can you suggest me a practice routine?

[tito mangialajo]

for a number of reasons, in this period I have very little time to practice at home, I think one hour and a half in a day. but I perform/rehearse three or four days in a week.
can you suggest me a practice routine for maintenance of intonation, endurance, dexterity and technique in a so short time.
thanks, tito.

[randomhero409]

what seems to work for me is to get a well rounded combination of playing scales both with fingers and a bow, especially with the bow and a tuner to ensure intonation, depending on if you want to play jazz or classical i usually play some etudes from the simandl book or play along to a cd with a real book. I always add in things that i need work on like sight reading, writing walking bass lines, or just play walking lines with a metronome getting faster and faster each time.

[Salty]

I would suggest finding a good "vehicle" for all the things you mentioned.

For example, if you choose a tune (or etude or something) to work on say each week.

Try to figure out as many ways as possible to get as much as you can from this one tune (or etude).

For example, if you want to learn Dolphin Dance AND work on scales, etc. then break up your allotted time into sections that you can manage and apply what you want to learn to those sections while using Dolphin Dance as the vehicle.

You can cover scales (which cover intonation if don properly), technique, soloing, you can play the melody and improvise arco which gets your bow happening, you can work on arpeggios for the changes, a walking bass line, work on your improv over the tune, etc.

Each of the things you choose can be as little as 10 minutes. But if it's a REAL 10 minutes - meaning that you are absolutely focused and working on the concept - it can have rewards.

I hope I'm clear in my description - I find it's extremely important to have measurable goals to work toward, too. Say to yourself "I want to learn how to play the changes with tensions to Dolphin Dance in one week." etc...

Good luck,
Matt Rybicki

[charlespf]

I agree with both of the suggestions offered.

In my experience, if you have the luxury of rehearsal time, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to learn your axe front and back.

So lots of scales (try major and minor in all keys, two or three octaves), Arpeggios, and one thing that really helps with both technique and endurance is doing plenty of work on classical etudes. Simandl, Rabbath, Reinshagen, Nanny, pretty much anything you can get your hands on.

Try and work on tunes away from your instrument as much as you can, to maximize shedding time purely on your instrument. That way, you can learn theory, and then applications are much easier, because you'll really understand your instrument because of all the time you've spent working on learning the 'board, as well as intonation and stamina.

When you do this, ideally, you won't waste valuable time with your instrument learning theoretical stuff, but you'll still internalize it. This allows you to be able to play anything that pops into your head, and learning theory, licks, etc, are pretty much for the purpose of expanding your ear and musical vocabulary.