How do i practie?

[bassbeginner95]

How do i structure a practice, how long do i practice, and does anyone know any warm up drills?

[Marko5657]

Might not be a bad idea to take a few formal lessons, at which time you’ll be guided in what and how to practice.

[bassbeginner95]

i dont have the money for a teacher, so do you have and advice or tips?

[schecter5string]

here are a couple of sites:
ActiveBass.com - with bass guitar lessons bass tab mp3 music scales gear and other goodies...
CyberfretBass.com: A guide to the fundamentals of playing electric bass

do a google search for bass lessons free, you will find days of stuff.
also search YouTube for bass lessons tons of stuff on there also

[totallyfrozen]

Sounds like you're just starting out and your at a complete loss for what to do. If you can't afford in-person lessons, I'd like to recommend a good DVD to start with.

Ed Friedland is an incredible instructor. There is a book/CD set that matches this DVD if you are interested in that as well. I don't think it's necessary to have the book/CD to use the DVD. The DVD is stand-alone. I may be wrong about that. I don't remember.

In any case, I recommend starting with that DVD. Ed will walk you through all the basic stuff. Incidentally, Ed is also a member here at TalkBass and occasionally posts. No, I don't work for Hal Leonard or Ed Friedland. In fact, I've never met Ed. I just think he's a very good instructor who really knows his stuff.


I think a good time frame is to aim to practice 1/2 hour to 1 hour everyday. If you can't do it everyday, do it as many days as possible. If you try to do it everyday, you'll do it more consistently with fewer missed days. The key is to set a schedule for yourself. Write it on a calendar, pick a time (ex. 6pm - 7pm every night), and don't plan anything else for that time. Turn off the phone and try to limit all distractions during that time. Ignore everything else but practicing during that time.

One last helpful hint: BUY A METRONOME...and use it!

[Mharris]

This is all good advice but remember to have fun while you practice, otherwise you won't want to practice.

In my early days I'd sit in my basement and jam along to songs I loved on my cd player. For me personally, I started playing using tabs from the Internet but I always preferred buying the published sheet music (the ones with tabs because I wasn't able to read then).

I was essentially just "playing" and there wasn't much so called practice involved but I was still gaining valuable skills in my efforts to mimic the albums down to the last detail.

I was becoming comfortable playing different rhythms, feels, tempos, etc but I never felt like I was practicing, I was just having fun. Only later did I realize I was, in a way, practicing these things.

I'm not recommending this to everyone but it worked for me, it was fun and it kept me going. After I achieved some level of physical success on the instrument, learning theory and reading has been a lot less difficult.

My two cents. I hope this will be of some value to some of you beginners.

[Mharris]

Originally Posted by totallyfrozen

Sounds like you're just starting out and your at a complete loss for what to do. If you can't afford in-person lessons, I'd like to recommend a good DVD to start with.

Ed Friedland is an incredible instructor. There is a book/CD set that matches this DVD if you are interested in that as well. I don't think it's necessary to have the book/CD to use the DVD. The DVD is stand-alone. I may be wrong about that. I don't remember.

In any case, I recommend starting with that DVD. Ed will walk you through all the basic stuff. Incidentally, Ed is also a member here at TalkBass and occasionally posts. No, I don't work for Hal Leonard or Ed Friedland. In fact, I've never met Ed. I just think he's a very good instructor who really knows his stuff.

I think a good time frame is to aim to practice 1/2 hour to 1 hour everyday. If you can't do it everyday, do it as many days as possible. If you try to do it everyday, you'll do it more consistently with fewer missed days. The key is to set a schedule for yourself. Write it on a calendar, pick a time (ex. 6pm - 7pm every night), and don't plan anything else for that time. Turn off the phone and try to limit all distractions during that time. Ignore everything else but practicing during that time.

One last helpful hint: BUY A METRONOME...and use it!

Oh, and listen to everything this guy said!

[StyleOverShow]

I like to break up my routines into three parts: exercises to keep you fingers and hands strong, flexible, to learn 'muscle memory' of the runs (arpeggios) and scales; reading music charts, chords will do at first but ultimately you have to develop your ear to hear pitch and tone; and finally, play along or jamming with the radio, download of your choice or whatever.

I workout on average 45 minutes a day, and most days I am surprised that times up. To mix it up I start some days with the jamming, playing along to Pandora or whatever, so I don't know what's coming next, and then end up doing sheet music. Variety helps.

[MalcolmAmos]

I don't think anyone mentioned Online Bass Lessons at StudyBass.com and the book Bass Guitar for Dummies. Dummies will get into all the "how to stuff", how to hold your bass, how to tune your bass, how to get sound from your bass, etc. All the fundementals

Ed Friedland book was mentioned anything Ed writes is solid information.

Warm up drills. Try some of the following.

Bass Patterns based upon the Major Scale box.

Major Scale Box. 

G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string

Place the root (R) on the C note 4th string 8th fret and the C major scale await you.
Place the root (R) on the C note and play the R-3-5 and you have just played the notes of the C major chord aka C arpeggio. Chord progression for this song is G-C-D. Place your box root on a G on the 3rd string. Where is your C? Where is the D? The next song's progression is C-F-G. Place your box root on a C on the 3rd string. Where is your F? Where is your G? Yep, piece of cake.

See what you can do with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUK5pE5x_6A
Just roots at first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSFz...eature=related Just roots for now. Ignore the E7, A7, etc just grab the root E and A. You have four beats for each chord, what notes are going to be in those four beats? E could be R-3-5-8 and E7 could be R-3-5-b7. Or just any of those four notes you think fits best. Perhaps R-R-R-R. Good luck.

When you can do that and stay with the music see what you can do with some of the following:

Scales - so your fingers know how to move on the fretboard and your ear knows the good notes from the bad ones.
Major Scale = R-2-3-4-5-6-7 Place the R on your fretboard and that scale awaits you.
Major Pentatonic = R-2-3-5-6 Major scale without the 4 & 7
Natural Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7 Major scale with the 3, 6 & 7 flatted
Minor Pentatonic = R-b3-4-5-b7 Natural minor scale without the 2 & 6
Blues = R-b3-4-b5-5-b7 Minor pentatonic with the b5 blue note added
Harmonic Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-b6-7 Natural minor scale with a natural 7
Melodic Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-6-7 Major scale with a b3
That’s enough to get you going.

Generic Notes that could be used in a bass line.
The root, five and eight are generic and fit most any chord. Remember the diminished has a flatted 5.
The 3 is generic to all major chords. See a major chord R-3-5-8 is a generic bass line that will work.
The b3 is generic to all minor chords. See a minor chord R-b3-5-8 is a generic bass line that will work.
The 7 is generic to all maj7 chords. R-3-5-7.
The b7 is generic to all dominant seventh and minor seventh chords. R-3-5-b7 or R-b3-5-b7.
The 6 is neutral and adds color, help yourself to 6’s. I like R-3-5-6 for major chords. Has a great sound.
The 2 and 4 make good passing notes. Don’t linger on them or stop on them, keep them passing.
In making your bass line help yourself to those notes, just use them correctly.
Remember roots, fives, eights and the correct 3 will play a lot of bass. Get some of those generic bass lines into muscle memory.

One hour a day. Thirty minutes in the morning and thirty minutes in the evening. From that you will find which is the best time of the day for you. Once you know that then go for an hour at that time.

Good luck.

[basstulip]

I am new to this site. So far I find it really good. I am doing music in college in Ireland. I play guitar for fun and just recently started learning the bass and I think I am getting hooked.
some very useful posts here
really appreciated