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Practice

P

Pettson

Jun 3, 2009
74
1
#1
Hi

I have been playing bass for about a year now, and i have never really like practiced. I have played a lot of songs and doing those finger strength, dexterity and independence exercises. And now i really want to practice theory, and i want to practice much! :D

So, do you guys have any tips on what to practice and for how long?

Appreciate it!

Johan
 
#3
Practice everything you can't do.

Nothing is hard you just have never tried it before so just understand you might not be able to play jazz or sight read straight away but then if you've never tried before you shouldn't get disheartened.

As for length of time it really doesn't matter, just practice until you feel youve grasped something new and improved a bit.
 
#4
learn the finger positions for major scale and minor scale. then learn all 7 modes (ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian). once you do that, you will be able to improvise over just about any song.

schedule wise, practice about an hour a day if you can.
work on scales/modes for about 10 minutes, practice technique (slap, harmonics, tap, etc) for about 20 minutes, then listen to songs on the radio or something and try to pick up the bass lines and melodies by ear for about 15 minutes (ear training is priceless), and find free backtracks on the internet made for bass, and try improvising over them for 15 minutes. once you have the scales/modes down and are very proficient with technique, cut those practice times in half and use 15 minutes to start learning songs that require use of them.
hope that helps. :D
 
#8
Pettson said:
Ty, and what does it mean to improvise over a song?
Click to expand...

improvisation is sort of like a hit and miss thing. just "on the fly" playing, but structured to where, if you play in the scale, it will all fit (most of the time anyway). improvisation is a good way to practice putting licks, phrases, scales, etc. into use, and for making up your own bass lines. check out some fusion bands.

1:40+ is a good example.
 
#9
I find practice can be a grind sometimes too. It's a lot better if there is an "end goal" .. like when you're learning a song to play with your band or buddies. It's hard to get motivated just to practice for practice's sake.

I also have to remind myself that nothing worth doing is easy or comes without effort (hard work). Yeah, I know it sounds like I got that out of a fortune cookie or something, but the longer I am on this planet, the more I realize this is true. You've gotta get through the grind to get the reward at the end. There really aren't any shortcuts.
 

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