what are you guys practicing?

dalconthenovice · #1 12-20-2010, 10:23 PM

just curious as to what you guys are practicing now, nothing serious

my current practicing routine is jamming to 12 bar blues (very badly mind you) and sight reading (also very bad)

but hey, you don't get better playing what you are already good at!

charliefreak · #2 12-20-2010, 10:30 PM

+1 to that chief

I practice scales and modes everyday. I also practice jamming along to tunes i like, sight reading, and improv. I practice with other musicians several times a week. everything helps!

cheers

**crustychef** · #3 12-20-2010, 10:32 PM

Jaco's Teentown, Marcus's Introduction off Silver Rain, Victor Bailey's Kid Logic, Miles Smiles, scale patterns, sight reading, my various rock band gig songs, general noise and tone experiments.

I did do some jamming along to some Michael Jackson the other day. That was fun.

Elrend · #4 12-20-2010, 10:32 PM

Double bass technique, for at least 3 hours every day.

dalconthenovice · #5 12-20-2010, 10:34 PM

thats a pretty serious practice routine crustychef! i'll get there someday

Swicked · #6 12-20-2010, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charliefreak

+1 to that chief

I practice scales and modes everyday. I also practice jamming along to tunes i like, sight reading, and improv. I practice with other musicians several times a week. everything helps!

cheers

i'm practicing nothing except transposing which takes at most five minutes with my music. Teach me your ways.

Jpeachbass · #7 12-20-2010, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swicked

i'm practicing nothing except transposing which takes at most five minutes with my music. Teach me your ways.

Trombone études. For 2 reasons, sight reading and melodic studies. It also helps with dexterity. Then i practice grooving, right hand uniformity, aebersolds, ear training, right hand techniques, left hand only exercises i.e. scales and modes, walking, improve and rhythm studies. I also practice comping quit a bit. And i usually practice 4 or 5 hours a day with a day off every 5 or 6 days. If im on a ship its usually a little more plus the five hours a day you play on stage.

Swicked · #8 12-20-2010, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jpeachbass

Trombone études. For 2 reasons, sight reading and melodic studies. It also helps with dexterity. Then i practice grooving, right hand uniformity, aebersolds, ear training, right hand techniques, left hand only exercises i.e. scales and modes, walking, improve and rhythm studies. I also practice comping quit a bit. And i usually practice 4 or 5 hours a day with a day off every 5 or 6 days. If im on a ship its usually a little more plus the five hours a day you play on stage.

I have no idea what any of those mean. I've been trying to practice for a few hours each day but end up just making up basslines for four hours which is good, but I want to learn something new. I just got a metronome so I guess that could help me improve.

Jpeachbass · #9 12-20-2010, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swicked

I have no idea what any of those mean. I've been trying to practice for a few hours each day but end up just making up basslines for four hours which is good, but I want to learn something new. I just got a metronome so I guess that could help me improve.

Thats very good. You should always remember to play not just practice. The trombone etudes are just solo pieces written for trombone. Trombone being a bass clef instrument that reads one octave above what it plays (just like the bass) you don't have to transpose. Can you read?

dalconthenovice · #10 12-20-2010, 11:25 PM

i am currently learning to read, by playing like "the first nowel" and "silent night" kinda stuff

boring... but its stretching my musical abilities...right?

kesslari · #11 12-20-2010, 11:29 PM

At the moment, the things I'm consistently practicing are pentatonics (horizontally and vertically), simple sightreading, and fingerboard note recognition exercises.

I also spend time working on various grooves (primarily Jamerson, ToP, latin and others) and composing.

After that, my time is my own

bobknowsbass · #12 12-20-2010, 11:35 PM

EB-Chords, chords, chords.
Maj7,Dom7, Min7 and Min7b5's in all keys plus inversions up and down the neck.

DB-Simandl w/ German bow. Up to VI 1/2 position now and looking forward to the next section!
Standards on both- Autumn Leaves, All The Things you are, All of me, Blue Bossa, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (I, vi, ii, V y'all!)

Eminentbass · #13 12-20-2010, 11:48 PM

I'm currently(and slowly) working through "chord studies for electric bass", any sheet music I can lay my hands on and trying to wrap my head around the changes for "Giant Steps". I'm also just going through various standards doing chord tone exercises around the changes so that I can hear them rather than just improvise around a bunch of letters on a page.

LM Bass · #14 12-21-2010, 12:24 AM

I just learned the head and solo to "Red Cross" by Charlie Parker on electric bass. And I'm spending some time re-visiting the Rossi double bass studies on my upright. I'm also nearing completion on my self-directed "Every arpeggio/Every Inversion/Every Key" over major, Harmonic minor and Melodic minor.

subexpression · #15 12-21-2010, 12:30 AM

Speed drills...all finger style (R,M,I)
Duplets, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets
Three on four, four on three
16th note scales from 140 to 260bpm
16th note triads and 7th chord arpeggios from 110 to 190bpm (Maj7, Dom7, Min7, Min7b5, Dim7, Aug7) in all keys and positions

Rock/Metal guitar solos on bass, Classical pieces, Jazz charts
Metal classics, progressive rock/metal classics
Tapping arpeggios, tapping chords, tapping scale runs
Multidactyl right-hand tapping

Polyrhythms (both traditional & bidexteral)

Working on both slow and fast tempos...committing to memory the feel of common tempos: Largo, Adagio, Andante, Moderato, Allegro, Presto, Prestissimo

And of course, practicing the material for my band's new set list...hard rock/metal contemporaries & classics.

dalconthenovice · #16 12-21-2010, 12:35 AM

jesus... boy don't i feel incompetent after looking at your guys's practice routines!

Swicked · #17 12-21-2010, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jpeachbass

Thats very good. You should always remember to play not just practice. The trombone etudes are just solo pieces written for trombone. Trombone being a bass clef instrument that reads one octave above what it plays (just like the bass) you don't have to transpose. Can you read?

sadly no, I'm self taught. But I should be able to pick it up possibly.

Jpeachbass · #18 12-21-2010, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalconthenovice

i am currently learning to read, by playing like "the first nowel" and "silent night" kinda stuff

boring... but its stretching my musical abilities...right?

Yes. It is boring and it is stretching. In a good way. You can also greatly improve your reading, by writing scales on staff paper by hand. Or copy tunes from one chart to another writing in the names and rhythmic values underneath. Make up your own short lines and chart them or chart a line then learn it on bass. Any thing you do will help. As long as you don't use tabs while learning to read. Tabs are all well and good, even though i wont touch them. But it will make it much harder because it is the path of least resistance. And you might gravitate that direction because there is less to learn. As far as technique goes i will be glad to send you a list of terms and names of good books that teach them well. I buy just about every bass book i come across just to see what they are teaching, how well the present information and wether the info is worth learning. Some books are full of junk techniques and poorly written lines. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have. And i will answer to the best of my knowledge.

Jpeachbass · #19 12-21-2010, 02:17 AM

Part of that post was to swiked.

**crustychef** · #20 12-21-2010, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jpeachbass

Yes. It is boring and it is stretching. In a good way. You can also greatly improve your reading, by writing scales on staff paper by hand. Or copy tunes from one chart to another writing in the names and rhythmic values underneath. Make up your own short lines and chart them or chart a line then learn it on bass. Any thing you do will help. As long as you don't use tabs while learning to read. Tabs are all well and good, even though i wont touch them. But it will make it much harder because it is the path of least resistance. And you might gravitate that direction because there is less to learn. As far as technique goes i will be glad to send you a list of terms and names of good books that teach them well. I buy just about every bass book i come across just to see what they are teaching, how well the present information and wether the info is worth learning. Some books are full of junk techniques and poorly written lines. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have. And i will answer to the best of my knowledge.

this great advise. I struggled with getting away from tabs. I can read treble clef with ease from years sax training but bass clef took some getting used too.