Extra Practice Time

[butterfingers9]

I practice on average an hour a day by splitting up my time into several different areas: 20 minutes of technique exercises for warm ups, 10 minutes of reading music and sight reading, 15 minutes of ear training on www.good-ear.com, and 15 minutes of learning a bass line, melody or solo to a song. Recently I've been able to fit 20 extra minutes into my routine. Should I add more time to what I'm already practice or should I look into something else to spend that extra playing time on?

[thewanderer24]

It looks like you have a pretty good foundation.

I would suggest adding two more things.

1. Rhythm/groove studies. Spend even 10 minutes a day on practicing tightening up your rhythm and groove will make you a MUCH better player.

2. Leave some free time to be creative and just play whatever you feel like playing. Very good for your sanity, and will likely help you decide what else you need to focus on in your practice.

[iplaybassguitar]

defininate +1 to the number 2 there...make sure your having fun...otherwise practice is pointless

[WillPlay4Food]

One thing I started doing was jamming over chord progressions. For example on the CD that came with the Fingerboard Harmony book, there's an organ playing chord progressions (2,3, or more) and a highat/symbol keeping time. It was fun walking over the chords and definitely helped point out my weaknesses to me (which is everything ).