Daily Exercises

[micahbell]

I am entirely self taught, and play 100% by ear. I have no theory training at all, and don't really know any theory.
I can write music slowly, but am horrible at reading and playing back.
When I practice bass, it is generally just practicing songs I want to learn and I learn all I know from bass that way.
I would say I am a fairly good bass player, but I have taken myself about as far as I can without some help and/or learning some theory.

So, I am going to force myself to do it. I want to make myself a three hour practice routine. One hour of running scales, which would be the same every day.
Then one hour of something else - I am not sure what it would be here, but I something that I can focus on for a week or two, doing the same thing over and over until I know it in and out then switch to a new thing. This could be a few different things in one day - 5 min. improvising, 15 min really working on slap technique, so on, so forth.
Then one hour of intense song learning. Picking out a difficult line from a song, notating the entire thing and just practicing the crap out of it until I get it down.

So with the first and last things there I know what I am doing, but I am really looking for suggestions on the middle - different things I can focus on learning.
This is super vague, but thats okay, I want a bunch of suggestions.

Do you guys have any daily routines?

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by micahbell

So, I am going to force myself to do it. I want to make myself a three hour practice routine. One hour of running scales, which would be the same every day.

You are practicing scales not fingering patterns so that will take more than an hour. Remember playing scales mean all 12 keys so whether your practicing scale 10 minutes a day or an hour you can't cover them all in one session. So keep a practice journal track your metronome setting and where you finish for the day. Then next day pickup from that point.

There are about 100 chords that you need to practice the appropriate scale, arpeggio, sequence, and improvise over. Now the number 100 comes from the set of chords and related scales time 12 keys. If serious take one chord and its scale in one key and work on it for a week. It will take a couple years to finish the process, but even just doing it for 15 minutes a day can work wonders. Here is the basic routine for C Ma7 chord and its related scale C Lydian.

1. Play the scale in two octaves up and down. As you get familiar with the scale how it lays on the fingerboard start going beyond two octave and play in ranges of the fretboard.

2. Play a two octave arpeggio up to the 13th. Same as scale once familiar then expand change range.

3. Play in a pattern or sequence of notes. For this play C Lydian scale in 3rd's. Again over two octaves and later in larger range.

4. Just sit and improvise/jam with the C Lydian scale

5. once you have done a Maj7, mi7, and 7th scales then write up a sequence of II-V-I's in various keys that cycle around. Now add playing thru that set of chords over a range of the neck with all the stuff above scale, arpeggio, sequence/pattern.

Do CMaj7 for a week as long as you can ,but do it daily no matter whether it's 10 minutes or 10 hours. Next week move to Dmi7 and its Dorian scale. Once thru all the chord once then start over in another key for each chord. So a couple years later you have your basic 100 chords and scale down. Doing this routine as first part of your daily routine for about 15 minutes is great way to warm up mind and hands and get into practice mode.

[Zombbg4]

Good to hear youre wanting to spend some time in the shed. Dont, however, do the exact same scale routine each day, it will bore you to death. Changing things up will make practicing more interesting and productive.

[Michael Case]

Originally Posted by Zombbg4

Good to hear youre wanting to spend some time in the shed. Dont, however, do the exact same scale routine each day, it will bore you to death. Changing things up will make practicing more interesting and productive.

I don't agree 100% with this, I think one should vary fingerings and rhythm along with increasing the tempo scale exercises should have a degree of repetition to them. Remember you want to internalize the SOUND of the scale as well as the physical aspect of playing the bass. IME the best way is to just play the scales the same, at least until you can start on any degree of a given scale and hear the pattern of tension and release.

I'd say focus on reading something different every day. You can continue to learn a song after the first read, but reading new music everyday will improve your reading. Start simple and slow, even get a simple method book and set your metronome to the slowest speed you can read through the music. Work to increase your sight reading speed as you go along. Remember, working on new things will sound bad at first and could be discouraging, but if keep focusing you'll see improvement.

To quote a professor of mine "if what you're playing sounds good you're not practicing."