can I get some help with practiceing

[bass_extremes]

Hey everone could I get your some help with practicing? I think this is my weakest spot when I want to settle down and practice I dont know what to practice or what to do. I warm up and play songs till im bored. Can someone give me some suggestions on how to practice so that when I practice its constructive so that I can start improveing on my skills and be the best I can be.

[Ed Fuqua]

For fingerboard familiarization, working on consistency in attack, ease of position shift etc.
ALL major scales in two octaves -start at 60bpm on the metronome, play the two octaves in quarter notes, up and down. DON'T MOVE THE NOME until you nail it EVERY time, not just the FIRST time you hit them all without a mistake. Then move the nome up a notch, repeat until you are playing 2 octave major scales in all 12 keys at 120bpm. Then drop the nom eback to 60bpm and play the majors as accent 1 eight notes; that is the first 8th note of a 4 note grouping gets the strong accent -ONE and two and THREE and four and ONE and two and THREE etc. As before, when you nail it, move the nome up a notch. Again, get to 120, drop it back down to 60 and start with accent 2 eighth notes - one AND two and three AND four and. Rinse and repeat through accent 4. Then start with triplets -accent one, accent two, accent 3. Then melodic minor, then harmonic minor. Then triad arpeggios in all inversions and open and closed position, then 7th chords.

Then learn melodies.
Then ear training- hearing identifying, singing intervals in the octave. Then in the second octave (tensions), then triads in all inversions(first closed, then open position), then 7th chords, then 7th with one tension, then 7th with two tensions.
Then sight reading.
Then transcribing solos.
Then improvisational exercises.

One thing that would help you specifically and consistently is to get a teacher.

[Daniel Baskin]

You asked for something to keep you busy, and I can't touch what Ed said, but I do know one thing. A solid, strong, experienced and well-rounded teacher will always be able to give you something to do. Then, it is simply a question of motivation. The thing is, IME, is that the better the teacher, the better the motivation that is both given to you and that you wholly feel. That's not to say that when I haven't taken lessons that I don't feel as motivated, but I am guaranteed something to practice when I have a teacher.

[Correlli]

Bordom is a barrier that you will over-come.

Just keep chipping away it.

Don't push it to hard at the beginning. If you do, other more serious barriers will come into view.

It's a bit like a 100m spritter, you hit full gas about 1/3 to 1/2 the way down the track.

So the the boredom will disappear, and you feel like you're flying.

[cirwin]

Scales, time studies, etc can be boring. I break things up into 10-15 minute mini-sessions. Do a scale routine and then work on a song on a CD. I also make up my own exercises. FOr instance, if there's a riff I really like but I can't play easily, I'll turn it into an exercise and play it up and down the neck, using the metronome (I use a drum machine set to beat on the 2 & 4). I do a lot of pick-up work so being able to things in various keys and at various places on the neck is important.

[BassManJim]

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

For fingerboard familiarization, working on consistency in attack, ease of position shift etc.
ALL major scales in two octaves -start at 60bpm on the metronome, play the two octaves in quarter notes, up and down. DON'T MOVE THE NOME until you nail it EVERY time, not just the FIRST time you hit them all without a mistake. Then move the nome up a notch, repeat until you are playing 2 octave major scales in all 12 keys at 120bpm. Then drop the nom eback to 60bpm and play the majors as accent 1 eight notes; that is the first 8th note of a 4 note grouping gets the strong accent -ONE and two and THREE and four and ONE and two and THREE etc. As before, when you nail it, move the nome up a notch. Again, get to 120, drop it back down to 60 and start with accent 2 eighth notes - one AND two and three AND four and. Rinse and repeat through accent 4. Then start with triplets -accent one, accent two, accent 3. Then melodic minor, then harmonic minor. Then triad arpeggios in all inversions and open and closed position, then 7th chords.

Then learn melodies.
Then ear training- hearing identifying, singing intervals in the octave. Then in the second octave (tensions), then triads in all inversions(first closed, then open position), then 7th chords, then 7th with one tension, then 7th with two tensions.
Then sight reading.
Then transcribing solos.
Then improvisational exercises.

One thing that would help you specifically and consistently is to get a teacher.

This has got to be some of the best advice I've ever seen.

The only thing I can add is some advice I received from a teacher many years ago, and it kind of goes with what cirwin brought up.

I break my practice up into 3, 20 min sessions a day (every day) 1. 20 minutes of technical execises, scales, modes, fingerings etc...... 2. 20 minutes learning a new tune 3. 20 minutes of practicing and polishing repetiore, usually with either a CD, a playalong, or a metronome.

The best part is I can do one practice or three or even six ten minute sessions, depending on my schedule

...........Jim

[bass_extremes]

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

For fingerboard familiarization, working on consistency in attack, ease of position shift etc.
ALL major scales in two octaves -start at 60bpm on the metronome, play the two octaves in quarter notes, up and down. DON'T MOVE THE NOME until you nail it EVERY time, not just the FIRST time you hit them all without a mistake. Then move the nome up a notch, repeat until you are playing 2 octave major scales in all 12 keys at 120bpm. Then drop the nom eback to 60bpm and play the majors as accent 1 eight notes; that is the first 8th note of a 4 note grouping gets the strong accent -ONE and two and THREE and four and ONE and two and THREE etc. As before, when you nail it, move the nome up a notch. Again, get to 120, drop it back down to 60 and start with accent 2 eighth notes - one AND two and three AND four and. Rinse and repeat through accent 4. Then start with triplets -accent one, accent two, accent 3. Then melodic minor, then harmonic minor. Then triad arpeggios in all inversions and open and closed position, then 7th chords.

Then learn melodies.
Then ear training- hearing identifying, singing intervals in the octave. Then in the second octave (tensions), then triads in all inversions(first closed, then open position), then 7th chords, then 7th with one tension, then 7th with two tensions.
Then sight reading.
Then transcribing solos.
Then improvisational exercises.

One thing that would help you specifically and consistently is to get a teacher.

Can someone explain the 8th note part of that excersise it makes no sense to me at all. I would love to go get a teacher but I live in a small town. at our music store my teacher was a guitar player he didnt play bass ( or atleast that much.) so getting a teacher is kinda hard.

[Kurisu]

Sure, it's spelled "practicing".

Okay, seriously, 2 8th notes are equal in length to one 4th (quarter) note. So set your metronome to 60 bpm, each click will represent a 4th note. If you play a note on each click (1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, etc.) you are playing quarter notes at 60 bpm. To play 8th notes at a tempo of 60 bpm (with quarter = 1 beat, which is usually how tempo is given), play two notes for each quarter note (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, etc.). Try to keep the 8th notes as evenly spaced as possible, i.e. avoid "galloping."

Hope that helps. But you will probably have many questions like this I would recommend to get a Harmony & Theory book which will help, considering you don't have a teacher.