This. If you have a lesson once a week and don't know what to practice your teacher isn't doing a good job. I used to teach as many as 32 students at a time. I always had a list of things for them to work on every week.
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Practice Schedule
- Thread starter TheIndieKid
- Start date
This. If you have a lesson once a week and don't know what to practice your teacher isn't doing a good job. I used to teach as many as 32 students at a time. I always had a list of things for them to work on every week.
Call me crazy, but in my experience your instructor should be giving you things to work on in between lessons.
Your lesson teacher should have laid out a practice schedule for you after your first lesson. If they didn't, you need to find a new lesson teacher. If your lesson teacher is just teaching you songs or bass lines, you need to find a new teacher. When I taught lessons (and I occasionally take a student on if I have time), I have them start in a method book; one with out TAB - notes only. We will work through three to five lines a lesson, work on scales, work on technique, work on music reading, work on rhythmic vocabulary, and finally fretboard/fingerboard knowledge. All in 30 minutes. This is the same as their individual practice routine, only I expect them to perfect the previously learned lines at a faster tempo and learn at least four more lines in their book, memorize one scale in different positions and at a faster tempo, learn a new scale, and come with a better knowledge of music reading and their fretboard/fingerboard. I will also give them a bass line to an easy song in a genre they like and let them learn it.
I'm new to bass too - so my free advice may be worth every penny 
I really enjoy practicing to songs too ... but what has given me the most improvement has been to practice with a metronome. Many people think that is boring - but I find it very fun and interesting. Set the metronome to a slow time - playing perfectly in time SLOW is much more difficult that trying to stumble through things fast. I started out learning scales, arpeggios and chord inversions and once I got the patterns I just shifted it up the neck (I was avoiding open strings because I found them tough to mute and couldn't make them sound the same as fretted notes). But now I've gone back and started re-learning everything all over again playing in first position and working to make the open notes blend with the fretted notes. That has been a dramatic change for my playing - to be able to do chromatic runs that cross strings with open notes and still sound right. I'll take songs that I already learned up the neck and re-learn them in first position utilizing open strings when I can.
I have also been trying to think of every possible way to play the same scale in different positions. I have learned all the major scales in first position (instead of just shifting patterns up the neck) and am about to start learning the minor scales there.
I found a few different ways to play two octave scales and practice those in every key with a metronome.
When practicing playing along with songs - I find it really useful to pick some ballads where the bass line is very exposed and I pretend I'm paying hourly rates in a studio trying to track my bass part perfectly. That is challenging to try and play cleanly with every note sounding balanced and articulated the same and locked perfectly with the drums.
I really enjoy practicing to songs too ... but what has given me the most improvement has been to practice with a metronome. Many people think that is boring - but I find it very fun and interesting. Set the metronome to a slow time - playing perfectly in time SLOW is much more difficult that trying to stumble through things fast. I started out learning scales, arpeggios and chord inversions and once I got the patterns I just shifted it up the neck (I was avoiding open strings because I found them tough to mute and couldn't make them sound the same as fretted notes). But now I've gone back and started re-learning everything all over again playing in first position and working to make the open notes blend with the fretted notes. That has been a dramatic change for my playing - to be able to do chromatic runs that cross strings with open notes and still sound right. I'll take songs that I already learned up the neck and re-learn them in first position utilizing open strings when I can.
I have also been trying to think of every possible way to play the same scale in different positions. I have learned all the major scales in first position (instead of just shifting patterns up the neck) and am about to start learning the minor scales there.
I found a few different ways to play two octave scales and practice those in every key with a metronome.
When practicing playing along with songs - I find it really useful to pick some ballads where the bass line is very exposed and I pretend I'm paying hourly rates in a studio trying to track my bass part perfectly. That is challenging to try and play cleanly with every note sounding balanced and articulated the same and locked perfectly with the drums.
Wow this sparked quite the little thread. Many thanks for the advice everyone of you. I will definitely check out StudyBass. To give some background on what my teacher has taught me in the past, I'll explain. First I'll say is that we've definetly worked on singing while playing to improve my ear training. Mainly we've worked with tab portions of the book, but in an effort to learn me standard notation, we've looked at it and asked me what a random note on the page "means" (what is the pitch and time length). He tends to keep things simplistic here-tells me not to bother with names...just how long the note lasts based on the appearence of the note. We've also worked on positions (although I don't understand what they are-maybe this is what I need to work on)-of a major scale, for example (I think?!). We're working on improvising simple lines for the minute and paying attention to what the piece wants from us (like a 4 bar improvisation based on a Blues beat at 130bpm). Also, we've touched on modes. My main homework was remembering the names Ionian-Lochrian. I've worked on learning the scales across the strings as well as on the same string. We only touched on this briefly, so maybe he has more in store for this. It's hard remembering everything the modules I've learnt to be honest. There's probably quite a bit more. When I say I've hit a wall, I feel It's become a bit boring for me. This maybe down to me and not learning a variety of songs. I am quite a perfectionist and am one for trying to use the instrument as it was intended to be used (using flats on my Mustang bass and rounds on my Thunderbird, for example. The Thunderbird is for Christmas so I don't have it yet and I have rounds on Mustang. Ugh!). Because of this I feel quite limited in my song choice, because I feel put off if I play a Marvin Gaye piece with rounds, for example. I wanna get out and learn new songs from new bands but I feel like "where do I start if I don't know the name of a song that appeals to me in the first place that I don't already know?" I'm not very good at slapping or tapping or the like and I'm unsure whether I should practice it and will get better at it (I have quite weirdly bended fingers . I also feel I'd aspire to be more of traditional bass player, as many kids my age are into playing loads of notes fast in many techniques in a solo bass style, but I like the idea of filling out the sound and keeping it simple and deep in the pocket, which many my age don't like the idea of. I'm quite lost without a specific schedule about what I should practice and what aspects I should practice precisely. I'm very by the book to the word (I've got ASD-probably why haha) and unfortuantely quite lacking when it comes to patience and I don't see progress within a relatively quick time...something I need to improve on. Sorry for the long story...I hope that answers some questions anyway. Feel free to ask more though
Edit: I will also mention that my teacher is a guitarist first and a bassist second by the judging of things (brings his guitar to the house) and is a classical guitarist by nature of first instrument. I don't know whether that affects anything.
. I also feel I'd aspire to be more of traditional bass player, as many kids my age are into playing loads of notes fast in many techniques in a solo bass style, but I like the idea of filling out the sound and keeping it simple and deep in the pocket, which many my age don't like the idea of. I'm quite lost without a specific schedule about what I should practice and what aspects I should practice precisely. I'm very by the book to the word (I've got ASD-probably why haha) and unfortuantely quite lacking when it comes to patience and I don't see progress within a relatively quick time...something I need to improve on. Sorry for the long story...I hope that answers some questions anyway. Feel free to ask more though Edit: I will also mention that my teacher is a guitarist first and a bassist second by the judging of things (brings his guitar to the house) and is a classical guitarist by nature of first instrument. I don't know whether that affects anything.
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I play Marvin Gaye (James Jamerson) stuff all the time with rounds - that is actually a great little exercise for you to try if you are bored and want to experiment. Learn how to get that sound (get closer to that sound) by where and how you pluck the strings. Move your plucking hand up closer to or onto the end of the fingerboard and experiment with how you pluck to see how close you can get (turn your tone knob down like Jamerson, use a foam mute like Jamerson - or just try plucking in a way that pulls out the darker tones). Or try palm muting (I can't do it well yet).
There is no reason to ever be bored (IMO at least) --- you can take the easiest, most simple song (or scale or whatever) in the world and find a hundred different ways to play it and to challenge yourself.
James Jamerson is just a powerhouse. I do try all the time, bud. You can get really close to the sound by, as you say, playing in front of the neck pickup, using a mute and rolling the tone off. I do all this (minus the kitchen sponge mute
) It seems weird, but it still bugs me that there's that hint of shimmer that isn't present in a good old flatwound. I'm going to order a set of LaBella Mustang Deep Talkin Flats after Christmas to coax my enjoyment out.
I've thought it would be fun to setup a spare bass the heavy Deep Talkin Flats with really high action (not sure about the really bowed neck I've heard he had) and play it with one finger - haha. It's teaching me a lot to listen to Jamerson.
The 1954 Originals? Yeah that'd be cool. You might struggle with the extra high action though. But by all means try it!
Do you "practice songs" because you've got your lesson work nailed or, as is so common among us, because the songs hold your interest better than your assignments? Are the songs those that you know well enough to play through or are they songs that really need (and get) work in your practice time? In sum, why are you "practicing" and is it indeed "practicing" that you're doing?
I'd start by asking your teacher about helping you build a practice routine that includes in this order: warmup, review previous work, work on the bits of that previous work that you aren't solid with, start on something new, and finish with a reward, say, rock out on something you know well. In summary, here's my one-hour practice session:
- warmup (5-10 mins)
- review (5-15 mins)
- exercises and etudes (problem discovery and solving)(30-45 mins)
- start a new piece (10-20 mins)
- TREAT YOURSELF (10 mins or until served divorce papers)
There's plenty of flexibility there. Your teacher may have different ideas but they're negotiable, as long as your progress is in the forefront.
I took my first music lesson (on accordion) sixty years ago and it took me years, seemingly forever, to appreciate what practice really is. Hint: I learned it's not simply repeating the same sequence of notes ad nauseam. Today I can spend and enjoy 40 minutes on scales and arpeggios (there are thousands of these) and feel/hear progress each session. You may feel that scales are boring but I sometimes have to force myself to move on to other work because the scales let me isolate those things that I need to work on and I can hear improvement. e.g. Straight time vs. swing vs. syncopation; interval recognition (ear training); fingering and flexibility; et al.
Good Luck!
KennyO
Ive bought The Hal Leonard Bass Method Complete Edition so I've got a lot to work on. A few of the exercises in it don't give you the BPM of the piece, presuming you make your own up. How do you guys go about learning an exercise perfectly? When it comes to BPM, do you have a tempo sequence (30 BPM to start, up to 120 BPM, for example) that increase, determining whether you've mastered an exercise? For that sort of thing, can anyone give me a kind of series of tempos they use?
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Exercises are just that. Do an exercise at a pace no faster than you can handle. Exercises typically don't give you a tempo ("BPM") and it's up to you to start learning it as slowly as you need for learning then you play it faster as you get comfortable with a given speed. The key to success is to learn each exercise at a slow tempo because you're not likely to learn much more than frustration from starting out too fast. Eventually "slow" will get faster as you improve. Again, walk before you run; starting too fast will hold you back.
I alternate working hard and treating myself to fun. When I'm working hard to master a specific skill (i.e. playing cleanly with every note attacked/released exactly the same and controlling/muting any other strings, alternating plucking fingers, difficult intervals etc.) I will play it as slowly as necessary to play it perfectly using the proper technique - and this is usually absurdly slow. I might keep it at that really slow tempo for weeks/months and only speed it up to the point where I can keep the attack/release and technique perfect. Whenever I hit a tempo that causes me to revert to bad habits or sloppy playing, I slow it back down.
If I continue practicing at a speed where I am not consistently following the technique I'm working on then the practice is not really helpful because I would be reinforcing the improper technique. Better to practice it slower and let my muscle memory get used to the proper technique I'm trying to master.
If I continue practicing at a speed where I am not consistently following the technique I'm working on then the practice is not really helpful because I would be reinforcing the improper technique. Better to practice it slower and let my muscle memory get used to the proper technique I'm trying to master.
I found the problem. A guitarist teaching bass using a guitar, using tab, telling you not to bother with the names of the notes.
Get a BASS teacher to teach you bass. Get one with multiple references.
I would prioritize practicing arpeggios over modes.
Modes should com only after a solid grasp of chord tones and chord progressions is had.
Modes should com only after a solid grasp of chord tones and chord progressions is had.
I personally do not consider playing songs practice. I consider that rehearsal.
Yeah, semantics, but there's semantic and then there's nothing.
Practice to me is learning the fretboard and developing technical and rhythmic skills. I've been working on a book about this for about a year (young kids, ect. make the going slow), but the closest thing I have found to what I am doing is really learning to play through the chord changes of jazz standards using various deliberate sequences (R-5, triads, 4 note chord tones, inversions of all of the above, ect) in all keys. Ignore the melodies and use the form to play the same progressions in multiple genres, tempos, ect.
You really just treat it like calisthenics. It should be within the context of musical applications, as opposed to those stupid bass aerobics type exercises, but you are more concerned with learning all the viable options than making beautiful music.
Using jazz standards works because of the harmonic content. It doesn't matter if you like jazz or even try to play "jazzy". They are ust a training tool.
You can get some of this by playing songs IF you are analytical, but really most people do not even really know what they are playing during a song and very few can transpose it on the spot.
Yeah, semantics, but there's semantic and then there's nothing.
Practice to me is learning the fretboard and developing technical and rhythmic skills. I've been working on a book about this for about a year (young kids, ect. make the going slow), but the closest thing I have found to what I am doing is really learning to play through the chord changes of jazz standards using various deliberate sequences (R-5, triads, 4 note chord tones, inversions of all of the above, ect) in all keys. Ignore the melodies and use the form to play the same progressions in multiple genres, tempos, ect.
You really just treat it like calisthenics. It should be within the context of musical applications, as opposed to those stupid bass aerobics type exercises, but you are more concerned with learning all the viable options than making beautiful music.
Using jazz standards works because of the harmonic content. It doesn't matter if you like jazz or even try to play "jazzy". They are ust a training tool.
You can get some of this by playing songs IF you are analytical, but really most people do not even really know what they are playing during a song and very few can transpose it on the spot.
