartphone apps like "Read Rhythm" and sites like "SightReadingFactory.com" but I prefer the books above for rhythm-only stuff.

​

Best way to learn two-feel is to transcribe a ton of two-feel. Transcribe the all the two-feel choruses Bob Cranshaw plays on this tune. That should add some variety to your lines. Or what Don Bagley does on this tune. (Or anything that Ray Brown, Scott Lafaro and Eddie Gomez ever did in two feel).

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u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/jazzguitar

Louis Bellson's Modern Reading Text in 4/4, and there's also an odd meters version.

Joe Allard's Advanced Rhythms series, though you may want to avoid the seller who is asking $2,100.99 for it. I wouldn't pay a penny over $2,000 myself. Seriously, though, the Allard books are more difficult not because of the rhythms, but have a lot of accidentals and unusual interval skips.

There is a companion to Melodic Rhythms called Reading Contemporary Guitar Rhythms that is like a 16th note version of the first volume. It's out of print, but if you're OK with the price it's a pretty good book to read from.

u/tummybox · 2 pointsr/drums

I found my instructor on Craigslist. which meant there was going to be a good chance I was going to find someone shitty. That wasn't the case though, my instructor graduated with his bachelors of music and he has a great curriculum. Perhaps you could look for a local drum instructor for him?


If it helps, the books I use (I started 6 or so months ago) are: Ultimate Realistic Rock: Drum Method, Fundamental Studies for Snare Drum, and Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments. My instructor also prints off rudiments and other drills for me.

u/Belgand · 2 pointsr/Bass

Modern Reading Text in 4/4 by Louis Bellson and Gil Breines

It's dry, but it will improve your playing. It has no pitch, just rhythm and is written by a drummer and frequently used to instruct drummers, but because it doesn't have pitch is perfect everyone to study pure rhythm. Playing it, reading it, everything about it.

Take a page every week or so and work through it. Play to a metronome to be sure you're getting it evenly. Work up in tempo and when you're doing that well start having your metronome click on only the 2 and 4 so you have to take responsibility for laying down a solid 1. Loop through a couple of bars and start to play with the articulation, making certain notes legato and other staccato and see how it affects the feel and phrasing. Take that loop and start adding pitches over it, using the bare rhythm as a tool to explore purely melodic improvisation, figuring out what works with the rhythm and what doesn't.

The other good suggestion is to try to find a teacher. They'll help you find your weak points and suggest how to work on them. They'll drive you into new areas that you haven't yet considered. Even if it's just another bassist mentoring you rather than a formal instructor you're at the point where feedback from others will really help you to keep growing.

u/LiamGaughan · 2 pointsr/musictheory

Don't be surprised if the unis don't respond. You're basically asking them for help without paying the astronomical fees that now come hand in hand with degree level study in england ;)

Here's a few books that I had that are really good:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775 - We were told to use this book by clapping the 4 beats, and vocalising the rhythms in the book. It starts off simple but gets hard real fast. Full of deliberately obscure notation that smears beats to prepare you for some bad writing as well!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hearing-Writing-Music-Professional-Training/dp/0962949671/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539085026&sr=1-1&keywords=hearing+and+writing+music

This book is basically the bible of ear training. You could study this book for 5 years standalone, if you wanted to be secure in all the stuff in it.

Aside from that, other stuff was more about production and bass guitar specifically. Those two though, seriously a good combo I think.

u/JazzRider · 2 pointsr/musictheory

Also, you might want to check out Louis Bellson's book-https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775. There are lots of exercises with over the bar rhythms and half-note triplets.

u/levitas · 1 pointr/Saxophonics

Since this post hasn't gotten any responses, I'll do my best

You've covered a TON of ground in one post, it comes of as a bit scattered, and therefore pretty hard to respond to, but I'll do my best.

>Are there any recommended books with or without accompaniment (I need recordings since he isn't here)? I bought this book, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0769233775/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .

I have no experience with that particular book. There's a frequently referenced book, Klose's 25 daily exercises for saxophone, that I'm fond of and is held in high regard. Also look on the sidebar on that top link for some ideas.

> I think that I've adopted a double lip embrouchre; when I try putting my teeth on the mouthpiece pads the vibrations sometimes kind of hurt my teeth.

Okay. Some people do better with that, I hear, just be sure that you are staying in tune with all your notes and that your tone is good across the range of the horn. I've always found that I sound best with the standard embouchure, and people I've played with tend to have the same experience, but there are people out there that do the double lip embouchure and sound good.

> So right now I'm trying the 2.5 orange box reeds on my Yamaha YAS62. I just recently bought Hemke 2 reeds because I wondered if it was the reed.
I also own a YAS-275 which is sharing this problem.

I'm assuming this is about your lip hurting. A common problem that this sounds related to could be that you are using too much pressure on the lower lip and pushing on the reed. A symptom of this is that your upper range will sound sharp and the lower range comparatively flat. If that's the case, push in your mouthpiece and try to use less pressure from your jaw on the reed.

> When I play the notes don't sound smooth they sound a little bit abrupt. They sound a little bit restricted like the notes are singular or alone with the other notes around. Am I playing too staccato?

I have no idea what you're saying. You could be dampening the reed by pressing on it with your lip like I've mentioned above. Without hearing your sound, I won't know. "playing too staccato" doesn't make sense to me. Typically, you're maintaining air pressure when you're playing, and staccato is tonguing in such a way as to stop your tone put space between your notes. Given that tonguing in such a way is deliberate, I don't think that you're doing that?

> I can play the C Major scale and it sounds fine legato. When I play the arpeggios it sounds really bad at the top going back down. I play the lowest C, E, G, C, E, G, C going up. The problem is going down from the C when you are pressing your middle finger with the octave key then transitioning to the G. It almost sounds like a little bit of vibration or it is going inbetween the notes. I tried looking up online and it says that I should increase the speed of my air stream. I did this and the problem largely went but was still slightly there. It just made this kind of fluctuation shorter and less obvious basically. I think this thread means what I mean: https://www.saxontheweb.net/SOTW_Archive/alto/08-04-02/boardset-saxweb-boardid-alto-thread-83-spec-4558793.html
Also I left it on the stand for like a month last year when I was thinking of getting back into it and my mum hit it off the stand a while ago which I was wondering if that would ever need to be checked again (the other suggested solution to the weird st I found online was taking it to a tech). I'm thinking that I'm just out of practice but I do remember the YAS-62 used to sound really good.

Work on your intervals. If you can hit the note just fine on a scale but you're having issues with arpeggios, then there's a couple of things that can go wrong. Things that could go wrong include:

  • your fingers aren't closing all the tone holes at the same time. Try the problem interval with the notes completely separate, then start narrowing the space between the notes gradually, working on moving your fingers together.

  • The sax's mechanisms might not be fully responsive, due to a sticky pad, weak spring, etc. If the step above did not resolve the issue, watch in a mirror to make sure that everything is moving right, and right away when you go between notes.

  • It might be a voicing issue. Get the note in your head. Sing the note, make sure you know what notes you're going from and to. If you have the wrong (or no) note in your head, you may actually disrupt the primary pitch of the note you're playing and that can result in that "in between" sound.

  • Also, keep an eye out for leaky pads. If you're not sealing right, it can cause an issue. You'd have problems with the scale though, too.

    > Also if I do have to take it to a tech, I'm in London what is the best value one (not priced, best value)? I really hope I'm just shit and I don't need to take it to a tech but tell me what you think thanks.

    Sorry, can't help here.


    > Also my mum is only paying for half of my lessons since she would only pay for every other week and I think that I probably should have weekly lessons. What is a fair price for lessons (I'm guessing half an hour)? I don't know if I could get a discount since I'm paying for half of it; is that a reasonable reason to ask for less?

    Respect the people that are trying to teach you. If you can't afford their rate, then either find someone else or explain that you can't afford their rate. Not sure how old you are, but if you're in middle or early high school, you might be able to get someone a few years ahead of you to give you lessons, and that should be somewhat cheaper.

    > Thanks for reading and getting back to me (if you do)
    Not sure if it is the reed hardness since I can play the low Bb and B okay.
    Edit: Oh wow the PDF links for the real book in the FAQ are actually legible Another dumb question, when sheet music has chords like Bb7 or whatever is that transposed? If someone was trying to play guitar accompaniment could they just play those chords?

    If the real book does not specify what key it is written in, it's likely C. You'll have to transpose the chord if you want to read it as a saxophone. For instance, a Bb7 would be played as a G7 on alto or a C7 on tenor. A guitar could just play them.

    > Also does the dent in the neck matter?

    Probably not if it's small. I'm assuming it's small because you didn't mention it till now.
u/DerbHean · 1 pointr/drums

Play around on Mike's Lessons and look at what changing the notes up does to the drum notes.

This is the book my teacher used when teaching me site reading and improving my timing: Modern Reading Text

Be patient and it will start to make sense!

u/sdrawkcabsmurd · 1 pointr/drums
  1. Transcribing, as others have mentioned. And listening in general. You don't have to get the entire solo; picking out bits and pieces is fine, especially when parts are really complex.

  2. Books. Of the following, I'd say definitely get the first two, then any one of the other three:

    4-Way Coordination, so you can do what you want when you want.

    All American Drummer, so you can swing that snare like Philly Joe. Also move around the set.

    Modern Reading Text in 4/4, because Louie Bellson knows his big band rhythms. Play them across the entire set and sing along. Use rests and busy rhythms to set up the big hits.

    Syncopation for All and Syncopated Big Band Figures. More of the big band rhythm stuffs.

  3. Practice soloing. Start with 4s and 8s. Play time for 4, then solo for 4. If you're using the big band books, improvise a solo, then set up 4 bars. Rinse, repeat.

    Get really used to 4s and 8s before moving on to longer solos. Try starting with a simple idea and develop it; don't play a bunch of different, random crap for 4 bars: 2-3 beats of a rhythm, and keep working with it. You'll find you can express yourself much better after some practice.

    Also, metronome. Always, always the metronome.


u/sctthghs · 1 pointr/musictheory

Louis Bellson's book is pretty fun for sight-reading some syncopated patterns.

u/dastardlydrums · 1 pointr/Drumming

a piece of advice that was given to me was to take bars from drum workbooks such as this and incorporate it into your playing while being utilized as a fill.

these books are reading exercises so the notes given are more for time value than anything else.

u/ctrlzjones · 1 pointr/Bass

+1 for
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-For-Instruments/dp/0769233775

persistence/patience is a golden when it comes to establishing internal time ...
& never feel stupid: it is all a question of time ...

u/mrpasquini · 1 pointr/drums

Modern Reading Text in 4/4 for All Instruments by Louis Bellson has been pretty good to me. Starts simple, gets rough.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-For-Instruments/dp/0769233775

u/fforalks57 · 1 pointr/jazzguitar

Of course you can. I'd highly recommend working with some music that is not written for guitar as well. Try and get copies of some simple violin music (great to play on guitar) and if it helps, maybe also a book of drum rhythms. I have used this book a lot to help me over the years with rhythms: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=60016439504&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjvX9_OKT5AIVCLrtCh2vTQroEAAYASAAEgKadfD_BwE&hvadid=259063575552&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1007072&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=11601031072553266974&hvtargid=kwd-299782540779&hydadcr=24433_1816114&keywords=modern+reading+text+in+4+4&qid=1566383964&s=books&sr=1-1

u/Dave_guitar_thompson · 1 pointr/Guitar

The most challenging thing for me to learn I think was always sight reading. However, my guitar teacher showed me a good methodology for this, basically he split it up into the different skills you needed to sight read. One skill was reading the rhythms, which was covered by http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775 this book, Modern Reading text in 4/4 time. Which is basically a book full to the brim with rhythms. The idea is then that you tap your feet in 4/4 time on the floor and clap and vocalise what ever rhythms are written down. I used to do this for hours, and the rhythms contained in that book went from simple to just insane.

Actual note reading was covered by reading studies for guitar...

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

and advanced reading studies for guitar

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

The methodology for learning was to start ridiculously slowly, with a click at about 30bpm, and to do one note per click. This may seem insanely slow, but it helps you to become relaxed about sight reading, and also trains you to read ahead because you get bored.

This was part of the sight reading task, then after a while of doing this we moved onto sight reading notation from tunes from real books. I learned a few tips from doing this, I'll list the ones I can remember here.

  1. When you first see a piece of music, scan it and find out the information listed here.
    2.Work out the structure for the piece, AABA ABAB etc, this will help you to minimize the amount of other analysis you need to do.
  2. Check out the key signature, and time signature.
  3. Look for the lowest and highest notes in the tune, this will help you to start off in a comfortable playing position, so you can do the whole tune without worrying about changing position, or knowing when you have to.
  4. Look out for any accidental notes, if you know them before hand, they are less likely to throw you off.
  5. Scan the rhythm and quickly hum the rhythm of the tune to yourself, this will also give you chance to scan through the notes once before you actually play the tune.

    If you follow these tips, then sight reading will eventually become easy for you, but it takes quite a lot of work to achieve this.
u/outerspacegrass · 1 pointr/Guitar

There are many people here telling you to use the metronome, and they are right. Unfortunately not much advice is given on how to start using one.

Start really simple, start the metronome really slow ( 60 clicks per minute) and just fret play frets 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 on one string all with down strokes. count out loud or in your head "1 2 3 4" as you play those frets in sync with the clicks. You can pluck the "1" harder to remind your self that you are starting a new bar. So go ONE two three four, ONE two three four.

Then try playing 11 22 33 44. Same metronome speed, except now say in your head "One and Two and three and four and One and two, etc. " you will still pluck down on the one two three four, but on the "and"s you will pluck up, going up, down up, down.

This will get you started. to start learning basic rhythms try something like this: Modern reading in 4/4

Also, before you start tapping your foot as you play, try tapping the beat to songs you listen to, as if you are the metronome. the vast majority of songs will easily fall into "One two three four" rhythm. Try the intro to "Sweet child of mine" you can count along with the guitar "One-and-two-and-three-and-four-and" and you will notice it repeats. Then when you go to play these songs your self, you will not only hear the song in your head, but also the "beat", which will tell you exactly when to play the next note, even if the notes are not played one after another.

Go very slowly and evenly and you will get better.