I played more piano last night and ran through a few exercises after Pachelbel, plus adding The Music of the Night from The Phantom of the Opera. I'd learned it on organ quite a few years ago, so it wasn't difficult to pick up again. While I was playing it (slowly, figuring out the chords), I had a sort of mental breakthrough. All of a sudden the bass clef started making sense to me and I could remember what the notes were without transposing them in my head! (If you can't read bass clef but you can read treble, there's a trick for it: just take whatever note it would be in treble clef and transpose it up two whole steps. So what looks like an F is an A. This information, if I recall, was imparted to me by a drummer some time ago. Gracias!)
I'm not amazing with bass clef by any means, but at least now I can read the damn thing again. Playing clarinet for years did nothing to help me retain my memories of the lower clef, and I was never as proficient as I was with treble. But perhaps I will improve significantly with ongoing practice. We shall see!
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