Bass Clef Strategy for Treble-Clef Dominant Reader
I would like to make my bass clef reading as automatic as my treble clef reading. I spent most of my early years learning to read through violin, and that treble dominance makes my bass clef reading subservient to it as I learn piano, now at a later point in my life. For example, I will mistakenly default to playing a note in the left hand bass clef part on the keyboard as if it had been written in treble clef. To correct, I am in the inefficient habit of transposing up a third. How would you approach this issue through an active process (rather than passively waiting for it to automatically correct at some point in the unknown future)? Thank you very much.
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Hi David
From experience with similar situations in different contexts than piano I would advise to eliminate factors not relevant to learning bass clef. That is, play the left hand only, find lots music with an interesting bass clef score. Lots of new material so practice won’t lead you to the point where you know the next note by heart. Make sure you always have to actually read the note. Then do dedicated practice (that is, focus only on reading bass clef notes and hitting the right key). Myself I would do it on a digital keyboard with an app like piano marvel to get instant feedback whether I hit the right tone. Additionally you can speak the notes out loud while you play.
