Poll: how many days a week do you practice?

[Felken]

I usually practice 2 hours a day, except on rehearsal day, in which case I'm playing for 4-5 hours in one go.

 

[micguy]

9. Most days I practice for 1 and a half to 2 hours, but a couple days a week, I do both morning and evening practices. It takes a lot of practice time for me to appear to be "naturally talented". Actually, most anyone I've ever known who seemed to be naturally gifted, if you ask them, you'll find out they practice a LOT.

I once auditioned for a local band that was...very good. when I asked when they rehearsed, the answer was: 5PM. When I asked what day, they seemed confused. Eventually, we figured it out - As a band, they rehearsed at 5 PM - EVERY DAY at 5 PM.

 

[DukeCC]

1 to 2 a month.

 

[Michael Jewels]

About 5 days a week, average, but sometimes life throws curve ball at you, and I adjust.

5 days a week, about an hour at a time. I'm good playing my current practice set, but I must increase it:

Standard Blues patterns.
A Jazz pattern I stole from Ron Carter. (Sorry, Ron)
The song, "Spain," I can remember...
A Swing Jazz pattern by Manhattan Transfer.

Some mixed stuff from the 60s and 70s.

I'm now adding in, "The Lemon Song," by Led Zeppelin, and some others I can't remember right now.

One day, I should make a Go-Pro video.

And I'm still trying to perfect, "Hot Rod Lincoln," on my Telecaster.

Mike

 

[devnulljp]

Zero. Too busy rehearsing and gigging

 

[ObsessiveArcher]

I used to practice every day. Now it's around 1-2 days per week. Life happens.

 

[crabbybassman]

I'm still practicing how to practice properly......7 days a week. I'd rather learn 10 songs for my cover bands show next week then to sit and learn scales and stuff like that. My ears seem to just tell my fingers what to do without the brain actually getting involved. I learned theory and sight reading playing Sax in my school days from 4th grade to high school graduation....then got a job and forgot about music til my mid 30s. I can't just sit and practice scales anymore. Now that I know my way around a fretboard all that scale and theory stuff keeps popping up more frequently when I pay attention to what I'm playing. My cover band does so many songs I just work on what part needs working on. All I like to do is put on some sort of beat maker and jam whatever in my off time.

 

[lermgalieu]

I have kids, two bands, and am an attorney, so while I would love to be shedding 7 days a week for 3 hours (esp on DB), it’s usually 30 mins here and there, 3-4x/week.

 

[LBS-bass]

I put 3-4 but it's probably more like 5-6. I practice more when I have a show coming up, but unless I have to really nail something down, I don't practice on show days because if I play too much I get hand cramps. But if you consider the shows to be another bit of practice (which I do; all playing is practice), it's pretty constant.

 

[SunByrne]

I try to practice every day, but sometimes other things interfere and I don't always do it, so I went with 5-6.

 

[awakefie]

We should put up another poll. "Do you spend as much time practicing bass as you spend in the Talkbass forums?" I fear my answer would be no.

 

[Kevin Teed]

I'm nicely mediocre.
Practicing would just ruin that.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Like the title says! How many days a week do you practice?
Let’s not over think this, but on average how many days a week do you practice?
And I supposed to be clear an actual practice session where are you are either doing scales or trying to learn a song etc. not just sitting on the couch noodling while you watch a movie or what have you?

Been playing 26 years now and my routine has changed a lot over the years. The first, few years, as I think a lot of players do, i practiced religiously. Like 4 hours a day nearly every day. These days it’s a minimum of 1 and upwards of 4 days per week with a bass in my hands. When I say 4 I’m not talking all day. But more like 30 minutes and if I only practice one day That week I’ll sit down and practice much longer. So I think a better way to say it is how many hours per week instead of how many days.

One thing that’s changed a lot for me is my band now has a full pro tools rig at our rehearsal spot and I listen to our demos from our weekly rehearsals everyday which helps me a lot with certain things like memorizing the form of songs for example. Another thing is I spend a lot more time really listening to other people’s music these days. I have a job where I can listen to music with headphones a lot while I’m at work. So I use a lot of that time to search for inspiration so when I do practice it’s not just mindless noodling but more of a situation where I know exactly what I want to work on. Basically As I’ve gotten older I’ve really tried to be more efficient with how I practice. That way I’m not locked in a room taking away time from my wife and kids. In fact I rarely practice at home while my kids are still awake. So there’s a more focused aspect to it but also I feel pretty good about my ability considering the music I play. If I was to play more difficult music I would definitely put in more time. But I’m mainly a rock/metal player. I’ll throw in some slap and other flashy techniques usually just a couple songs per album. Most of my playing is actually pretty simple and straight forward. When I was in high school I was playing in an originals rock band while also playing in a jazz band. That’s a big part of why I used to spend so much time practicing. It was a lot more music to get down and jazz music is challenging in different ways than rock is.

 

[McG]

I play every day.

Band rehearsals once a week.

For home practice on the other days I keep my acoustic bass handy and grab it daily. Sometimes just to run scales for a few minutes, sometimes play along with recordings/practice new songs for an hour.

(Retired with no kids at home so I'm not short on free time. )

 

[lbbc]

I am a retired music teacher...and I practice what I preached to my students....at least 5 days a week and no less than an hour a day.

Truthfully, if I'm "in the zone", I'll practice 2-3 hours a day. But like I said...I'm retired, but still gigging!

 

[Thumpin6string]

Lately it's been a couple hours a month.

 

[CallMeAl]

I try to set aside time everyday, but sometimes life gets in the way. So I voted 5-6. I’d rather do 30 minutes a day than do a 3 hr cram session on the weekend. I count gigs and rehearsal as “practice” and (usually) dont practice at home those days.

 

[BOOG]

I pick up a bass everyday and have since getting back into music five years ago. I might play/practice for ten or fifteen minutes just to keep my fingers thinking about where they belong or as long as 10 hours through a day working on anything from scales, intervals, inversions and set list material and charting. Just depends on life and my goals for that particular day. A lot of times I’m studying and learning in my head through the workday.

 

[Dabndug]

Experience has shown me that I go backwards fast without practice, so I pick up the bass daily. Practice can vary from 15 minutes of dexterity exercises to 2 hours of working through material and technique.

 

[Kmonk]

I never "noodle" while watching tv or "noodle" at all for that matter. My basses are in my basement studio and I reserve the living room for family time. How often I practice really depends on what I have going on at any given point in time. If I don't have any gigs, I usually practice about 2 to 3 evenings per week for about 3 hours. If I have a gig or have studio work that is upcoming, I will practice a couple of more days. Sometimes, I'm practicing bass and sometimes guitar. I will occasionally practice keys or harmonica as well.