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[five tip leaf]

Just occured to me....does anyone else pick up their bass and play around whilst browsing the forums?
I say this as i sit in my flat at 4am, wondering why i'm playing 'continumm', and not sleeping......

[Wrong Robot]

I used to, but lately , since I'm using a laptop now, it's impractical

however, for the past week I haven't been able to sleep, so I end up playing bass all night(till like 5 or 6) before dozing off.

[Stephen S]

I like to hook my metronome up to the stereo and play some exercises to the clicks, it keeps me practicing and it keeps me from getting bored on the net. I to find myself practicing before bed a lot, specially this past week or two. I end up playing till around 4 in the morning.

[Figjam]

I do. I was practicing a little slap line at 2 am the other night.

[Pacman]

Originally posted by Stephen S
I like to hook my metronome up to the stereo and play some exercises to the clicks, it keeps me practicing and it keeps me from getting bored on the net. I to find myself practicing before bed a lot, specially this past week or two. I end up playing till around 4 in the morning.

This, and stuff like this, is NOT practicing. Practicing is focused, undevided attention decicated to improving. Twiddling your fingers while surfing is just that. There's an old Zen saying that applies here:

To do two things at once is to neither well.

[nonsqtr]

Really? Modern psychology says we can pay attention to about seven things at once. "The magic number seven plus or minus two."

Never mind, just being a contrarian.

Couldn't agree with you more, Pacman. Practice means devoting "all" your senses and talents in an effort to improve them all. They all grow at once, don't they?

That's another thing modern science tells us, that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Himalayas can trigger a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

In other words, there's "dedicated practice" and then there's "goofing around". But goofing around isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's just not "practice" in the usual sense.

[Bardolph]

While I agree with Pacman that practice is best when you devote all your attention, I do still believe you can practice while doing something else and still improve some. My friend of mine who is a drummer used to just tap paradiddles and polyrhythms on his leg in class while listening to the teacher. Sure he wasn't giving all his attention to it, but he can play those rhythms pretty dang fast now. Probably not the best example, but I think you get my point.

[Pacman]

Originally posted by Eskimo
My friend of mine who is a drummer used to just tap paradiddles and polyrhythms on his leg in class while listening to the teacher. Sure he wasn't giving all his attention to it, but he can play those rhythms pretty dang fast now.

How did he do in the class?

[Bardolph]

Actually he did just fine. I am a fan of multitasking.