Making practice exercises musical

[JimmyT]

I have read many times the advice to make your practice musical and I'm not really sure what that means. Would love to hear all opinions regarding how to avoid feeling like it's a clerical routine running scales, arpeggios and modes up and down. I practice varying tempo, rhythm, and sometimes with a backing drum beat, but am sure I am missing several creative variations.

Another quick question; when practing 2 octave scales, do you repeat the octave note when ascending and descending or rest at the top of the pattern to pick up the extra beat? My teacher pauses, but it seems beneficial to me to play the root on the 1.

[Funky-Wunky]

When I practice scales and modes etc, I will improvise or solo over the scale once I get a handle on it. Have fun with it.

[Jace The Bass]

When I practice scales or chordal practice I do two things one is to play it in different tempo's the slower the more groovier it sounds and vice versa and two to play different rhythms so your righthand technique gets a workout as well as learning your fretboard
But the important thing is to mix it up so it doesn't get to a stage where it becomes mechanical another thing is to play in different intervals you know scale in thirds fifths etc...
Anyway have a read of Pac,s method it has some good stuff

[WillPlay4Food]

I second Funky-Wunky's suggestion. Once you have a good grasp on the scale, improvise by using the scale. Make sure you move up and down the fretboard. Include two octaves, and three if possible.

I've been practicing two octave scales where I practice moving up and down the fretboard in different ways to get used to where the notes are, instead of machanically fingering the scale the same way, every time.

I also have been arpeggiating each chord in the scale, and practice different ways of moving up/down the neck while playing the chords so I can figure out where I'm most comfortable moving on the neck.

My next step is to practice all the inversions of the chords.