What is your own personal pratice routine/schedule?

[jmclearnon]

Originally Posted by Groove Doctor

An amateur practices until they get it right; A professional practices until they never get it wrong.

I have heard this A LOT in many different areas while playing music. I feel that if you can play something you will feel a lot more comfortable and playing is far easier.

[stratovani]

My own personal motto is "I play music to practice music, and I practice music to play music". Owing to my ADD, I'm probably one of the most undisciplined player in TB. I generally play for about five minutes at a time, at just about any hour of the day that I can. I hate sitting there and running through scales and modes, it just bores the schlitz out of me! I do play along to a lot of music, mostly stuff that I find on YouTube, and I do practice the Tom Petty tunes our TP tribute band plays. I've had a fair number of people say that I'm a good bass player, so I must be doing something right!

[papilgee4evaeva]

Completely new guy to the forum here. Just got my first bass last week.

My practice regimen most of the time is as follows:
1) Wait until the wife and daughter go to bed.
2) Run through some fingering and fretting exercises I picked up from learnbass.net or studybass.com or other YT channels I subscribe to for this purpose.
3) Play whatever I feel like playing, be it scales, intervals, bass lines, riffs, or just random noodling (new word to add to my vocab), for as long as I feel like playing or until I get sleepy.

[two fingers]

Somebody calls me for a gig, I learn the songs and make charts. Practice over.

[MarkMgibson]

The only advice I have is that you should practise the difficult stuff first, when you're fresh. If I have to learn 5 songs, I pick the hardest one and work on it when I'm fresh, and leave the easiest until last. If you're practising scales or doing exercises, the same thing. Your brain gets tired like any other muscle.

[Clef_de_fa]

I usually start with a mindless exercices for both hands. Like fingers permutation accross all the strings so I'm sure my fingers work. Then, if the music I try to learn is in Amajor ... then I do various Amajor scale and arpeggio, to get the sound in my mind then I work on the music.

[Russell L]

I'm good enough, I don't need to practice.

ROTFLMAO.

Seriously, I work on whatever is on the menu to be learned, paying attention to technique. Also, whatever tunes give me trouble. And for the most fun, I groove, making up anything that comes to mind (as well as known grooves) and getting the feeling (and tone) right. I have a degree in theory, so I don't need to study much in that realm. And although I could use some speed and better fingering sometimes, I just don't play scales, etc. much anymore. I'm more into playing actual bass parts that are going to be used on a gig. Hey, I've studied and played classical upright, so at least I KNOW what things should be, even if I can't always do them perfectly. But, I find scales and excercizes to be pretty boring. I did enough of that while studying classical. But, many things don't have to be so perfect. I mean, will I ever play an entire scale in a tune, probably not.

That's not to say that excersizes aren't useful, they are. It's just that that ain't where my head is nowadays. Maybe it's because I'm 62 and just wanna have a good time these days, while it lasts.

[the_stone]

In case anyone's interested, here's a link to Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog about common mistakes that students make when practicing (it's geared towards beginning DB students, but definitely applicable to the slab):

http://doublebassblog.org/2008/09/fi...ts-make-2.html

I have a pretty similar practice routine as others have already posted. One thing that I try to do is use a metronome as much as possible when I practice (whether I'm warming up, reading music, or practicing scales/arpeggios), but have the metronome clicking on odd beats. For example, I'll slow it down to 40-50 bpm's, and practice scales and arpeggios with the click on beat 1, then move the click to beat 2, then 3, then 4 (so you're bassically playing 16th notes against the click). Or, have the click on every 3rd beat, so the click is beating dotted half-notes. Or, click on dotted quarters (actually pretty easy to figure out). If I'm feeling brave, I'll jam over a simple chord progression in an odd time signature (like 7/4 or 5/4) with the metronome clicking on dotted halves or quarters.

I also have a Dr. Boss DB-88 with a metronome function that can add accents to various beats. Every once in a while I'll set it to 4/4 with an accent on 1, turn off the other 3 beats, then slow it waaay down. I'll then try playing stuff with the click one beat 1 of every other measure, or every 3rd measure.

It's a really good way to get your time together.

[BassSurfer]

Revived!

[kalanb]

I've started playing again in October after a 15 year hiatus. I would play off and on during that time, but would go months without picking up the bass and never practiced with any regularity or discipline.

Since playing again, I've been disciplined in my practice and have kept a daily journal. That accountability it adds makes a huge difference and it's nice to be able to go back and see what I've worked on. I shoot for 1-2 hours a day. I mainly play soul/funk, and play fingerstyle exclusively.

Scales 30 minutes. Two octave, all keys, up and down, saying the note as I play it. Work on different patterns to better learn the neck. I recently started playing scales across the range of the neck, so on C major I start on open E and work my up to the highest D on the G string.

Reading walking lines 30 minutes. I'm working out of Mike Richmond's Modern Walking Bass Technique. This helps my reading and timing/feel. His lines are great and cover the full range of the neck.

Ear Training 15 minutes. I sing various intervals/patterns in G major/minor. I don't have much range on my voice and am limited to one octave, but this has been a big help. This is the lamest part of my routine. Actually, it's the only lame part of practice; I enjoy everything else.

Technique 30-60 minutes. When playing along to an album, you can't always tell if you're playing sloppy. I'll turn off the song, transcribe a line, put the metronome at a slower tempo and slowly work my way back to full tempo. I'll also put the line in a super cool app, Rhythmulator, which is a rhythm calculator. I took some lessons with Ed Friedland and he really emphasized nailing the subdivisions of each beat. I alternate between playing along to the Rhythmulator and a metronome, concentrating on playing clean and clear and nailing the subdivisions. The Rhythmulator provides a great reference and helps internalize the rhythm. There's a big difference between sorta nailing the rhythm and nailing it. It's not what you play but how you play.

Play along/Transcribe 30-60 minutes. I'll put on an album and play through it. Depending on the song, I try and nail the bass line, or am just happy figuring out the changes. James Brown is great, WattStax 3 cd set is another good one. Al Green. Aretha Franklin and King Curtis live at the Filmore West. Brownout is killer. Transcribing is great. It helps internalize the lines. I don't do it as much as I should.

Just looking at this, there's no improv/coming up with my own grooves in my routine. I do it sometimes, but need to do it regularly.

With any routine, I think it's important to identify small goals; this allows you to see consistent improvement. I would also suggest that everyone keep a journal. As I said, it's made a huge difference in my playing. I am practicing more because of it; it's made my practice more efficient; and it allows me to measure my progress.

[NYCbassist]

I have been practising 2 hours/day for many years. I Jam to CD's/MP3's to songs I am learning for my band for about 1 hour. Then I jam to stuff I already know and Improvise like crazy to see what I can add to each song. I also "Visualise" the fret board while listening to songs without my Bass. I've gotten to where I can learn songs before I even try to play them on my actual bass. Everyone should try doing it.