How do you practice?

those willing and able to observe continuing virus concerns by staying put and behaving have more time than ever to 'shed n jam alone, things are way out of context now for most people, but those who were already semi-pros at social distancing are literally right at home lol I'm set up in the apt. with everything needed within reach like a pilot's cockpit to multi task with a bass in my lap, specifically to eliminate excuses to not practice. my 3 latest NBDs have me gloriously addicted!
What do you practice? - spontaneous inspiration, something fun always pops up on the computer, etc. ever since hearing Hendrix played along with the TV and radio (hellooo Wild Thing) that was a lesson early on in making good use of lazy times. I love the great TONE of a bass, first and foremost, making hours of even the most mundane aspects of practice thoroughly enjoyable.
% of practice is finger exercises? - 50% finding new patterns is a passion
% of practice is sightreading? - 0
% improvising? - 50% all I gotta do is think of a Deep Purple song like Mandrake Root or some cool Mountain, Cream, anything that rocks and it's off to the races. or the other extreme into dreamyland.
% band music? - my Fender B-DEC 30 combo is the ultimate home jam buddy, just dial up any and everything desired, there's no end to it, and nobody to butt heads with CHI-CHING!

 

What are you doing in the practice room now?

 

I totally missed that! lots of cool items of interest

 

I’d say probably 80-90% - songs!*

Usually by ear, occasionally a youtube “bass cover,” and using more written transcription lately.

the other 10-20% is scale patterns up the neck, improv, and just goofing with the drum machine.

*like Bass V points out, quarantine throws the whole thing outta whack. It’s usually mostly band songs. Now I’m doing about half band songs, half just for me.... which is kinda cool!

 

Coming off a 15-20 year break so I been doing a lot of scales and finger exercises. Then I changed to BEAD. So now I've been doing lots of orientation stuff. Basically finger exercises while reciting note names. Then the borders shut and the gig I'm working towards got rescheduled. So I figured I might as well break out the thumb. Same routine but now I'm going thunk.

I'm probably the only one, but I love scales and poopie. Kind of the Swiss army knife of practice. Closest practice comes to instant gratification. I take care of the basics and the basics take care of everything else.

 

Until the pandemic, I spent most of my practice time working on material for gigs 75% or more. That including some amount of transcribing and analysis.

How much do I practice? I am totally inconsistent. I do not recommend this approach! During periods where I practiced every day at the same time for the same amount of time (unless life prevented it) I had the greatest improvement.

 

At the moment 50 % sightreading, 50% learning patterns and cool licks phrases.

I've basically never learned someone else's song in it's entirety. But my wife says that's weird and I'm wondering if I should start.

 

Funny how that works.

Two things I would say - first, make sure you understand the difference between playing and practicing. Playing Tush for the 10,000th time is not practicing. Second, this works for me and may or may not work for you, sometimes setting something aside for a day or two is more beneficial than continuing to hammer it every single day.

Can't help myself - a good teacher will help you make progress much faster than you can make on your own. Watching a Youtube video is not a lesson; there is no feedback. Feedback is essential and you don't know what you don't know.

 

I occasionally pull one of my basses off the wall and run through a few original compositions that I am already proficient at for a few minutes at a time while my kids are playing LEGO.

i.e., I am in a massive rut, barely treading water, making little-to-no progress, but I am actually pretty prepared to begin recording a couple of demo tracks to send off to my band mates.

 

Not nearly enough most times.

 

I run some scales and occasionally finger-isolation drills as warmup exercises, but most of my playing time lately has been writing new stuff (more on guitar for the past couple months), practicing what I wrote, recording, and I've just gotten back to running over band stuff so it's under my fingers in case we get to jam or play a show sometime (unlikely at this point).

The band stuff is neat because a lot of it is very different from what I'd be doing on my own, so it takes me out of my little box and makes me a better player.

 

Almost all playing band material. Both of my bands have not practiced in months. I'm sure someone(s) will, but I'm not going to be the one who forgot all the material.

 

Practice with a candle burning and you will see your future.

 

When I first started I practiced like crazy: 2-6 hours every day. Half of the practice was scales, arpeggios, learning the fretboard, technique study etc and some was working out actual songs for the band I was going to be working with.

For the first couple years, I maintained a very steady routine of an hour or two a day - unless I just didn't feel like it, then I took a day off. As @lfmn said, this can be very helpful to just let your mind and body subconsciously process things.

Once I started passing auditions and feeling a bit confident that I could step into any situation (in my end of the pool of course) and get the job done, my routine is a bit more relaxed - I tend to play 30-60 minutes a day. I do a little work on technique leaks while I'm staying sharp songs I need for my bands. But most of my time is spent just keeping the songs under my fingers and keeping my voice active (that degrades so fast!). Unless I have something to cram for, I'll generally take a day off after a rehearsal or gig just to clear my brain and let my body rest. Occasionally, I'll fire up Pandora, pick a channel and just jam for the fun of jamming.

I was really surprised how poorly I used the recent downtime to improve myself. I started out strong, and have gained a little ground on a few of my technique leaks, but overall, was not very active - it was very hard to keep grinding through my set lists without rehearsals or gigs on the horizon and although I've improved my practice skills since I was in school (actually working out problems rather than just playing the stuff I could already play well), I've never been one to spend hours just doing exercises. But I do try to work on my technique leaks as I'm keeping songs fresh: trying a different plucking technique, or finding another way to play a line, moving a line form my five string fingering to 4 string, etc so I get a little bit of personal progress while doing otherwise mundane work.

 

I still do about 5 minutes of these stupid Stu Hamm hand stretches that I learned on a video years ago most days. Used to do more but really can't muster up the patience for more than 5 minutes. Some scales, always scales. They say scales are the scales of scales, I believe them. 10-15 minutes or more depending on how serious I think I am, feels like longer. First couple weeks of this infernal pandemic I spent a ton of time with scales. But I also habitually tinker with modes when I'm on the couch, not really structured practice but probably better than playing Runnin' with the Devil for an hour. Play songs as needed to learn or keep fresh-ish. I had to learn to sight read by 2nd grade and now those scars became a habit so I wouldn't say I practice sight reading, just read.
Then if I get bored, that's what effects are for. I'm pretty motivated to do the "work" stuff first. As dumb as at sounds I think I could focus for 15-20 minutes and not play and real material and not go too far backwards with skills. I think the hardest part for me right now with all the uncertainty is "songs" because playing material is where I'd lose focus whereas the boring rigor stuff is more ingrained so for me that part is a "goal" to tackle.

 

I mostly just play along with songs - these days on Spotify (hate the business model but it's amazing to have almost anything you can think of at your fingertips). I made a log spreadsheet with start time, end time, and the songs I play along with. Sometimes I'll play the same stuff a couple days in a row, often just play with whatever comes to mind. I'm not looking to "improve" per se, more just to try and keep my fingers limber and my calluses somewhat intact. I usually end up playing 45 minutes to an hour a day, though I've missed the last two days. If I'm in a band I'm much more consistent, I often don't play at all when I'm not. So I probably didn't play for the first 2 months of Shelter in Place, but something inspired me to start playing again a couple of weeks ago - it's been fun!

 

This works for me also

I've brought up this subject in the past and all I've ever gotten were "crickets"

I think, in my case at least, my mind needs to absorb what it is Im trying to do, and process it without stress.....I need to "Be the Ball"