help me practice

[nathan]

I know this has been posted and beaten to death, so I apologize in advance; i can't help but add to the count.

When you practice, what do you play? Scales? Tunes? I've played for 6 years and I just sort of ran out of good practice excersizes. I play everyday, but it's mostly just messing around without a band. Even though I play everyday, I've noticed a huge drop in my skillz.

Can anybody give me any tips on what to practice?

Once again sorry for posting something as broad and repeated as this, but it must be!

[Oysterman]

Learn songs by ear, and reflect on what they play in those songs. Try to connect to your knowledge in theory. Try to identify the harmony, and what role the bass plays in it. Think of things such as: What key is the song in? What chord is this? Does the chord belong in the key? What diatonic scale belongs to this chord (if any)? Can I play that scale? Does the bass player play notes from that scale, or doesn't he? Which notes does he play? Do I like the sound of it, or do I think playing that b6 there sounds like doodoo?

Ear training is always beneficial to your overall skills as a musician, and sometimes even the simplest tunes can have some part to which you'd react "wow, cool, I would never have come up with that". Discovering that part and understanding how it's made up will take you one more step towards becoming a better player.

Some kind of tool or software to slow down the tempo of the song can be very helpful. I personally use Guitar Rig, which is great, but it's not cheap. Perhaps there are good budget solutions out there if you can't keep up with just playing directly to the song "a tempo".

[Eddard]

My practice routine:

- Warming
- Technique (I use the book "Bass Fitness" by Josquin Des Pres)
- Arpegios (major, minor, dominant and m7b5 around circle of fourths)
- Scales and modes (a key each day)
- Practice with Band in a Box/ learning songs
- Ear Training (using Ear Master Pro)

The time of practices depends of the day, but I never practice less than 1,5 hours each day.

[Joe Nerve]

Join other bands. Try to find ones with better musicians than you in them.

[steve66]

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

Join other bands. Try to find ones with better musicians than you in them.

+1

[Flintc]

1) Listen to a wider variety of music. Latin, jazz, disco, metal, classical, you name it. Play along.
2) Make a list of things you've always wanted to get better at but never got around to. Things like sight reading, or memorizing (for instant recall) the name of every note at every fret of every string. Or picking with all 5 fingers, or using a plectrum. Have you mastered all the various hammer-ons, pull-offs, tapping, popping, harmonics and the like? Can you play scales using harmonics alone? No? Practice it!

Next, play all the stuff you know cold, but with exasperating little challenges thrown in: play it without any open strings, then play it using every possible open string. Change keys and try again. Try playing that stuff without ever touching the D string at all. Next, play it without touching the A string.

Next, grab some duct tape and tape the first two fingers of your plucking hand to the thumb, so you can ONLY use your third and fourth fingers. Play your usual stuff that way. Also tape your fretting hand index finger so you can't use it and try that.

Next, drop your D string down to C and play stuff you are good at. Then put it back, lower the A string to G and do it again. Transpose all over the neck with these strange tunings.

These exercises are NOT stupid. Sometimes a string breaks, or falls out of tune, in the middle of a song. Strength should be developed in every finger of both hands. You can never become too good at sight reading. You can never know your neck too well.

And good luck. Most of this stuff is *hard!*