What are you actually practising after x years?

[interp]

I still practice mostly the same things I did 40 years ago. A very wise language teacher once told me that you don’t really know a word until you’ve used it in conversation 10,000 times.

I think the same applies to music.

 

[Nephilymbass]

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.

Most of my practicing these days is playing along to music either off a cd, my huge iTunes librairy or YouTube. I do ear training excersizes.’like I’ll pull up a video on YouTube and try figure the music out by ear. I play 6 string bass these days and it’s actually pretty fun to work out piano parts on 6 string bass.

But no I don’t practice 3 hours a day anymore. I def did in the early years. I’ve been playing 22 years now. And yeah if you want to be a virtuoso go for it but I play simple music and have done things like worked on various slapping techniques for a year at a time only to have 30 seconds of it on an album. I think the biggest thing for me at this point is to maintain hand strength because my originals band is spread out of an hour and a half radius so we might only rehearse a couple times a month but when we do it’s usually a brutal 8 hour day of playing. And I’ve started playing some cover gigs where I have to play 3-4 hours worth of material. So sometimes I’ll literally sit on the couch with my bass not even plugged in and just noodle around to keep my hands in shape.

Ill also add that I think one of the biggest mistakes advanced players make is as they get better they stop listening to music as often. I made that mistaken a few years back and now I am listening to music at every opportunity. And different music also. There’s so much to learn by listening to different styles of music.

 

[gln1955]

I practiced scales when I was learning guitar as a teenager. It was definitely helpful and necessary. I have never played scales on a bass. I don't see the point. I learn new songs that the band will do, and if there's nothing new I need to work on, I'll practice songs in different positions on the fretboard. I'm always working on timing and playing cleanly.

 

[cnltb]

What are you actually practising after x years?
Articulation, tone, reading, technique fresh up, re-learn forgotten repertoire, new transcriptions etc etc...

 

[brianrost]

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

Yes, I still practice them to work on the various fingerings in various positions, esp. the arpeggios.

Keep in mind that when I'm out playing gigs I'm not using every scale and arpeggio in all 12 keys on a regular basis. So I keep shedding. I'd like to be able to play them faster, I'd like to be able to play them better on DB with the bow.

 

[sawzalot]

New things all the time. Often I'll start listening to other instruments. Melody lines for guitar are different than vocal melodies, etc. Then I'll get into a different playing technique--for a while it was finger funk, then it was double thumbing, etc. Then I'll work on melodic devices. Then I'll get obsessed with a particular player's work--often it's not a bassist--and binge-listen to all their music. Then I'll get back to fundamentals because that's what everything is based on. Scales, arpeggios, working out with the metronome. It's just learning about music, and there's always something to learn.

 

[Fat Freddy]

I'm practicing practicing.....

Not very good at it....

 

[engedi1]

when I practice, it is mostly bach cello suites and James Jamerson bass lines. Always something to be learned there. I've been playing for 25 years.

 

[Groove Doctor]

After 29 years I practise:

- singing while playing (most time spent).
- transcribing new songs
- memorising songs for upcoming gigs
- walking bass lines over jazz charts
- sightreading notated bass parts (perishable skill)
- learn melodies, soloing
- noodling/ exploring new ideas for current songs
- revise relevant theory/scales for songs above (least time spent).

 

[Groove Doctor]

GOALS.... it all depends on your music goals.

I'm currently working towards a repertoire of songs I can lead sing while playing DB, mostly Jazz tunes.

Goals + Plan + Action = Results

 

[RichardW]

Mostly I just work on learning songs, but in my perfect world I'd spend an hour a day on theory, scales, arpeggios, and technique, and then an hour on songs.

Finally, some words of wisdom from Allen Iverson.

 

[Slough Feg Bass]

I practice whatever songs are current in the set that I am not 100% on.
Sometimes I will practice a scale from whatever book I have laying around.
an old Rush song.
an old Iron Maiden song.
a jazz standard song, really slow, then really fast.
sometimes a ToP tune. Rocco has endless cool parts to figure out.
maybe turn on the radio and try and cop whatever is playing. Sometimes I will figure out the vocal part on bass and try to play the bass part and the vocal part at the same time.

which reminds me, I better go practice!

 

[mikewalker]

Precision! can I do "X" ( tricky cross-fretboard 3-octave arpeggio, etc) perfectly cleanly and evenly @140BPM?
OK... How about 180BPM? How about 200BPM? How about confining a riff I usually do across four strings, to only two? (&etc)

 

[40Hz]

It's split pretty equally into two categories for me.

First category is the technical stuff such as rhythmic patterns, dexterity exercises, string and position shifting, scales, intervals, chord tones, etc. I suffered a medical issue three years ago that moved me three-fourths of the way back to the starting gate. So I had to go back to it with a "beginner's mind" as the Zen folk call it. Right now I'm about at 50-60% of where I used to be prior to the incident. But I keep working and chipping away at it. Each day brings small incremental improvements and progress has been steady. I can play well enough to hold my own in a band or on project again, for which I'm grateful already. The next challenge is to see if I can get the rest of it back - and hopefully even surpass it eventually.

The second category of practice is to keep working on being able to immediately play anything I can hear (or hear in my head) without having to figure it out first. I'm shooting for going straight from the mind to the fingers without fumbling around or taking a side trip through music theory to get there. Think it - play it. Period. And so far that's coming along pretty nicely.

 

[fishdreams]

tone. long notes. intonation. Playing the same patterns in different locations and fingerings; for example take a 2 octave major scale and play through all horizontal and vertical fretboard and fingering variations and combinations thereof. Interval jumps within scales. Arpeggios all over the neck and in each inversion. transcribing a bass part. Sightreading: Bach, jazz solos, etudes. Working out new soundscapes with my pedals. right hand technique. String skipping.

Right now it is playing through All The things You Are, and stay in 1 position (the 6th position, the 12th position, the open string position) solving everything with halftone shifts, while not repeating the same pattern in 1 position through multiple choruses.

The better i'm getting, the more there is to practice.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I also didn’t mention this but check out some of Janek Gwizdalas books. Great stuff for experienced players.

 

[gregmon79]

It's not a science to me. Never has been. I play more nowadays just to hear my tone and my bass. I do practice too but a lot of times I plug in and just play whatever, see if I can write some new stuff for the band. Other than that I don't think I've "practiced" and actually sat down with some lessons for real in years. I always mean to change that but don't. Just like today, I read that other thread about modes. It made me go on the net on and off today printing out lessons for scales. Will I go home and practice them. Probably. A little. Then I'll put them down and wont think of them for months. Or maybe I wont. Who knows?!

 

[4dog]

I' just doing maintenance...so I don' forget what I already know...takes about an hr tops....and that's IF I do it at all...I'm basically a really talented and lazy bub.

 

[Scott Lynch]

After almost 20 years of playing BG and about 15 playing DB - Aside from learning tunes for my wedding/dance band, I mostly practice Classical DB, beginning level drum set and beginner/intermediate piano.

 

[MJ_Sotti]

Right hand.