Of these five options, how do you spend your time "in the woodshed"?

[ihateusernames]

Simple poll here, actually I've added a sixth for those who prefer not to practice. Could very easily be the carrots option, however that trend seems to have gone by the wayside.

Forgot to make multiple choice, that's okay, some would click all of the above anyway.

[bassaficionado6]

I voteed for techinque, but waht I really practice the most is speed, (although this probably could go under technique). Not that I'm a speed freak, but I can ususally put alot more feeling into a song if I can play it twice as fast as I need to.

[ihateusernames]

that's a nice way to think of it, i'd agree. playing it fast cleanly allows much more concentration on feel when slowing to normal.

[Valerus]

Experimenting.

[sethlow3]

It was groove and technique for a long time for me, but now I am trying "the right brained guitarist" by Joe Diorio. Google it, it's great!

[IanStephenson]

Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, most of my practice is driven by gigs, or if there's no pressing "must learn" stuff, I'll pick something and work on it. That in turn pushes me to work on new techniques.

For example three finger picking was something I kinda wanted to do, but it was only when we dumped a load of Iron Maiden into the set (I know - he used 2...) that it was something I needed to do. Now it's getting used on a lot of other songs, but I'd never have put the work on just to learn the technique for the sake of it.

The times I've seen signifigant improvement in my playing have been when I wanted/needed to play a particular song, and put the work in transcribing it.

Ian

[Pacman]

None of the above. The majority of my time is spent on harmony/improvisation.

[Deacon_Blues]

Voted "experiment with new techniques". I like to practice slapping and double thumbing, as I suck at it and want to become better, but I also spend a lot of practice time on ear training (mostly by playing along to songs and improvising) and regular technique exercises.

[stratovani]

I put down "experiment with new technique". I'm trying to get into jazz these days. Activebass.com is a big help in that regard.

[jollygiantchris]

I spend most of my practice time running over scales then I sit down jot out some chord progressions and walk all over them. Then I take a break come back and deliberately spend time writing music. And 2-3 times a week I'll sit down and work on ear training for about 30 minutes.

But I probably spend the most time when I'm practicing running over scales because I don't feel as if I can freely improvise outside of major and minor...Yet...

[Baryonyx]

I spend a lot of time transcribing, but not just bass parts. Piano, guitar, horn licks, whatever I like the sound of, I'll work out how to play it on my bass!

[pointbass]

Almost all of my practice time is spent on sight reading. I find that if I don't keep my reading skills sharp they can quickly fade away. I'm lucky that I gig a lot, which keeps my motor skills fresh .....