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Blues Rock Sight Reading Etude #1

January 9, 2020 by Paul Wolfe

For those bass players who want to work on their sight reading but who are ‘meat and potatoes’ bass players (i.e. 95% plus of us!) there’s a dearth of sight reading materials that are:

(i) based on the kind of lines actually played in the real world

(ii) based on real world type chord structures and song structures.

Blues Rock Sight Reading Etude #1 is a 72 bar sight reading etude in the style of Tommy Shannon.  It’s a blues in G7 – because that’s not a commonly used key for the blues (hence it’s good sight reading practice).  I took a pass at sight reading it with a backing track and that looks and sounds like this:

 

 

To get the PDF for Sight Reading Etude #1 along with the two backing tracks you need to be logged in to the Free Members area. If you’re not a member click the button below to join:

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Filed Under: Popular Song Tutorials

Comments

  1. john-diane@nowmail.co.nz says

    January 9, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    Is the practice track available for download?

    • Paul Wolfe says

      January 11, 2020 at 10:56 am

      Hey John

      Have now added that to the download link on the page!

      paul

  2. chucklazer@gmail.com says

    January 10, 2020 at 1:20 am

    Hey Paul, Thanks for this. i think the sight reading etude is a great idea. Did you record a backing track that we can download without your bass line and put into something like anytune (an mp3 or mp4, e.g).

    And the new sign-in routine works smooth like buttah!

    Be well.

    • Paul Wolfe says

      January 11, 2020 at 10:55 am

      Hey Chuck
      The Mp3 has been added to the link with the PDF!

      Paul

  3. thomasbigtruckkelley@gmail.com says

    January 10, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    the link does not work

    • Paul Wolfe says

      January 11, 2020 at 10:55 am

      Thanks Thomas

      Link is now fixed!

  4. gerryt55@gmail.com says

    January 10, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    Hey Paul – what a great way to get us into sight reading!! Cheers Gerry

    • Paul Wolfe says

      January 11, 2020 at 10:55 am

      Thanks Gerry – look for more soon, there should be one a week!

  5. amazingict@me.com says

    January 12, 2020 at 11:56 am

    What a great site this is. Congratulations and thanks. Richard (Shropshire)

    • Paul Wolfe says

      January 12, 2020 at 12:01 pm

      Thanks Richard – the site has not had much TLC in the last few years and it’s going to get a massive makeover in 2020!

  6. petercragg121@gmail.com says

    January 21, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    Thanks Paul you have a great way of making it clear and easy to follow , if you have a video or tab for thinking of you by sister sledge could you email it to me ,Bernard Edwards is my favourite bass player and in my view one of the funkiest bass players ever, just recovering from mental health
    issues and having played in a band as a teenager have not picked up a bass for 30 years, been slowly learning again my aim is to play the Bernard edwards basslines to thinking of you, it’s a challenge but what a funky one it is ,kind regards keep up the good work ,Peter cragg

    • Paul Wolfe says

      January 22, 2020 at 8:16 pm

      Hey Peter Cragg

      I may have a lesson for this one in my archive – will have to check. It’s a hard bass line though so you know.

      Paul

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