Putting the time/work in when you start out older

[bigdaddybass12]

I started bass at 35? I played other instruments earlier so I was not learning 'music'
Depends on what you already know, I played tuba in high school, so bass part was beat in my head. I personally don't like to practice, but I have to make time. Even if you practice a few minutes. But don't practice the same thing over & over unless it's scales or drills. Learn something new. Play along with songs on YouTube. Learn a few drills, plenty of good YouTube's on bass drills.

 

[alex1fly]

Started bass when I was around 12. Played violin in school and had to practice daily. Then bass practice and lessons. Obviously full time student so there was studying. Also raced bikes which involved training and gym time.

Later, as a younger adult, gigs, tons of rehearsals, job, and was racing throughout the season. I always joked about never sleeping. But I really don't remember being exhausted or being unable to work, play, gig, cycle.

A couple years ago my son was going through recruiting for sport and a coach at Utah said something that struck a nerve.
He said "I've got you 364 days a year but you still have to graduate, you're going to think you have no time for studying". Then he broke it down. He asked "how many hours are in a week?"
Then he continued with the math and it reminded me of how I lived when I was a full time employee and athlete and aspiring to be a pro musician.

So let's say you work 40 hours. And you commute/prep an hour per day. And you have family obligations (church, dinners, kid playing soccer, etc). And then you want to ideally sleep 8 hours. Even if you're extremely generous with work and a dedicated spouse/parent…
Do the math on paper.
You have 45-50 more Daytime Hours in your week. Even when you delete 2 hours every day for meals/prep/cleaning it's still over 30 hours remaining.
Write it down so you see it. It's actually downright ridiculous when you read back your actual schedule for most people.
It's no different than people who have no time to exercise. You have a crape tonne of time. Don't binge watch the Ewan McGregor motorcycle series.
When you account for your time all week like you already do for your job you'll be amazed (or disgusted) how much time you have.
Just set a time and stick to it.

Love this. I'll add on to it. People that "don't have time" to do something almost ALWAYS mean they don't have time RIGHT NOW or TODAY. If you look at your time in week chunks, it becomes easier to schedule things like exercise or music. I don't have time right now to finish my latest demo, but I can probably carve out some time for Sunday.

Let's say you can only practice 30 minutes a day. The next question is how do you spend that time. Do you have specific goals you are working toward. Is every minute of your practice leading to those goals or are you spending too much time on non-productive playing? A real program of study is helpful.

This was the deal in music academy. 30 minutes minimum practice per day, every day. Some practice sessions can be formal, some can be fun. Ideally have both. If you want to get good quickly, you have to play every day. But there is diminishing returns. 30 minutes a day every day for 2 years will get you pretty dang far. 2 hours a day every day for 2 years will get you further, but you risk burnout and not meeting that expectation. But 30 minutes twice a week for 2 years won't get you hardly anywhere. And after you're at a medium level of competency you don't have to play every day. But until you get there, you do have to play every day if you want to see significant progress.

 

[H K]

Idk if it's a TRICK, but having a clear plan of what you want to learn really helps. Set a goal, with a time limit. Reach it and repeat. Could be a cool song you wanna learn, a technique, whatevs.

I've found that practicing technique is good if you're too tired to really focus 100%. You can just sit there and watch a TV show or whatever, and just pluck the strings in different patterns. Doesnt take a lot of brain power, but helps build muscle memory, helps you learn to control the voicing, build finger strength and speed, etc etc.

Personally, I think the plucking hand is what differentiates a good player from a great player. There's only so much you can do with the fretting hand, and once you sort of "plateu" (reaching a point where progress is slow, or maybe even unecessary), the plucking hand still has a long way to go for a lot of people. It's as if you're filling up 2 cups at once, but one of the cups is bigger, so you will have to keep pouring even tho the small one is full.

IME new or in-experienced players focus so much on the fretting hand that the plucking ends up lagging behind.
This became really obvious in my own playing when I started playing vulfpeck songs. I could keep up with the fretting, but the plucking was near-impossible. Hours and hours and hours of practice cured that.

Having triple finger strength, speed and accuracy really matters A LOT more, once youre past the "ABC's" so to speak.

Better to get at it right from the start, (or re-start), than having to unlearn bad habits and re-learn good ones.

Best of luck on your journey

 

[MLC_BassPlayer]

I will add on to what others have stated. A musician friend of mine told me when I was learning to play bass (age 45) the key was to pick up an instrument and make noise with it every day. No definitions on what noise is, or how long to make it.

The key is making sure your instrument is easily accessible, so you can just grab it and play.

 

[legalbass]

Learning music (and an instrument) is a marathon, not a sprint.

Spacing things out and taking breaks is just as important as diving in and committing to a routine practice regimen.

 

[jnuts1]

This is another route.

probably not the best route unless you are insane

 

[brianrost]

I got my first bass guitar at age 19 while I was in the US Army. I had some previous experience playing clarinet and organ, so I could read both treble and bass clef. I bought the Carol Kaye books and was off to the races.

As far as practicing, I always found practicing first thing in the morning worked best, simply because it's easier to postpone practicing when coming home from work....dinner, family time, maybe some emergency chores, etc. If necessary, practice with headphones if you must be quiet in the morning.

When I took lessons, they were always in the evening and once a week, so not a scheduling problem.

The real learning happened once I started jamming with people. That's because I was playing music, not exercises. Lessons, practice, jamming and eventually gigging all worked together to get me to wherever I am todasy.

 

[iiipopes]

I have played bass straight through since I was thirteen years old, even though several years of that was at home, taking off those years from gigging to raise my son. But, I did discontinue playing brass instruments completely for over twenty years. When I came back to brass, initially to keep my vital capacity up since I suffer blood clots, I agree, with life happening, it was difficult to budget time to practice at home and schedule rehearsals with a community band. More importantly, it was my personal outlook: for a long time I was frustrated that I couldn't just pick up the instrument and play it like I did in high school and college. And to practice regularly the fundamental exercises to recondition my embouchure and technique, were, frankly, boring as #%!!. But I did find a way to do it to get everything back in shape, and now I'm having fun again. In the meantime, I am not physically the same as I was back then (duh!), so I had to reconsider what instruments I play, both brass and bass, and adjust accordingly. All the above about having goals and a combination of disciplined practice of fundamentals and having fun with jams or gigs is absolutely important. Hang in there!

 

[Wasnex]

If you really enjoy it, you will find the time. If you don't really enjoy it, then I don't see any reason to force it.

I played bass professionally long enough that I no longer loved to play. Luckily I was able to cross train into running sound for a few years, and had a blast.

I still plink around on the bass, but have no desire to gig or practice seriously. I doubt I will ever give it up entirely until I can no longer physically play.

Around 2008 I tried to learn guitar. This was after I had transitioned from bass to audio. I made some pretty decent progress and could play different shapes of bar chords and basic cowboy chords. Never really had any interest in learning songs, but I had fun laying down short loops and jamming. I even had some jam sessions with one of my brothers and his son-in-law.

Learning songs felt way too tedious and involved for me. I was sort of costing on whatever skills I could transfer from my music background, rather than actually learning a lot of new guitar-related skills.

I might have continued and even learned some songs if I still was doing jam sessions, but I moved away and eventually lost interest in playing along with my looper. I still occasionally pick up the guitar, but it's probably been over a year.

Based on my experience:​

The first think you need is an honest interest/fascination in learning to play. The second thing you need is a reason to progress. Without a reason to progress, you tend to lose motivation and interest.

 

[Egg250]

I'm 50, and picked up my bass, after 25 years or so when I was 48. I wasn't terrible all those years ago, and I am a much better player now amd am noticeably improving week by week. have a mature understanding of what I'm supposed to be doing and I am putting the time in. I do my best to play everyday, even if only for 30 minutes. You can't compromise, you have to take the time to do the things you want to do.

 

[salmon256]

I started bass in senior of HS which was probably like 4 years ago, I'm 21 for measure. To start with, not to scare you at all but it is hard to find time I agree. I'm busy with school and during winter break some hobbies are hard to keep going. I personally also swim and do kendo a lot, but one thing I notice physical hobbies are more motivating when you have a place to go or a group to work with. When a friend asked me to just play and jam it helped a lot, I focus on bass everyday for a month then it died down the motivation for a bit... I also play other instruments that are more solo type instruments (Concertina and some Ukulele for fun) Personally for me what help me focus is a daily routine, but also not to make life too dry have fun and play along to a jam track or to your song and do not care how bad or good you, being too hard on yourself only leads to losing practice or making bass less fun. I recommend a method book and setting a time you can do everyday on it, and if you have time during odd hours of the day invest in a headphone plug amp or just use earbuds with your amp if you have one like the Rumble, or an interface. Also by the way, what works for you is what works for you, IMO it's better to play a guided and quality practice for 30 minutes then play one day with no structure for 4 hours or at play an hour and hate it and have no fun. Anyway enjoy bass, have fun, find people to play with, it's a great booster and be happy because everyone also struggles with this, and enjoy the ride with bass, I pushed myself in hobbies too much and ruin the fun because of over practicing and thinking if you miss anything it's over. It's not keep playing and find the time. Have a great day, and happy new year. This is all just my opinion, good luck!
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal." ― Bruce Lee (I hope this quote it legit it helped me alot lol!)

 

[sleepingEB0]

Yes, I have a duolingo streak of 240ish days of italian.... even though only 3-4 minutes per day but every day... so I guess consistency is the key and probably a direction of what kind of bassist one wants to be.... thanks guys!!

240?

im at 1586. And I can't speak German lol

 

[micguy]

Personally, I think the plucking hand is what differentiates a good player from a great player. There's only so much you can do with the fretting hand, and once you sort of "plateu" (reaching a point where progress is slow, or maybe even unecessary), the plucking hand still has a long way to go for a lot of people.

I kinda agree - technique wise, there is a lot in the plucking hand that takes a long time to learn. But....if you include building an ear - learning to play so that the notes start to "fall under your fingers" - meaning you hear a line, and your fretting hand "knows" where to go to find those notes, that takes a very long time and a lot of practice to achieve.

 

[HardNHeavy]

when i was younger and just learning bass it wasn't a chore/hobby more of a passion, i worked and usually had time thanx to my 9-5 hrs. Working for family allowed me to gig or take a day off more often so i could just feed my need to play. In nyc, which is where our rehearsal room was, just 30 mins by train to midtown so everything centrally located.
Didn't have kids, ever!..so that was a plus, my wife was also a musician, we hardly saw each other with our schedules. Practiced everynight in my dinky apt. for yrs and that was the life, until domestication caught up and space was needed. As crazy and busy it was alot of fun, was more carefree and energetic then and always had the thirst to play 24/7,. . Now decades later, still at it just less energetic and more of a hobby, but always passionate about playing.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

If you're saying you are college age as "older", surprise, surprise, you really have more free time now than you will ever have until you hit your 50's or so and get the kids out of the house. The quickest gains will be made with an instructor. A good instructor.

 

[Pyrat]

I have been a music student for as long as I can recall. Piano and voice in pre-school, violin and tuba in regular school, electric bass (fretless and fretted) in post-graduate. I have had times in my life where the bass hung on me from sun-up to way past midnight and still I yearn to study. I practice when I can, where I can because it matters TO ME. No one else can create the drive and discipline required to keep going. But keep going I MUST. I pray you find the time you require to do what you WISH to do.

 

[kmon]

Anybody can find 30-60 mins a day. I think the real trick is having the focus and discipline to use that time optimally.

(that's the trick for me anyway)

 

[SubHuman]

Make sure a bass is readily available. I watch things like MNF or some mindless show and noodle around many times without even using an amp. You can practice runs, trilling, staccato, slides, etc.
You can easily get 45 minutes 3 or 4 times a week and it's no pressure fun.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Hello,
As the title suggests, how does or has anyone put the time/grind/hard work in when they have a full time job/uni for example? Just wondering if anyone who started after their teens or even early twenties, how do/did you put all the time and practice in in such situations? Especially when you go home in the evening and you are not completely focused, you're tired etc... Hope this makes kind of sense? Thanks!

I always found that playing energized me. Of course there was no internet or gaming systems or social media occupying large chunks of leisure time back then.

Then again, I never felt a need for marathon practice time, and that shorter more focused practice sessions more frequently provided better faster results. Made for a better family life as well.

Best wishes on finding a balance that works for you.

 

[JRA]

Hello, As the title suggests, how does or has anyone put the time/grind/hard work in when they have a full time job/uni for example? Just wondering if anyone who started after their teens or even early twenties, how do/did you put all the time and practice in in such situations? Especially when you go home in the evening and you are not completely focused, you're tired etc... Hope this makes kind of sense? Thanks!

i started music as a kid, so my experience is not like your situation, "when you start out older." but even in my old age, i reap the benefits of 'keeping at it' in order to improve something, or to just maintain, or to slow the process of 'losing ground'.

so, i'm with this group: make time and do it.

regular/routine or not: the more time you spend with your instrument = the closer you get to your version of playing it!

also, lessons* can be transformational in your overall experience of both the instrument and music in general. good luck!

* edit: playing with others affords its own "lessons."