• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How Often Do You Practise?

ZenG

ZenG

Guest
Dec 13, 2013
6,465
13,121
You can't get there from here
#1
Personally I' doing about an hour to an hour and a half a day.

Then ...after I watched Billy Sheehan's Basic Bass video on YouTube I realized there was no such thing as too much practise....

Especially the part where he says he spent all day in a hotel room on tour practising timing with one finger....

Now that is commitment for sure.......

Excellent video...picked up lots of good instruction....:bassist:
 
#4
I'm pretty much on auto pilot. Six new songs for our Praise service each Sunday. We (the band) will practice them on Wednesday night and one hour before service on Sunday. We then go to another, smaller, church and play for their service.

I'll run through them once or twice during the week and if one gives me trouble I'll call up an Internet video of it and give it some extra time. That's it.

Like has been said my practice is on specific songs I'll be using this week.

I love playing the bass, and I love playing with the band, however, I do not fixate on practice. Why not? I'm 78 years old and what I do with my bass is now on auto pilot.

.
 
#7
When I was younger I practiced/played at least 10 hours a day 5 days a week and gigged the other two. I was totally driven and practiced from the minute I got up to the minute I went to bed. When watching TV I would run scales. Would bring my bass to work and practice in the back room during lunch and break. Maintained this pace for about 10 years. Then trailed off to about 2-3 hours per day. Now, 30 years later, it's down to about 1.5 hr per day.

As much as you can and your life allows - as good as you want to get. How bad do you want it? There's no end to the things that can be practiced.

But you don't need to do this to progress. I read that Yo Yo Ma used to practice only 15 minutes per day. But they were very focused 15 minutes where he was always working on improving something he was working on.
 
#8
I'm a working stiff with a family, so although I might like to play four or five hours a day (like I did back in the day), I do try to get in at least that much over the course of a week. Unfortunately, my bass time often falls in the category of "noodling" rather than disciplined practice.
 
#10
Art Arya:- you could definitely be on to something there...

To quote Einstein:- "the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT"

I try to practise with an eye on improving....not just doing endless runs over and over again.

I'm always analyzing my weak points and working on those.

I will however always spend some time on finger "warmups" etc.etc........


Knowledge stays for a long time......but finger dexterity doesn't hang around too long...so I have to use it or lose it.

I think I will alternate practise sessions so that:-

One day:- 80% songs 20% finger dexterity
Next day 80% dexterity 20% songs.
 
#11
Now that im divorced its every day 'cept nfl sunday. Its not really the quantity of time, but rather quality. If you are constantly practicing things you suck at, new songs, new techniques, you are makin leaps and bounds over the constant noodler. Noodling is fun in small doses but pretty counterproductive in the grand scheme of things...
 
#12
I'm retired now, so I have a lot of time for practice. I do from 3 to 6 hours a day. I play fretless, so a good bit of that time is spent on scales, chords and intonation practice. I do about 140 shows a year and all of the is reading, so I spend a good bit of time with etude books and written bass lines, trombone and cello books etc.

Time is not the real issue however. As others have mentioned, focus and planning is the key issue. Never pick up the bass without knowing why and what you are going to do. So you're either improving on a piece of music or checking out your abilities on a technique.
 
#16
I do my practice exercises as warmups before rehearsals and gigs. Most of the rest of the time that I spend "practicing," is spent either trying to learn basslines that were originally played on things other than a bass guitar (Herbie Hancock type stuff, for example, or something modern like Draft Punk), or old R&B and country lines.

In total, I guess all this adds up to about 6 or 8 hours a week.
 
#17
Having just turned 50 and with my heavy gigging days behind me, I probably play about 3-4 hours a week. I've got some 10,000-12,000 hours in on DB and fretted/fretless electric, so, in consideration of all that and my workload as a scientist, I'm creating new ostinatos watching the Broons, Patriots, and Family Guy these days.
 
#18
Every day = about 1.5 to 2+ hrs in the morning mostly working on fretless. Mostly jazz working with Aebersold discs and bop classics.

Another 2 hours in the afternoon playing about 40 mins of funk, 40 minutes of pick - mostly rock, 40 minutes of fretless.

I'm old[er] and retired and have been playing bass for 40+ years, about 15 pro making a living at it. I don't run scales anymore. Pretty much concentrate on listening - mostly concentrating on chord progressions. Not playing in any working situations much any more - if a gig is coming up will work a lot on what's necessary for the show. Now live in a pretty isolated part of the world and clubs are long distance, don't pay very well, and the set lists are pretty generic so not motivated much to club.

Have started learning piano, so spend an hour in the morning and another hour after dinner. Want to learn guitar, too. Love the bass - it's THE BEST - but playing by ones self a chordal instrument seems a little more fun.
 
#19
I don have either the time or the focus to spend a long time practicing. I'll pick up the bass and practice in small doses several times a day, usually for anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes at a time. On occasion I'll practice for 30 minutes or more, but I'm playing along to songs - practicing scales and stuff for that long would bore me to death. Sometime during the day I'll put on the 'nome and run riffs off the top of my head just to check my time. Other times I'll fool around with my pedals to see what sounds come out of them. Anything, as long as it doesn't bore me.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back