Post your practice schedule

[tbone0813]

I am trying to come up with a good practice schedule, but can't seem to fit everything in in the 1 1/2 - 2 hr time limit that I have. I'll post a list of everything that I have written down that seems to me would be what I need to practice, and you guys can comment on it.

ALSO!!!! Post your practice schedule.

Here is my list & what I would like to practice. This list is derived from the instruction I have gotten so for from my teacher.

Major Scales
C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb F# B E A D G
• 1st, 2nd, & 4th positions through Cycle of 5th’s
• Interval memorization in 1st, 2nd, & 4th positions (i.e. Major 6th)
• Playing sclaes in 3rd’s: 1,3 2,4 3,5 4,6 5,7 6,8 7,9 8,10 ascending & descending
• Playing scales using random notes on fretboard (i.e. C on A string, D on E string, E on D string, etc…)

Minor Scales
A D G C F Bb Eb D# G# C# F# E
• 1st & 2nd positions through Cycle of 5th’s
• Interval memorization in 1st & 2nd positions (i.e. Minor 4th)
• Playing scales using random notes on fretboard (i.e. A on G string, B on D string, C on A string, etc…)

7th Chord Arpeggios through the Cycle of 5th's
• Major (1, 3, 5, 7)
• Dominant (1, 3, 5, b7)
• Minor (1, b3, 5, b7)
• 1/2 Diminished (1, b3, b5, b7)
• Diminished (1, b3, b5, bb7)
• Augmented (1, b3, #5, b7)
• Suspended (1, 4, 5, b7)

Sight Reading

Major & Minor Pentatonics through the Cycle of 5th's

Thumb Technique through the Cycle of 5th's

12 Bar Lines through the Cycle of 5th's

By the way my instructor is big on using the Cycle of 5th's for practicing. That's why most of my exercises are through the cycle of 5th's.

[markjazzbassist]

3 -4 hours a day.

here's the breakdown


10 minutes - stretching my hands, arms, shoulders, back, neck (basically whole upper body) and warm up
1 hour - practicing the music gig out with (current jobs)
2 hours - practicing to cd's, various styles, genres, etc.
1/2 hour to 1 hour - finger exersizes and hand strength exersizes.


i learned to play by ear. i don't do scales or any theory. so my practice schedule is probably going to be a lot different from others.

[Kickin'Fruit]

4 hours: mess with bass and tone knobs
1 hour: C major up and down the fret board
Until bed: noodling.

[Jazzin']

Originally Posted by Kickin'Fruit

4 hours: mess with bass and tone knobs
1 hour: C major up and down the fret board
Until bed: noodling.

Seems like an awful waste of 4 hours to me. Unless my interpretation is completely off.
What about all the other scales?

[steveb98]

I work fulltime and when not at work take care of a mother with Alzheimer's so time is limited. I trying to spend at least some time working on sightreading. I look at it as two fold practice I am reading and try to read stuff I want to learn too. Then I have lesson material from my online teacher and try to go through some of that. Then whatever energy I have left I play along with whatever tunes in the style that I want to do that night. Sometimes when sitting with my mom I will practice technique things that I can do unamplified. I try to keep my bass in my hands as much as possible. Driving to work I will sing scales and intervals, also try to figure out bass lines I hear on the CD.

I tried to come up with a practice schedule, but I never know how much time or energy I will have. So sightreading is only thing that I make sure I do. Its the one thing that falls apart fast without spending some time on it daily.

[cowsgomoo]

my practice schedule:

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: rest day
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing
Sunday: nothing

so I suppose it's not very useful to the original poster

don't call me lazy! I had to practice 8-9 hours a day in order to get to the stage where I can now afford to do nothing in my opinion most people only need 4-5 years continuous work at something to reach their peak... if you're doing 6 hours a day practice after that time, you either didnt learn it properly the first time around, or you're a superhuman musician

I only play if I have a gig, rehearsal or some recording to do

[tbone0813]

Originally Posted by cowsgomoo

my practice schedule:

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: rest day
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing
Sunday: nothing

so I suppose it's not very useful to the original poster

don't call me lazy! I had to practice 8-9 hours a day in order to get to the stage where I can now afford to do nothing in my opinion most people only need 4-5 years continuous work at something to reach their peak... if you're doing 6 hours a day practice after that time, you either didnt learn it properly the first time around, or you're a superhuman musician

I only play if I have a gig, rehearsal or some recording to do

Hey if you can afford that practice schedule great. Unfortunately I can't if I want to learn anything. I sat around for a year and a half playing only the root notes in church. It got boring, and now I'm ready to move on. I'm just not sure as to what to practice to do that. I usually don't make it past my major scales berfore I get it & have to quit for the evening. I guess I will ask my instructor to map out a practice schedule for me. If I'm working on what he wants me to then I should be OK. I mean he is the instructor.

[MO542]

5 Days a week and everything is done with a metronome whenever possible.

15 minutes – scales / warm up

30 - 60 - minutes doing drills. X drill, spider, sliding, string skipping, etc… My goal is to bump the metronome up 5 BPM each week while keeping it clean.

30 minutes Ear training – Work with “Ear Master Pro” for both intervals and rhythm replication.

30 Minutes fretboard memorization – Go up and down identifying the notes that I’m playing by saying it loud.

60 minutes transcribing – Pick a song and try to get it by ear at normal speed. If I can’t get it normal speed then I use “Amazing Slower Downer” to help me out.

That’s what I do. I’d like to hear feedback on my routine and/or any suggestions to improve it.

[Kickin'Fruit]

Originally Posted by Jazzin'

Seems like an awful waste of 4 hours to me. Unless my interpretation is completely off.
What about all the other scales?

I think it really is.. But at the moment I'm trying to get situated and I've been pretty busy, especially working full time for the summer.

I've been following pac man's guide and mostly reading up on theory, so I have a lot of information I'm just waiting for the opportunity to put it into practice.

I think this post of mine was to help me realize I need an organized practice list like you guys.

I'll start that today.

I'll come up with one and post it then let me know what you think.

[Kickin'Fruit]

Originally Posted by MO542

5 Days a week and everything is done with a metronome whenever possible.

15 minutes – scales / warm up

30 - 60 - minutes doing drills. X drill, spider, sliding, string skipping, etc… My goal is to bump the metronome up 5 BPM each week while keeping it clean.

30 minutes Ear training – Work with “Ear Master Pro” for both intervals and rhythm replication.

30 Minutes fretboard memorization – Go up and down identifying the notes that I’m playing by saying it loud.

60 minutes transcribing – Pick a song and try to get it by ear at normal speed. If I can’t get it normal speed then I use “Amazing Slower Downer” to help me out.

That’s what I do. I’d like to hear feedback on my routine and/or any suggestions to improve it.

Seems really organized, I'll try that but I think the times are way too short. I will be practicing scales and practicing them until I DON'T screw up. By then the time has just flown by.

[Fretloos]

Whow, that would take some self discipline whish I had it...
I usually play some songs that I already know, and sometimes try new things, jam a little by myselfs etc...

[WillPlay4Food]

Wow, I wish I had 1/4 the time you guys have to practice. I have to practice during lunch at work which gives me about 30-45 minutes per day Monday through Friday, depending on how fast I can choke down my lunch and get set up to play.

My practice schedule is something like:

5 minutes warmup. This can be blues progressions, 2 octave scales, generic (i.e. I-vi-IV-V, ii-V-I) chord progressions in my key of the day or what-have-you. Just to limber up in order to play.

10-15 minutes working on a jazz piece / walking lines. I believe the song I'm working on now is called "All the Things You Are" but I could be wrong. Basically I'm building walking lines based on the chord changes. My current task is to build walking lines using only chord tones (per instructor).

10-15 minutes learning/polishing cover songs. I use a Tascam Bass Trainer mkII as my headphone amp so I always have a CD in it as well.

Right now I'm working on Guns-n-Roses Appetite for Destruction songs. Basically have Welcome to the Jungle down and Sweet Child of Mine pretty solid so I play these to keep fresh then continue working on Rocket Queen.

I'll be burning a compilation CD of new songs I want to learn including some Rush, Zeppelin, Zappa and whatever else intrigues me while I'm burning said CD. Also plan to transcribe these songs at some point too.

If I have any time left I'll either noodle (nice to hear what comes out of my own fingers too!) or do spider exercises or work 2 octave scales some more or whatever. It's free time to do whatever I feel like.

Then it's down to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee and back to work.

[fcleff]

Originally Posted by MO542

5 Days a week and everything is done with a metronome whenever possible.

15 minutes – scales / warm up

30 - 60 - minutes doing drills. X drill, spider, sliding, string skipping, etc… My goal is to bump the metronome up 5 BPM each week while keeping it clean.

30 minutes Ear training – Work with “Ear Master Pro” for both intervals and rhythm replication.

30 Minutes fretboard memorization – Go up and down identifying the notes that I’m playing by saying it loud.

60 minutes transcribing – Pick a song and try to get it by ear at normal speed. If I can’t get it normal speed then I use “Amazing Slower Downer” to help me out.

That’s what I do. I’d like to hear feedback on my routine and/or any suggestions to improve it.

When I studied string pedagogy at the University of Texas, this is the kind of practice schedule we gave to the kids in String Project. We also gave it to them on paper each week so that they could log their practice time and see their progress. We don't always have the same amount of time to practice each week so this is a good way to do it. Print up a little chart on Word or XL and post it on your wall.

I also do one scale a week. There are many different fingerings for each scale, find them and spend a week working on them (and arpeggios). You will learn your fingerboard well! This is an idea from Rabbath, among others.

I apply my practice schedule to both double bass and electric bass.

[MO542]

Originally Posted by Kickin'Fruit

Seems really organized, I'll try that but I think the times are way too short. I will be practicing scales and practicing them until I DON'T screw up. By then the time has just flown by.

Well the times are short but I think the key to the routine is consistency. I’ve been doing that consistently for a couple months now and my teacher has been amazed at my progress. The point is if you do something for 60 minutes and are still not satisfied, put it down and move on. I found out the hard way that if you spend more than an hour trying to get something down, you are probably wasting your time. If time fly’s by, then keep a clock close by.

There is so much to learn to become a good player (and I’m not) that I just have to divide and conquer. Yes, I would love to practice more than that but for me it’s just not feasible.
What’s the saying… how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The bass is definitely an elephant.

[spindizzy]

I have always followed the same schedule for over 30 years.

First ten minutes - thorough hand washing and warming hands with very warm water. Clean and rub strings with rag to warm them. Some initial hand warm ups, right hand finger warm ups straight chromatic very slow and firm then right hand warm up thumb and three fingers across all strings (I have seven) again slow but to playing touch strength. Time limit is a little loose but I try to get my hands good and warm prior to actually starting serious practice.

20 minutes on ten minutes off - practice subject is flexible but generally I am doing scale practice and some technique practice usually working the thumb and two to three finger with special attention to string crossing. Again slow at the initial stage with all scale and technique steps with the aim of not making any mistakes in either fingering or execution.

Second twenty minute interval is usually dedicated to subjects related to group work that is either coming up or needs reinforcement/idea exploration.

Third increment is ususally more free form and is when I am in pure idea generation mode looking for cues to new composition ideas. All of the above is done both with and without beat support which I use a drum machine set to four beats per measure at varying speeds. I prefer drum units for this simply because a don't like weak sounding beats and I can add a little swing to the beat on occasion which is helpful in certain styles of music.

Most days that's about how long I can get before I either actually play out or have some non-music chore to attend to. Weekends this schedule is often doubled unless I am doing a recording project.

I used to do the 15 minute on 5 minute off routine but I am more comfortable with 20 as a duration and I need the 10 because I push fairly hard when I am just practicing so I allow an extra 5 for my hands to calm down before I start again.

[fcleff]

Yes! Consistency is key to good practice. That's another reason we gave the kids schedules on paper; the teacher could track their consistency. This method works for adults too.

[mkettner]

I typically like to divide my practice time into 4 parts. So it doesn't matter if I only have 30min to practice or 4 hours, there are always 4 parts.

1. Warm up and drills
2. Playing other peoples music, i.e. greenday, auido slave, etc.
3. Practicing current gig music
4. Using theory to creatively come up with different bass lines for varing situations. This can apply to parts 2 and 3.

[PsionAxis]

My Practice hours range on average 4 - 6 hours a day. I am a student, so most of my time is devoted to music and the bass in particular as that is what I am planning to base my career on.

I usually begin by warming up with all the generic modes and some symmetric scales.

Then I move on to playing some heads I know that I dig, i.e. Solar, Giant Steps, Footprints, ect.

After that the rest of my playing time is devoted to reading, working up new tunes, and perfecting new techniques on the bass. Usually one leads to the other. Practicing is fun for me and I enjoy every minute of the vast learning process as I hope the end result justifies the obscene hours I put into it.

[bass_player16]

Originally Posted by cowsgomoo

my practice schedule:

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: rest day
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing
Sunday: nothing

so I suppose it's not very useful to the original poster

don't call me lazy! I had to practice 8-9 hours a day in order to get to the stage where I can now afford to do nothing in my opinion most people only need 4-5 years continuous work at something to reach their peak... if you're doing 6 hours a day practice after that time, you either didnt learn it properly the first time around, or you're a superhuman musician

I only play if I have a gig, rehearsal or some recording to do

I don't mean to cause a ruckus buuut...No matter how seasoned a veteran bass player you are I don't think your practise schedule should ever cease to exist. I can probably guarantee you that every bassist on this forum, and there are alot of REALLY good ones, don't ever not practise. Just my $0.02.

Jared

[Bonafide]

Originally Posted by cowsgomoo

my practice schedule:

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: rest day
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing
Sunday: nothing

so I suppose it's not very useful to the original poster

don't call me lazy! I had to practice 8-9 hours a day in order to get to the stage where I can now afford to do nothing in my opinion most people only need 4-5 years continuous work at something to reach their peak... if you're doing 6 hours a day practice after that time, you either didnt learn it properly the first time around, or you're a superhuman musician

I only play if I have a gig, rehearsal or some recording to do

You may not practice, but that simply means you aren't improving and most likely haven't in years.

I play for a living, sometimes a meager living but a living none the less and I would still love to improve, on a large scale.
The major differences are in the subtlties, not the core fundamentals.

I have plenty of speed and accuracy for my chosen style of playing. I have found my tone (again) but the pure essence and small details in my playing are just starting to blossom. The personal technique you develop for yourself.... the signature YOU.

The greats (or superhuman musician as you call them) are great because they choose to continue to challenge themselves.
I have no desire to be a 'great'... just as great as I can be personally, and for me that requires a genuine practice schedule...

At this point I am looking and trying to put a new one together for myself so I appreciate the outlook of other bassists on thier practice routines.

Of course you may be one of those cats who never practices and you sound great already.. but could be a monster if you applied yourself..?

Much Respect,