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Practice Regimen for one hour per day? Help please.

baddarryl

baddarryl

Oct 26, 2008
1,738
1,537
Cape Fear!
#1
I am part of the Mediocre Bassist Club (can I get a number?) and usually practice about an hour a day which is largely unfocused as far as what to work on. Current books I have to work from are:

Bass Grooves by Ed Freidland (just started)
Note Reading Studies by Mel Bay (same)
Walking Bass Modules by Todd Johnson (not started yet)
Essential Bass Theory Mel Bay (almost through)
and Pac Mans Sure Fire (thanks PacMan). (working daily)

Mainly I have been focusing on the Bass Grooves and Theory books other than just practicing material for my weekly Church gig. My goal is to become a better more rounded bassist that can adapt styles and improvise better than I can now.

I am committed to the Groove as I find that most important. The sight reading is just for personal satisfaction (no one I play with sight reads),.So that in mind how could I best focus my time assuming a daily minimum commitment of an hour? 10 minutes on this 20 on that etc. Should I be dong many books at once, focus on one or a select one or two? I know there are a million ways of doing this and I look forward for your feedback! Thanks so much and bring it on!
 
#2
First things first, kudos to you for practicing one hour a day. Most, myself included, are not disciplined enough to accomplish such a feat.

I got my practice routine from another book, EADG4 by John Falstrom. He recommends breaking practice up into 4 areas:
Ear Training
Reading and Analyzing
Theory
Improvisation

I find ear training to be quite tedious so I break it up into 15-20 minutes segments. Other than that, I have found this routine works for me.
 
#3
For the last 2 years I been doing the 1 hour a day routine. Even the days when I dont feel I pick up the bass with the idea of doing a few minutes and then when I want to realize I have been playing for an hour.
Anyway, 1 year ago I started taking lessons and since then my practice became more focused. Practice for my lessons take most of it and then I use some time to practice songs or some technique I want to improve.
 
#4
Just one hour a day? Feh. For a trumpet player (and I know reed players and string players too) one hour is just maintenance. While in development (usually ages 17-25) FOUR hours over 2 sessions is considered almost adequate. Many do 6 to 8...especially those sax players who are playing an instrument SO easy to play they often practice 8 hours or more without any ill effect (except to their roommates).
 
#6
I would recommend spending some time every day attempting to play along with some of your favorite songs. Just throw on an album you like and start picking out what the bass player is doing. It can be a bit tedious at first, but before you know it, you'll have a whole album down and your style will have incorporated that sound. Lately I've been working my way through Mandala by RX Bandits, which is not an easy task. BUT, my speed and creativity have obviously improved, and it shows when I jam and write with my band now. I also read somewhere that you should start out your practice session with a brief warm-up to get the blood moving to your fingers, then go into some new material, then for the second half go back and work on things you already know or want to improve upon. Just my $0.02. Good Luck!
 
#7
My advice is less books and more music. Transcribing and playing along with real music is imo the most important thing yo can do. If you only have one hour, dont spread yourself to thin...concentrate on one or two topics. Make a plan! or..even better three.
One long term plan
One weekly plan
And one day to day plan.
Write down what you want to achive and what you can do to get there.

Reading is essential and i would recomend thirty min. of sight reading every day. I recomend Bach. e.g The two handed inventions.
 
#8
BassBrass said:
Just one hour a day? Feh. For a trumpet player (and I know reed players and string players too) one hour is just maintenance. While in development (usually ages 17-25) FOUR hours over 2 sessions is considered almost adequate. Many do 6 to 8...especially those sax players who are playing an instrument SO easy to play they often practice 8 hours or more without any ill effect (except to their roommates).
Click to expand...

:rollno:

This forum is composed not only of professionals, but also beginners, hobbyists and wannabees. I have a 70hr per week day job. I hour per day has worked very well for me. YMMV.
 
#9
I have started to write a practice journal which is cool. I put concepts I learn in it to help cement to memory. Since this thread I have been going through the Note Reading Studies which I am making fun progress on (I haven't read since middle school Alto Sax in 1982! ). Simple Etudes a the the moment, but getting better. You guys are right about just 1 or 2 items to really focus on at a time. Mix that up with material to learn and its fun! What a gift music is! Thanks all!
 
#10
Good thread.

I fall into the category of working a full time job, being a parent, etc. If I'm LUCKY, I get an hour a day to practice. Most nights I only get 20 or 30 minutes if I ended up working late (more often than not).

I know I'll never be a great player without dedicating a lot of time to learning, so playing to me is entertainment. I enjoy it. It's something to help me relax and unwind.

Back when I was taking lessons, I found that my practice time was filled with tedious, monotonous memorization and frustration. Due to some financial constraints, I had to stop taking lessons. I wish I could still take them, because I learned a lot, even though a lot of what I learned I have no idea what to do with. Now I spend a lot of time playing songs. I find a song I like, and I play along. If I can't figure out a part, I listen to it, get it in my head, and play it slowly and out of time until I get it under my fingers, then I play along with the recording.

There are a few songs where I have NO idea what they are playing. Just can't find it. I'd love to have an instructor help me there.

What I've found is that by playing songs, I add "arrows to my quiver" so to speak. I add some ability to my arsenal and I'm able to easily identify that same "lick" in other songs and know how to play it.

When I first started playing, I was all about learning the music part of things. Learning to read, learning all I could about music. Now I just do what comes natural to me. I just play. I don't really care why some notes sound good together and some don't. I just know which frets make what sound and where to put my fingers to make the sound I want.
 
#11
Spend half your time playing rudiments (scales, arpegios, riffs, chops, reading five line staff, tab, music theory, etc). The other half should be spent jamming with someone (mp3 player qualifies here, metronome too). After all the bass is a backing instrument (unless your name is Victor) so learning to interact with other musicians is important. Me??? I'm lucky to get in half an hour practice with my bass IN MY HANDS. Listening constantly to the tunes your learning is pretty good practice as well.

YMMV
 
#12
Someone mentioned this earlier but I thought I'd mention my own personal experience. I've played for a few years and never considered lessons necessary. But since August of this 2010 I started paying 25$ a week for a 30 minute lesson with the most recommended teacher in my area. When I first walked into lesson number 1, I had a handful of books and Hot Licks videos that I'd been working on simultaneously for months. I was told that I needed to focus on one style of playing and one resource and attempt to do it as well as I could. This was hard for me and my mindset in that I wanted to be well rounded but I realized I could be well rounded mediocrity if I kept this plan. So we started off with Jon Liebman's funk bass and have since moved on to Stu Hamm's hot licks video. In short, I've made more progress in this fashion during the past few months than I had during much longer periods of self teaching.

Hope this helps.
 

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