Musicat, thanks for your response!
That was my question. I was wondering whether electric bass players just read regular guitar notation in treble clef and transpose.
It seems you are saying that they don’t. They read bass clef.
What do you mean by “Hollywoodism”?
I’ve seen it written in treble clef with a two-octave transposition, but bass clef with one-octave transposition (like the double bass) is obvious, too. Maybe it’s changed since the 60s. I’ve almost never played it from staff notation, anyhow—just fake it from the chords.
Nowadays I mainly play pennywhistle (and low whistle), anyway, with a little pipe and tabor.
Unless things have changed since I was active in Hollywood professional recording studios ca. 1970-1990, bass players read bass clef and their parts are exclusively written in bass clef.
I’m talking about notes, not chords (what does a clef mean to chords?)
it’s entirely possible that some guitar players, originally schooled in treble clef, didn’t “graduate” to bass clef during a migration to bass. This would be akin to Baritone Horn players who moved from trumpet, and still think in treble clef. But professional musicians, IMHO, don’t balk at learning a new clef – heck, think of woodwind players who must make multiple adjustments to accommodate the differences from single & double reeds of all sizes. They work in many different musical “environments.”
Perhaps I coined that phrase, but sometimes practical considerations and local idioms trump long-standing musical standards. In commercial music, who gives a shit if it is pedantically “correct” to an uptight college professor as long as it communicates sufficiently to the intended player?
Hence, I was exposed to many notational conventions that violated standard music engraving rules. I had feet in both camps, and could sometimes see the advantages and confusions of each. What’s a common “Hollywood” (commercial music) practice now might be an academic standard tomorrow. Music notation changes just like language does. The notation I learned in college was often tossed out by the players who were earning 10 times what their college professors were, and money talks.
Excellent post, as usual. I would only add to it that “8va” is an abbreviation for “ottava”, and “15ma” is an abbreviation for “quindicesima”.
I don’t know if “8vb” (presumably a contraction of “8va bassa”) is specifically a Hollywoodism, but I’ve definitely seen it in published charts.
Powers &8^]