I'm a first year music major studying jazz theory and performance. I decided I needed to put together a practice schedule so I could keep up essentially. This is what I have so far:


Theory
Scales:
- Major scale and modes
- Harmonic minor
- Melodic minor
- Major pentatonic and modes
- Blues scale

Do in all keys. Ascending and descending, lowest note to highest. Broken 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths. Tone sequences (1234, 2345, etc)

Chords and Arpeggios:
Triads: maj, min, aug, dim
7th chords: maj7, dom7, aug7, min7, -7b5, dim7, 7sus4

Do diatonic chords of each key with inversions.

Lesson material
(this is stuff I'm working on with my private instructor)

Technique:
- Anchoring, plucking technique
- I+M alternating and string crossing – patterns of 2s, 3s, etc

Material:
- Practice bassline patterns over chord changes and mix them, add other patterns/chromatics
- Practice the melodies in different octaves and positions and add embellishments


Orchestra pieces
the sheets I need to go over for my big band course. I want use the bassline construction patterns from my lesson and apply them to the pieces I'm doing in orchestra.

- Do each piece 1-2 times or as needed with metronome.
- Use bassline patterns for improv. sections

Reading:

I'm basically just playing the rhythms from my musicianship book (that are intended for clapping). they're there so I figure I might as well use them. Then for melodic reading I'll be playing tunes out of the Real Book and my Simandl book (I don't really have much more material to read from atm)

- Rhythm exercises from musicianship manual with metronome
- Chord changes and melodies from Real Book
- Franz Simandl Etudes for String Bass


Ear Training:

I'll be doing these with an online trainer.

- All intervals ascending, descending and harmonically
- Scales: Major and modes, harmonic minor, melodic minor, major pentatonic and modes, blues
- Triads: maj, min, aug, dim
- 7th Chords: maj7, dom7, aug7, min7, -7b5, dim7, 7sus4


Original pieces
this is work on my own music, practising and writing.

- Do each at least once as needed
- Try to write something new

Looks good. Stay focused and try to play as much as you can with other musicians.

What, no transcribing?

If you want to *sound* like a jazz musician, learn the language by transcription. I say so many times, here and elsewhere, that all languages are learned by listening, and then imitating.

You wouldn't buy poetry by a guy who learned to speak the language out of a book, would you?

Also I hate to burst your bubble, but the modes of the melodic minor are *essential* to modern improv, especially the 3rd, 4th, and 7th modes. Also, diminished scale and wholetone. And quartal/quintal concepts....

Start transcribing simple stuff, and search for the solutions to weird notes within the theory. For example, on Freddy the Freeloader (kind of blue) Miles uses a D natural over Ab7. If you know the 4th mode of melodic minor (lydian dominant,) then the transcription will make sense. If you didn't know that scale before, now you will have a wonderful question, and the answer will be more than worth your effort!


Feel free to contact me with question about specifics.

For more info and a d*mn good reason to transcribe, check out Janek Gwizdala!

I definitely agree....transcribing is very important tool to building a rock solid ear which is key for ANY musician....your practice schedule is a little intense for me but then again I'm more of a classical double bass player and I get plenty of practice as well as experience playing in an orchestra section, let alone leading one! My advice to you would be to get a bow, feel comfortable with it, and join an orchestra section, regardless of how well you think you'll do. The literature is amazing and will help you develop the technique and fundamentals every jazz upright bassist would die to have!....not to mention killer tone and more confidence in those "hard to reach" places....and play some BACH and BEETHOVEN

I definitely agree....transcribing is very important tool to building a rock solid ear which is key for ANY musician....your practice schedule is a little intense for me but then again I'm more of a classical double bass player and I get plenty of practice as well as experience playing in an orchestra section, let alone leading one! My advice to you would be to get a bow, feel comfortable with it, and join an orchestra section, regardless of how well you think you'll do. The literature is amazing and will help you develop the technique and fundamentals every jazz upright bassist would die to have!....not to mention killer tone and more confidence in those "hard to reach" places....and play some BACH and BEETHOVEN

I don't play upright

Also I hate to burst your bubble, but the modes of the melodic minor are *essential* to modern improv, especially the 3rd, 4th, and 7th modes. Also, diminished scale and wholetone. And quartal/quintal concepts....


I'm not saying they're not.. I just don't have a need to practice more advanced stuff at this point. This routine is pretty basic stuff but I still can't get through it all in a day.


For more info and a d*mn good reason to transcribe, check out Janek Gwizdala!

what do you mean by this?

You don't need to do it all in one day. Focus on one key center a day, or on one set of sounds, and rotate through all of it as slowly as one complete key per week at first. The point isn't to be awesome at playing scales, even though they are critical. The point is to develop a real working musical vocabulary!

When you see B7 13 b9, how long does it take you to grab that scale?

What about if the 13th was flat too?

Can you sing those sounds, arpeggiating up to 13?

I highly recommend delving HEAVILY into one sound at a time, letting them soak in naturally. Put the respective sound on a keyboard and jam along to a loop, trying starting phrases on each note, playing broken thirds, etc... Some of these sounds, like the melodic minor modes and the diminished scale are going to pose funny fingerboard problems that you'll need to focus on for quite some time at first, and the challenges to your ears will be just as great.

The reason I mention Janek is that he is perhaps the most advanced electric bass improviser alive today, and on his forum here as well as his basscast, he emphasizes transcription as the ULTIMATE method for developing your jazz vocabulary. Without it, you simply will not sound like a mature jazz improviser, but rather, a guy with some patterns and a limited grasp of the tradition.