Extreme Practice Method , help needed .

[magnusdeus123]

Well , not that extreme , but in any case the point of the thread is that I'm trying to develop a style of practice that fits me . Due to time constraint and college , I wont be able to dedicate much more 'idle' time on the bass , and neither to I want to since I dont like my present thing of holding the bass the entire day , and doing nothing productive with it . I've advanced quickly uptill here , inspite of the fact that I've just been a bass player for a bit over a month , I can play any major scale in any key at a decent , speed of 120 bpm (I can play them in set positions , not over the entire fretboard) . Started even making some improv's and such . I dont have much theory backing , besides the stuff I've learnt from the net which includes the concept of scales , keys , basic chord theory (Major , Minor , Dimnisheds , 7ths and how to form them) , how to make basslines and such , Intervals , and thats about it I would guess . I've not yet approached modes .

I need to design an efficient practice schedule for daily use , and this is what I've come up with yet;

Daily :

1 Scales :Practice the scale of the key of the day according to Pacmans method . The daily pattern I plan is to be this :
C-G-D-A-E-B-F#-F-Bb-Eb-Ab-Db-Gb-C....and so on .

2 Chords : Practice Chord progressions and Arppegios . I have no idea what I have to do about this section yet . Suggestions are appreciated to high heavens .

3 Practice physically challenging tech's , such as learning and improving right hand tapping . Improving right hand fingering , and being able to finger using three fingers , etc. Any suggestions of how to fix this section is appreciated too.

I'll probably want to cap the entire thing at around 2 hours , with 1 hour of practice and 1 hour of noodling , but if you guys feel , I should change anything in this then let me know . Any suggestions that add to the above stated draft of my future practice schedule are appreciated . Thanks in advance . Cheers .

[DocBop]

Keep a practice journal and track progress, but more important is time is limited you can pickup from where you left off the day before. Your intentions are great, but reality does slip in, so practice everyday even if you only get 5-10 minutes. Don't skip days a few minutes if better than zero minutes. Noodling isn't practice you have limited time so use it wisely, plan your time songs to transcribe, lines to work on for technique, practicing a song focusing on time, feel, tone, not just jamming. Jamming or noodling should not be part of Practice it should be your free time.

[magnusdeus123]

As far as not skipping goes , tell me about it . I had a test yesterday , and I stayed up till 1 the day before , studying , and then finally picked up the bass and did some basic melodic metal and scale runs on it , coz I know I have to and wanted to do it before I could sleep in peace .

I'll keep noodling and jamming as a separate thing then . All in all I know I can dedicate atleast an hour to it everyday , I have that much time , but I just want it to be more productive....I want to get a way I can figure out what I need to do the next day , and have it ready , and then just take up the list and start working on it immediately the next day .