What are you actually practising after x years?

[Robsco]

When I see or hear people talking about practising scales and arpeggios, a part of me is thinking "ok, but what about when you know them inside out?".

Maybe my naivity doesn't yet know the full scope of all the wondefull combinations, etc.

Once you know the fretboard inside-out, upside-down, and you know the Major scales, the 3 minors, pentatonic, blues. What are you then practising.

OK, modes.

But then what?

In your mind are you still "practising" scales, arpeggios, etc. or is then just a "basic" warm-up for 5 minutes?

I'm a programmer by trade, I don't know anymore programming instructions than I did 10 years ago, but my experience does have me applying those instructions in different ways.

Is it the same with music, or is there actually/physically constantly "new" things to actually learn? Rather than just applying what you already know, in different ways.

I was reading some other blog posts last night about how often people practice, and seeing things like "3 hours everyday" had me thinking you must be a seriously professional musician or scholar.

 

[Mushroo]

I tend to think of learning scales as a binary function: either you know your scales or you don't, and once you know your scales, there's "diminishing returns" benefit to practicing them.

After 29 years, the bulk of my practice time is spent on songs. Preferably with other musicians.

 

[bikeplate]

I literally dont practice at all anymore. Most weeks i play my shows and dont touch a bass until the next show

 

[Cheez]

After XX+ years? My tone and my intonation.

The question reminds me of what the legendary cellist Pablo Casals said when he was asked why he still practiced at the age of 90 - “I think I’m making progress”.

 

[MrLenny1]

Taste, tone and time.

 

[inanimate_carb]

Transcribing parts from any and all instruments that interest me and learning tunes. You never master that stuff and there are always surprises.

Instead of scales or arpeggios, I work on triad pairs, performed up and down in all inversions like horn players do. You can’t do it mindlessly and the exercise presents fingering that isn’t normally encountered. Contrary to what you may read or infer here in TB, when people get together to play music, they’re not playing modes and arpeggios to entertain, so it’s important to look outside of them!

 

[lz4005]

Songs for the next paying gig.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Same here -- songs I'll be using.

 

[Rev J]

I actually loop chords/different chord voicings and practice scales against them to hear the relationships, tension and release points etc. after 27 years of playing.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[Torrente Cro]

Drums

 

[BassChuck]

Scales (all kinds, and there are many) arpeggios, intervals are the fundamental parts of music. Why wouldn't you make them a part of every practice session? I've been playing for over 40 years. There's always something new to learn with the fundamentals.

Before sporting events I see players doing jumping jacks and stretching. But I've never seen that in a game. Still, they see value in their fundamentals.

As for practicing 3 or more hours a day. That has never been a problem for me. (you need to build up to that though) People outside of music think that is discipline and are amazed at the focus. The real question isn't discipline, it how in the world do you plan your day so you can have that kind of time?

 

[SteveCS]

Other than using exercises to keep muscle condition and stamina, it's the details that get most of my attention. Details like timing/synchronisation, dynamics, muting, touch and intonation get regular attention, then parts for new songs.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Been playing 30+ years. Due to life, other than rehearsals, I generally have 15-45 minutes a day to play. In order:

1. Learn new songs if needed for bands.
2. Scales and arpeggios - good foundation to work on all technique for both hands, as well as shifting and position playing. FWIW, Ron Carter says that other than playing, that's all he does. Seems to work for him.
3. Go through a few old songs if have not been played at gig or rehearsal in a while, to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. This includes songs not in current playlist.
4. Try to play melodies from songs I know to work on ear training.

 

[JRA]

what the legendary cellist Pablo Casals said when he was asked why he still practiced at the age of 90 - “I think I’m making progress”.

^

 

[RustyAxe]

I play out every week, and have been playing bass since 1967. I don't practice for the sake of practicing, and haven't for decades. I do practice when a new song is introduced to the setlist(s).

 

[NullPorch]

I skipped normal scales and keys or whatever and just went straight to learning the modes and general rules for chording (major vs minor vs dominant, inversions, suspensions, etc). I'm working on getting this to be truly natural where I'm focusing on the sound I want and imagine and playing that instead of knowing intellectually what my options are and just picking randomly and seeing what sounds nice.

I'm also trying to get more fluid in building complete modal systems for any scale. For example, learning how to play a standard blues scale modally without having to think so hard about where all the notes are. This is where knowing how pitches are related by intervals is incredibly important.

Finally, I'm also working on how to bend or break the rules above in tasteful ways and build my own scales and whatnot.


Oh, and in a non-intellectual/music-theory thing that's more of just a practical skill: Singing while playing.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

An old saying applies here. Use or lose it.
Doc Severinsen once said in an interview that between gigging and practice, he played 8 - 10 hours a day.
And, do you think pro athletes spend their off seasons laying around watching TV?

 

[hwy96music]

There are a variety of ways to play scales (and modes) using various patterns that move through the scale (broken thirds, fifths, first four notes, etc). Doing with with a metronome that beats on 2/4 or better yet just 4 to maintain your time sense makes things more interesting. Then playing the same patters but as 1/8 notes, triplets, sixteenth notes. Lots of ways to keep it challenging even after years of playing them. Also say the note names or note functions out loud as you play them and play these patterns from the lowest note on your instrument, to the highest (in that scale) and back, but come back using a different path.

If that still bores you then contact me I have lots more.

 

[Spidey2112]

Lots of RUSH... maybe I should put scales and arpeggios on my list of things to work on, but that would take time away from playing lots of RUSH...

 

[hwy96music]

Sorry, did not really answer the original question as I was trying to address the issue of making scale practice more interesting/challenging.

I try to spend time each day on some foundational bass things like groove (right now it is 16th note syncopation) and then applied scales/arpeggios using specific songs I might be working on. Currently I am exploring the pentatonic scale (using it in unconventional ways) and using chord tones from substituted chords instead of the written ones to get more melodic and interesting lines. So maybe 1 hour of this kind of stuff daily, and the rest of the time learning songs for gigs.