Help me practice effectively!

[Timmah]

I'm looking for a way to get better and practice effectively in about an hour a day. I don't have a whole lot of time because I'm still in high school slogging my way through a bunch of AP's (lots of homework). My objective right now is to be able to read music fluently, as I'm trying to make the jazz band. Scales? Improv? Drill-and-kill reading? Thanks for reading the novel, answers will be taken with gratitude and a grain of salt

[Nightwolf55]

i recommend purchasing some bass books if you haven't already (dealing with technique and reading transcriptions.)

also, Online Bass Lessons at StudyBass.com is a good website

as long as you make a schedule, discipline yourself, and have fun, you shouldn't really have a problem. good luck!

[yem]

loop this: BEEP-beep-beep-beep

and go

[sonofabass]

Originally Posted by Timmah

I'm looking for a way to get better and practice effectively in about an hour a day. I don't have a whole lot of time because I'm still in high school slogging my way through a bunch of AP's (lots of homework). My objective right now is to be able to read music fluently, as I'm trying to make the jazz band. Scales? Improv? Drill-and-kill reading? Thanks for reading the novel, answers will be taken with gratitude and a grain of salt

Technique / Theory / Repertoire / Application

Think of them as umbrellas under which things that are in line with short term goals fall.

Say, you want to get better at sight reading. Get a method book or materials that deal with this area in a sort of "tiered " fashion ( start small). Spend 10 or so minutes in that area and then move to another area ...make sense?

Reading is one of those things that requires a little bit every day. 10 minutes of focused time in any area, imo beats 12 hours of unfocused practice.

Say then that another area you needed to work on was technique. Only you and your teacher know what tour weak spots are so you'll need to address those areas....10...15...20 minutes?

Use a timer. When your time is 'up' in one area move on to the next.

Not law....just a method that has worked for me
Hope it made sense.

[jmattbassplaya]

Ear training and learning to sing the intervals that you're playing is probably one of the better things to work on if you're strapped on time to practice (assuming your technique is already decent enough). Also, always playing with a metronome is another must.

[Timmah]

Thanks everyone!