What is practice?

[PrinceJ]

So when people say Practice, what is it are we practicing? Just play a bass line, or song over and over? or do they mean practice the scales? or both.

[Yerf Dog]

Anything you're trying to get better at doing.

[PrinceJ]

got it, I just found the studybass.com thingy reading the whole thing right now hehe.

[Spin Doctor]

Practice is working intently on one specific aspect of your playing - something you suck at, and focusing on it till you get it right. Then you move on to the next thing you suck at. It is NOT, sitting around and playing things you already do well. That is just rehearsal. It is not sitting and noodling on the bass That is just sitting and noodling.

Practice should be designed to specifically address some aspect of your playing, and when you finish a practice session you should be significantly better at that aspect. If you feel you are not making progress, then your practice is not designed correctly, or you are not focused.

Anything can be made into practice. Alternating your fingers, fretting cleanly, learning a bass line, manipulating scales. Anything. And to be good at bass, or anything else, you should practice everything associated with it in every permutation possible. Sounds insane doesn't it? Most people won't do it. Which is why there are so few really great players, compared to people who own instruments.

[Roy Vogt]

I will add that practice should generally not sound good. You'll be making the most progress by working on things that you're having trouble with until they are easy. Then, it's time to put them aside and move on to something else you're having trouble with.
This is my opinion, but I first heard this espoused by Stanley Clarke and later by Jeff Berlin.
The important thing is that practice is not a performance, but a study.

[GianGian]

Practising for me is just playing anything, keep the ball rolling. The day that music playing becomes playing boring scales with a metronome over and over, I'll know that it's time for me to stop.

[Spin Doctor]

Originally Posted by GianGian

Practising for me is just playing anything, keep the ball rolling. The day that music playing becomes playing boring scales with a metronome over and over, I'll know that it's time for me to stop.

You have to love the journey...

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by Spin Doctor

You have to love the journey...

Maybe there are other ways. I don't recall practising scales early on, and I am satisfied with my playing. It has to be fun, otherwise it is not worth. Sure there were times I wanted to play something I couldn't, and I found ways to be able to do it, but never with a metronome, and it was never boring.

[baileyboy]

Spin Doctor- Very well-articulated!

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by GianGian

Practising for me is just playing anything, keep the ball rolling. The day that music playing becomes playing boring scales with a metronome over and over, I'll know that it's time for me to stop.

For more on this, see The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten....

[MARKG72]

Originally Posted by Roy Vogt

I will add that practice should generally not sound good. You'll be making the most progress by working on things that you're having trouble with until they are easy. Then, it's time to put them aside and move on to something else you're having trouble with.
This is my opinion, but I first heard this espoused by Stanley Clarke and later by Jeff Berlin.
The important thing is that practice is not a performance, but a study.

Wow, that's very profound. I never looked at it that way. So, instructors anticipate and expect their students to not sound good? That makes me feel better, and probably others, too.

[puddin tame]

I just "sit and noodle". Though I do remain concious of what i'm playing, and sort of direct it towards things I need to improve. But really 99% of my playing is just improvising. I hate running scales or patterns. What I want to improve is my ability to play music... so I play music

It seems to work.

[lareamond]

I too, sit around and noodle. Each practice session, I pick a scale, and just start off slow, and slowly increase the speed. It helps with speed, accuracy, and learning scales. I'd say I spend about 2 hours a day doing that, then another 2 hours trying various techniques. Slaps, pops, playing up the neck, hammer ons, pull offs (still pretty weak at those), tarantula walking, etc. Once I get a technique down, I try to incorporate it into my noodling practice, just to see how well I can alternate between techniques and how well I can do it at speed.

[Gaius46]

I agree that mindlessly running scales is boring and a waste of time but
scales don't have to be boring. One of the best pieces of advice I ever read was to make all practicing musical. That includes scales. Play them in 3rds, 5th, slap/pop
them. Practice hammers, pulls, slides all in the context of a scale. Come up with basslines in the scale.

The comments about not playing what you know are right now. You really don't need to practice - often anyway - the things you're good at. My practice sessions are really limited to working on the technique that I suck the most at until I suck the most at something else, parts of tunes that I don't play well, tinkering with ideas for new lines, learning new tunes and exercises to improve my timekeeping.

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by MARKG72

Wow, that's very profound. I never looked at it that way. So, instructors anticipate and expect their students to not sound good? That makes me feel better, and probably others, too.

If you think about bass teachers as coaches, that makes perfect sense. We are looking for the difficulties so we can help the player. If I go to a golf pro and take a lesson, he'll look at what I can do (keep my head down) and not do (step into the swing, etc.) so that I don't hook or slice. A good bass teacher should be a problem solver as much as a player, IMHO.

[Stumbo]

Here are a few links to check out:
Beginners mistakes
"Go slow" practice method
Creating a practice schedule

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by Roy Vogt

For more on this, see The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten....

I won't buy the book, could you give me an idea what it is about? Anyway, if one's plan is to play something remotely close to what he does, one surely needs to practise a lot of boring stuff. I am just a rock n roll player. It is not my aim to make things like that.
All my respect to those who do, but it is just not what I want to achieve with the bass. I also doubt that I have the physical aptitude to play like that.

[zachoff]

I just play. Noodle at home, work on and/or record if I like something while I'm noodling. Play with the band. That's pretty much it for me.

[puddin tame]

Originally Posted by GianGian

I won't buy the book, could you give me an idea what it is about? Anyway, if one's plan is to play something remotely close to what he does, one surely needs to practise a lot of boring stuff. I am just a rock n roll player. It is not my aim to make things like that.
All my respect to those who do, but it is just not what I want to achieve with the bass. I also doubt that I have the physical aptitude to play like that.

That's not what the book is about at all. You really should read it. One of the chapters is about how practice shouldn't be boring - in fact victor doesn't even consider what he does as practice.

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by puddin tame

That's not what the book is about at all. You really should read it. One of the chapters is about how practice shouldn't be boring - in fact victor doesn't even consider what he does as practice.

+1 It doesn't have a single Hot Lick, tapping lick, or slap extravaganza in it but it's one if the most valuable Music Books I've read in 41 years of playing bass. Highly recommended.