Practising!

[Asgath]

Hopefully this won't appear just as spam, but as a bassist and musician I may aswell do some selfish promotion.
Heres an article I've put together on practising, hopefully it'll be some use to people
http://www.musicouch.com/Musicouchin...roperly.364239

If anyone has any input, ideas for improvement (as such, its unfinished I suppose) for if you notice any dramatic grammatical flaws please tell me!
There might be some instances of colloquial language, my apologies for them!

Soon I'll be writing a second article, perhaps on further elements of practise.

[Mike Saville]

Interesting article and covers some good points. I do however think you've missed an important point. Why are you practising? This is very important until you are clear on why you are practising then you cannot have clear goals and can't have a routine that helps you progress towards your goals.

The points you make in the article are all important but they may or may not aply depending on where you want to go with your playing.

Having said that it's nice to see someone writing seriously on what is a very important and often under-appreciated area of musicianship.

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by Mike Saville

Interesting article and covers some good points. I do however think you've missed an important point. Why are you practising? This is very important until you are clear on why you are practising then you cannot have clear goals and can't have a routine that helps you progress towards your goals..... Having said that it's nice to see someone writing seriously on what is a very important and often under-appreciated area of musicianship.

Amen. And learning how to set goals is an important skill. Trying too much at once will lead to failure (and many people do just that). Trying too little has it problems too. Learning how to access your talent/skill level and then plotting a long term goal and then breaking that into do-able steps is very difficult. Often times it pays to take a lesson or two just to get someones opinion on this.

[Snerek]

practicing should be taught by someone who knows how to spell the word, Practicing...













*just messing, good read bro

[Asgath]

Originally Posted by Snerek

practicing should be taught by someone who knows how to spell the word, Practicing...

*just messing, good read bro

I'm English. I use English English

Thanks for all the comments and advise
How did I miss setting goals? It'll have to add that in somewhere.

[Mike Saville]

Originally Posted by Asgath

I'm English. I use English English

I get this all the time at my site I sometimes wonder if it might just be easier to succumb to the international spelling!!

[dhemstra]

nice article, I enjoyed your writing style aswell as the content. keep it up!

[Asgath]

Originally Posted by dhemstra

nice article, I enjoyed your writing style aswell as the content. keep it up!

Thank you!
I've received comments on ultimate guitar's mostly distastful of the style. It good to know some people do like it.
UG forum users seem to enjoy being fairly hostile at every chance they get. Guitarists eh?

Tomorrow I intend to go over the article and correct any grammar mistakes and add some information about setting goals.
Thanks all

[Dbassmon]

Some very good points Asgath.
Here's my $.02 worth.

Practicing is always better with coaching. Get a teacher! Small hitches with technique may be difficult or impossible to detect without another set of eyes and ears critiquing what and how you are practicing. While you may eventually figure out what you are doing wrong, a teacher can keep you from wasting lots of time and practicing and reinforcing bad habits.

Secondly, practice making a beautiful tone. Just as important as good time (practicing with the metronome) or playing the right notes, working on and being conscious of your tone is the only way to improve it. Critically listening to other bass players and figuring what about their tone is pleasing is the place to start and a good segue to point #3

Point 3, Listening is a big part of practice, not only to other bass players and other musicians on all instruments, but listen to yourself. Every musician should own a decent recording device and use it religiously. It's the only way to really get a feel for how fast you are progressing and what still needs work. The recording doesn't lie!