Double Bass Keeping a practice diary...

[Kamuilija]

Hi all,

I've been keeping a double bass diary since last September. Today I compiled a half-year statistic from the little book. I've been thinking on how to increase my total playing time, and the statistics show a simple way to do it.

This is the sum of the diary, from 1st Jan to 30th June 2012:

31 band practices
20 gigs
3 jam sessions
141 hours of playing and
73 days not touching the bass

Little streams and big rivers, indeed! In the hectic everyday I sometimes don't even notice a day go by without playing, but the diary brings me back to reality... Even a half-hour of practice on each of those 73 days would have given me another 30-odd hours of total playing time.

One day at a time, today is a good day to play the bass.

yours,

Maksim

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Do you also keep track of what you worked on when practicing? That's a good practice to get into.

 

[Kamuilija]

Ed, I do. I have a little (size A5) diary for these simpler markings, for example

Tue 10th July: warm-up 20 mins, GIG Hohka @ Kaustinen Folk Music Festival 20.30-21.30​

and a big (size A4) project book for a more thorough approach, for example

Tue 10th July:

warm-up 20 mins:
run H-clamp from hotel room (700m)
(for the other things, I don't know the warm-up vocabulary in English, but you can imagine)

GIG Hohka @ Kaustinen FMF, Café Mondo 20.30-21.30, 70 people

Set list

What went well (why?)
What didn't go that well (why?)
How to deal with the latter​

yours,
Maksim