Exercises when not playing?!?

[Pierre_Pontroli]

Hi there. This is probably a stupid question, but I feel compelled to ask anyway. I work 10 hours a day, so I cannot practice anywhere near as much as I'd like to. Now, my jobs pretty dull and allows me a lot of time to think. So, I was wandering if anyone knows of any finger exercises or thoughts exercises that can aid playing and understanding music and the fret board. I know there is no real substitute for actual practicing, but I can't bring my bass to work, so second best'll have to do! I have tried going through certain finger exercises in my head, like scales in intervals and arpeggios, really slow, picturing every movement I can; this seems to help. Was just wandering if anyone else has any gems they'd like to share?! Cheeky I know!

Thanks

[BassChuck]

Any movement of your fret hand to keep it limber and to aid in co-ordination is helpful.

One thing that really helps is singing bass lines. If you are lucky enough to be able to listen to music while you work, sing lines. If there is a bass line you can hear, sing that, or if not (like Muzak stuff) make up your own lines, like you would if you were jamming to the music.

While hand co-ordination is important, most of this stuff is mental and aural.

[Twistad]

I learned to play with three fingers during my class time in high school. Just try moving your finger in the same steady pattern, always doing 321321. It might seem insignifiant like this but it really helped getting a steady flow to this technique.

[Sandman1278]

just play "air bass" with your fingers, I'm always figiting!

[daffy]

Some fun places to play (and yes I really play these):
- my car steering wheel (both left and right hands)
- the seam in my jeans near my knee (right hand)
- the phone hand set (left hand)
- the metal seat rail at my kid's swimming lessons
- basically anything that has a ridge that you can fake a neck on (I have a favorite meeting room where the table has a nice ridge underneath - I can play for hours while on boring con calls!)

What do I play? On the way to a gig, I play my bass lines or I play along with the music on the radio. When I'm just driving round the place, I play in time to the music (half time/double time - just always use the music as your click track). I do right hand finger speed drills and syncopation, and left hand finger dex exercises.

I have recently started to use the Bass Fitness book exercises where there are many different combinations of finger order - these are awesome on the steering wheel but don't do them in fast traffic, only when you are slow or stopped. I found that the best way was to change finger order at the lights and get the fingers moving correctly before you take off - the aim is to get the movement to be subconscious.

I have also started to sing while 'wheel playing' so I can practice my playing and singing at the same time.