What's the best way to practice?

[yrsnkd]

Alright, so I'm looking for the best way to start practicing on bass guitar. I'm a guitarist who recently took up bass guitar, and I can devote about half an hour each day to practicing.

Any tips?

[bassybill]

I'm going to quote something I posted in another thread here. The key thing is practising "constructively", or having a definite aim in mind. Doesn't much matter what it is, imo, as long as you have one.

Originally Posted by bassybill

Practise constructively every day if you can, listen as widely as you can, learn some basic music theory, learn to read music, play as much music in as wide a variety of styles as you can find, and play with all the people who will let you, especially if they're more advanced than you are.

Did I mention learning to read music? Oh yeah.

[MalcolmAmos]

What you already know from your 6 string guitar will flow right into your bass. Just need to get comfortable with your fretboard. Instead of chord patterns and strumming we play chord tones - one at a time. Look over the following, start with the first one and speed read till you need to slow down and start studying. Once you know your way around the fretboard and the major scale box pattern start playing songs from fake chord. How to decide what bass line to use for a specific song will occupy your practice time right at first. You gotta get some generic bass lines into muscle memory, i.e. fake chord has the C chord - what are you going to play over that chord? Bunch or root C's, how about some root fives, or chord tones like R-3-5-3 is a safe one. Yea, you gotta know where those 5's and 3's are. Sevens and eights come in handy. LOL

I think the following will help.
http://www.studybass.com/ - Good place to start.
http://www.guitarhangout.com/wp-cont...itar-notes.jpg Your fretboard.
http://www.cyberfretbass.com/scales/basic/page2.php Gotta do your scales to get your fingers knowing where the notes are. Now it will be several months before you start using scales in your bass lines, but, as a warm up scales should be part of your practice routine. We play chord tones first, scales later. Put this with the box pattern that is given below.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...67#post9372867 The box pattern.
http://www.looknohands.com/chordhous.../index_rb.html Just in case.
http://www.smithfowler.org/music/Chord_Formulas.htm Again just in case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--l53mSuSlM Over view of what can be done right at first.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/vid...4A3D3E7688E4F6 Little more detailed bass line riffs.
Jamming 101 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUK5pE5x_6A see what you can do with this.

Welcome to the bottom end.

[Sarbecue Boss]

Aside from the materials already presented, one thing to always keep in mind is to -hear- what you are playing, to listen to yourself as you play, begin to hear and anticipate the nest note your are going to hit.

[Spin Doctor]

Record your practice sessions. You'll never know what you really sound like till you record it. You'll think you're really groovin and "surprise!", sounds like ass... But then you'll know what to fix.

Find more than 30 minutes a day. A half hour won't get you anywhere, very quickly.

[Vincent P]

Originally Posted by Spin Doctor

Record your practice sessions. Find more than 30 minutes a day.

Agreed. I also like to practice to a drum track/s to spice things up. If your going to practice plain old scales/cords/grooves/whatever, then I like to do it to a drum track and make it musical rather then mundane.

[Spin Doctor]

As far as drum machines go, I use a Boss Jam Station. Model is "JS-5" My teacher, Anthony Wellington, turned me on to it. It's indispensable. Not only does it have nearly every drum rhythm you can name, you can set up all kinda of chord based or tonality based grooves. Makes working scales and arpeggios fun. Boss doesn't make it anymore, but you can get them on e-bay. It has no moving parts, so they last forever.

I also like the Tascam BT-2 bass trainer for playing along with CD's, but it's junk. I've gone through 2 of them in less than 2 years. The CD trainer I really want is called a Superscope, but it costs like $900. Pretty steep entry price...

[Stumbo]

YOu might want to take a look at the link in my sig. for some great TB info that may help you out. Here are a couple to help you out:

Guitarist switch to bass
"Go slow" practice method
Creating a practice schedule