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The PRACTICE Journal

#22
What I try to do is put in 2-3 hours practice before work. That means going to sleep pretty early. If I can't do that I'll put in 30mins after work and do anything up to 12 hours on a Sat or Sun. Doing a long practice session I'll turn on the TV or movie as a distraction to avoid getting bored. Boredom can slow progress down and make it feel difficult. Especially if there's no specific reward involved. That's my experience of it.
 
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#26
Krisfield said:
What I try to do is put in 2-3 hours practice before work. That means going to sleep pretty early. If I can't do that I'll put in 30mins after work and do anything up to 12 hours on a Sat or Sun. Doing a long practice session I'll turn on the TV or movie as a distraction to avoid getting bored. Boredom can slow progress down and make it feel difficult. Especially if there's no specific reward involved. That's my experience of it.
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This is just my opinion. Far be it from me to tell anyone how they should practice. However.....

.....the above does not seem like focused practice to me. I think it was Carol Kaye who said that an hour of focused practice per day is better than many hours of unfocused practice.

I fail to see how "practicing" while watching a movie can be beneficial in any way. :thumbsdown:
 
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#27
fearceol said:
This is just my opinion. Far be it from me to tell anyone how they should practice. However.....

.....the above does not seem like focused practice to me. I think it was Carol Kaye who said that an hour of focused practice per day is better than many hours of unfocused practice.

I fail to see how "practicing" while watching a movie can be beneficial in any way. :thumbsdown:
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I do much better practicing with something on in the background. It's not to focus on, it's to break the monotony and give yourself little breaks while practicing.
 
#28
Gopherbassist said:
I do much better practicing with something on in the background. It's not to focus on, it's to break the monotony and give yourself little breaks while practicing.
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Practice and learning can be a lot of things but, even after 40 years, monotonous isn't one of them. I certainly make best progress when I can give 100% focus.
 
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#29
Practiced for 30 minutes earlier in the day, the session felt awful and that's why I stopped at 30 minutes. I wanted to get up to an hour, but didn't feel like practicing all day. Finally before bed I forced myself to sit down and do it. I put in another 30-45 minutes and it was a much easier session.
 
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#30
Gopherbassist said:
Practiced for 30 minutes earlier in the day, the session felt awful and that's why I stopped at 30 minutes. I wanted to get up to an hour, but didn't feel like practicing all day. Finally before bed I forced myself to sit down and do it. I put in another 30-45 minutes and it was a much easier session.
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You seem to give the impression that practice time, rather than practice quality, is more important. Terms like ..." I put in..." seem to imply that the more time you "endure" by practicing, the more beneficial it will be. I'm afraid it does not work that way. If you feel awful, then practice becomes something like a chore, like leaving out the trash.

In my opinion, if you had waited until you felt a little better, and then.. ."put in"... just fifteen minutes of focused practice for that day, it would have been much more beneficial to you on your bass learning journey.

If you find the need to 'break the monotony" of practicing then the chances are that you are not getting much benefit out of it. Better to break it down into smaller sessions, like perhaps fifteen minutes two or three times a day.

Here is an old Talk Bass thread on this subject :

C

Thread 'How much should I practice?'

I've been paying for about 3 months now everyday. I research bass playing a lot and I've heard about most beginners like me only practicing like 45-60 minutes a day. I practice at least 3-4 hours a day. I mean it's common sense to practice a lot, but I'd just like some advice or thoughts. Thanks!
 
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#38
Last night, under two hours, I've accomplished the following:

1) Practiced some of my funk band's songs for an upcoming gig. I think I've polished them.
2) Practiced two jazz songs I've been wanting to nail. Maybe just 90% polished for the first song, fully polished for the second one.
3) Practiced the head and solo of another jazz song. The head is fine but the solo is probably just 80% polished.
 
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#40
scrubhelmet said:
Last night, under two hours, I've accomplished the following:

1) Practiced some of my funk band's songs for an upcoming gig. I think I've polished them.
2) Practiced two jazz songs I've been wanting to nail. Maybe just 90% polished for the first song, fully polished for the second one.
3) Practiced the head and solo of another jazz song. The head is fine but the solo is probably just 80% polished.
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Did all of these again last night, but I think the solo of the jazz song in 3) is already 90% polished. Also tried to practice walking bass lines in some standards.

I think I practiced for two hours and a half.
 
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