Getting emotionally tired of practicing.

[Anglerfish]

Hi, I am a beginner. I usually have about 1.5 free hours a day for practicing and feel like it is not enough for me to get better. But when I somehow manage to practice more then 1.5 hours a day it just doesn't go well. I start feeling emotionally tired, lose passion and my practicing turns into ineffective self torture. Even if I split my time in parts. Physically I'm still ok.

Any thoughts on this? Am I just being lazy or we actually have some daily limits or something?

 

[nico485]

Im no pro, so take my words with a grain of salt.

I would think an hour or so a day is good practice time. I know some people practice longer, but for me personally, it can be anywhere from 5 minutes up to however many hours I feel like. If I don't feel like playing, I don't. Breaks are important. Don't burn yourself out.

Also, there's some good stuff online about practice routines. What's your routine like?

Whatever you do, I think the main thing is to have fun. If it's not fun it will feel like school or a job and you won't want to do it. I'm sure some will disagree because it does take work to get better, but you can work at getting better without making yourself feel worse. Know when to step away and come back to it later.

 

[Anglerfish]

What's your routine like?

As a beginner I'm focused on basic technique, fretting hand stretching and fingers independence. So now I mostly play different variations of spider excercise and scales at very slow tempo with metronome. I don't play any particular songs while practicing because it would make no sense with such low tempo.
I'm also in a band now, so I play their stuff at rehearsals. But I don't consider it as a part of my practicing because I play it very sloppy and it doesn't add anything to my technique improvement.

And yes, I have already noticed how mutually exclusive are these statements about "being relaxed and just having fun" and "working hard to get better".

 

[nico485]

Whether you realize it or not you actually are practicing when you play with the band. Since you already know those songs, I'd practice those on your own and work on getting the timing and precision down, then you'll notice it's easier(and sounds better) when with the full band.

Like I said, I'm no professional, but I think playing is the best practice. Because ultimately that's the goal, is to play. So what better way to get good at playing than by doing.

But besides practicing your bands songs, I'd keep learning scales. And if you're feeling unmotivated, try a new scale. Also, I wouldn't rule out learning a song you really like. That is essentially how I learned to play. By learning and understanding what others do with bass in a song, you will understand what to do. And you'll start connecting all those scales to how they work in a song.

Hope any of that helps man. From one beginner to another lol.

 

[Technicality]

Being relaxed and having fun is definitely not mutually exclusive to getting better. Its not sustainable long term to do something you don't enjoy, be that eating healthily, exercising or learning a new skill like bass. You have to find a way to make it enjoyable whilst also improving, but its more important that you are enjoying it as much as possible than improving as much as possible or there is no way you will be still doing it every day in ten years time.

Also, relaxing my fingers, wrists, arms and mind whilst playing took me a long time to get good at and massively improved my technique, so I'd say its a crucial skill to be learning in itself. I still find myself tensing up and losing speed and precision sometimes, so its a skill I'm still working on.

 

[Anglerfish]

Being relaxed and having fun is definitely not mutually exclusive to getting better.

Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But I can't see how is it possible to be relaxed and stretch my hand doing a spider excercise at the same time. It takes a lot of effort for me even around 8-12 frets now. Shifting it all the way is not a solution if I want to play difficult stuff in future, right?

 

[Acoustic356]

I have been playing for around 21 months and get a lot of compliments on what I do, my key to practice and progress is to be musical.

If I learn a new concept, like the Phrygian scale, I may spend 2 hours being musical with it. You understand how it is different than Dorian - what makes it special. How many different ways can I play it.

Bass is a groove I've instrument, so I groove with it.

I usually finish up each practice session with a groove to ensure that I understand the concept. Here is one from a few days ago.

Today's practice I will probably go back and review Ionian, Dorian and Phrygian to make sure that I am still comfortable with them. I won't move on to Lydian until I am sure.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Find a band. If you already have a band, find another.

 

[Technicality]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But I can't see how is it possible to be relaxed and stretch my hand doing a spider excercise at the same time. It takes a lot of effort for me even around 8-12 frets now. Shifting it all the way is not a solution if I want to play difficult stuff in future, right?

I'm no Billy Sheehan, but I normally find discomfort and not being able to relax a sign that I need to change what I am doing somehow, not just keep doing it until it stops hurting (because it often doesn't, and I feel really dumb when I figure out a better way).

There is a Scott Devine tutorial video (that I can't seem to find right now) I found helpful on this subject where he talks about making small efficient shifts (like a centimeter or so, whilst keeping your thumb where it is but rolling it a bit) in order to span areas that are difficult to cover. Your reach is going to improve over time just through playing but you are always going to want to maximise the number of notes under your fingertips so it doesn't stop being useful.

Also how high is your action? doing spider exercises at the 8-12th fret area with really high action is going to suck no matter who you are.

 

[Acoustic356]

Travis, a friend of mine, created a "Practice Manifesto"

Practice Manifesto

Focus - Do not engage in "Zombie practice".

Outside your Comfort Zone - Learning doesn't take place inside of it.

Fail Constantly - Failure is learning.

Always Learning - Visualise your fretboard, sing a melody, work out a chord progression on the radio - learning can still happen away from your instrument.

Process not Product - Be fully engaged in what you are doing and not where you are going.

Analysis - Constantly assess what you are doing and how it can be improved.

Weakest Link - You are only as strong as your weakest link - this should always be your focus.

Details - Break everything down into small detailed chunks and work back up to the end goal.

Breaks - Take short 5 min breaks for improved focus & learning.

Find your own voice - Be the bass player you want to be, not the one others expect you to be.

Problem Solving - Come up with your own solutions and create exercises.

Criticism - Take on board constructive criticism and use it to grow musically.

Planning - Regularly set goals and plan for optimum improvement.

Find the joy in everything - If you're not engaged & having fun are you really learning?

 

[HandsFree]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But I can't see how is it possible to be relaxed and stretch my hand doing a spider excercise at the same time. It takes a lot of effort for me even around 8-12 frets now. Shifting it all the way is not a solution if I want to play difficult stuff in future, right?

Well you said it yourself.
I definitely advice against stretching and spidering. Key to playing with souplesse and accuracy is to avoid strain, and stretching/spidering does just the opposite.
And the chance you will actually have to play something resembling spider in a real musical context is close to null.

On the other hand learning (new) music, transcribing, practising basslines or runs that are taken from songs you like, will enhance your playing and understanding much more.
And, will most likely not drain your endurance so much. Like others said, if you work on something interesting you're probably able to spend more time on it (if you wish to).
That's how I look at it anyway.

Oh, and yes, shifting is the solution when playing difficult stuff, in most cases. If you have to stretch, it will only be for a split second. Again, moving your hand around the neck causes no strain, stretching does.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Find a band. If you already have a band, find another.

Someone didn't read the OPs posts......

 

[guy n. cognito]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But I can't see how is it possible to be relaxed and stretch my hand doing a spider excercise at the same time. It takes a lot of effort for me even around 8-12 frets now. Shifting it all the way is not a solution if I want to play difficult stuff in future, right?

Several good bass teachers now point out that "stretching" is more of a guitar skill and HIGHLY overrated. Remember, the guitar is 9in shorter that the bass. I tend to agree with this. The "one finger per fret" rule is highly overrated on bass and grossly overtaught by hybrid music teacher and repeated by amatuers on internet forums. Shifting makes much more sense and will dramatically cut down on hand pain.

Do you have an instructor, or are you following an online bass instructor? Either can be useful in keeping on point and motivated.

Finally, an hour and a half a day is more than sufficient. Unless you're planning on being a professional musician, don't kill yourself by trying to go beyond that.

 

[pitagorinpoucak]

Well, i'd suggest you forget about spider exercises for now. Or just don't focus on them as much. Your finger will naturally stretch as you learn how to play other stuff, be it scales, chord tones or even songs. For me, the spider exercise is good for some kind of warmup, but not to be the main focus of practice time.


If i even use it while practicing it's usually during warmup and that's only when i plan on practicing some technical stuff. If i'm going to play some blues shuffle, i dont have the need to warm up all the muscles in my arm. Only those that i'll actually use. There's a pretty good lesson by mark from talkingbass.net about practicing.

If you really want to work on streching fingers, you could try playing some scale on just two strings, or some similar variation. That way you include finger strechin, learning scales and fretboard fammiliarity into one exercise.

Try to find some other video lessons about practicing and exercises other than spider exercise.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Hi, I am a beginner. I usually have about 1.5 free hours a day for practicing and feel like it is not enough for me to get better. But when I somehow manage to practice more then 1.5 hours a day it just doesn't go well. I start feeling emotionally tired, lose passion and my practicing turns into ineffective self torture. Even if I split my time in parts. Physically I'm still ok.

Any thoughts on this? Am I just being lazy or we actually have some daily limits or something?

Remember your school classes were just under an hour 55 minute or so. Reason for that is we humans retain what we are studying best in 45 to 50 minute spans.
After a15 minute break we are good for another session.

What you do during that practice time has been covered in the above posts.

 

[pravus]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong. But I can't see how is it possible to be relaxed and stretch my hand doing a spider excercise at the same time. It takes a lot of effort for me even around 8-12 frets now. Shifting it all the way is not a solution if I want to play difficult stuff in future, right?

For me it works this way:

I do exercises that are somewhat tiring and I approach it like going to the gym. Like I'll pick a part of a song I'm working on and just repeat it over and over and over while listening to clarity and tone and also paying attention to my finger, hand and arm positions. This is focused practice. I never allow pain, but I practice to the point of fatigue. Just like you would as if you were doing reps on a machine at the gym. It doesn't even take that long. Perhaps 10-15 minutes per section.

Now that in and of itself isn't fun necessarily but the result of this is that I get quick returns on my playability. Within the next day or two, I can mentally relax and let my muscle memory take over. That's where the relaxation comes in for me. It was the work I did prior that set my body and mind up for the activity. That's when I get into the groove and everything clicks.

I'm not sure if this technique would work for you, but that's how I approach bass. It's the same sort of thing used in many other disciplines. Just focused practice. The fun and rewards come after you have pushed yourself to be able to have fun at the level you desire. I had to tell myself I wanted to be a better bass player and then I just sat down and did it.

 

[BassChuck]

You aren't going to be a better musician (or a lot of things) by looking at the clock. This is a GOAL ORIENTED task. So, set yourself a goal and go for it. The real challenge to organizing practice time is not finding a certain amount of time to practice, but setting a goal that can be reached in whatever time you have. Baby steps, and don't sweat it if you just do a little one. ANY progress is worth the time spent.

If you can do that, then the only thing left is having patience with yourself. If at the end of the day you can honestly say you're doing something better than you did yesterday, you'll make progress and be emotionally satisfied with your task.

 

[ZenG]

Too much practise can often turn into ....too much practise. If you're practising the same old stuff over and over just because they said practise is good for you.

I have actually cut back on long arduous practise sessions and instead focus on quality over quantity.

Once I know how to play a song, I don't have to practise it 800 hundred times.

Now I am more about WHAT I play than how much I play.

Always open to learn, of course. But just endlessly belting out "top ten basslines", funk riffs I'll never use, or other similar content is to me counterproductive.

Certain things like timing, shifts, fingering can take a bit of homework for sure.

But I'm not picking up a bass just to play scales for an hour.....

 

[ESPweasel]

Day 39 for me and I dig practice.

1. I have an instructor that's very helpful
B. I play scales and songs (I like)
3. I play S#!% that's way over my head over and over again.

I do have some wrist pain after about 30 minutes mostly due to long reach scales.

 

[bolophonic]

My opinion: break up the routine to include some ear training by figuring out some songs that you like. Nobody becomes a better driver by practicing moving the gear shift around in a stationary car for an hour at a time. You've got to play music in order to know what music feels like.