What are you actually practising after x years?

[stu42]

I mainly work on ear training - by putting on some music that I'm familiar with but don't know how to play. The music starts and I start jamming along and trying to follow the music by ear. I start off mainly just trying to follow the song as it's played but as it goes on and I get more comfortable with it I'll improvise fills here and there.

I don't really worry about trying to figure out exactly what is happening on the recording but am more interested in figuring out something that fits as I'm discovering how to play the song.

The key is to not play something (especially fills) unless you hear it in your head and feel that it fits. Most western pop/rock music is pretty easy to figure out as the chord patterns are often fairly predictable and well-used but it's still decent ear training. For a greater challenge I'll try more difficult music.

This is less like practice and more like pure playing but I find it fun and good ear training - which is way more fun to do than practicing scales. That said, in the meantime you're putting into practice all of the stuff you've learned over time but doing it in a "real" musical situation.

 

[peterg23]

I practice feel, tones, grooves, patterns and how to click with the drummer I’ve seen many bass players play modes and scales very fast with no groove or feel. Not impressed.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

.

 

[Stuart001]

BassChuck: "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?"

I take my hat off to you Mr BassChuck! You've hit it right on the head. One of the simplest but most profound ideas I've come across about practice.

 

[Ian Lewis]

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.

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.

But then what? (Wooten says) You've done Notes. Now focus on Groove, Articulation, Technique, Emotion, Dynamics, Tempo, Tone, Phrasing, Space, Listening. You could spend 40 hours a week on those!

 

[Groove Doctor]

BassChuck: "The real question isn't discipline, it's how in the world do you plan your day so you can have that kind of time?"
.... One of the simplest but most profound ideas I've come across about practice.

Our DESIRE has to be stronger than our inertia or our resistance to change. Planning your day is much easier the hungrier you are for the result.

 

[csc2048b]

1. standards (including head)
   
2. bach cello suites
3. slapping more drum patterns
   
4. double thumbing: making no progress since i met victor wooten in the early 90s some things just aren't learnable.
5. steve harris bass lines

 

[stu42]

But then what? (Wooten says) You've done Notes. Now focus on Groove, Articulation, Technique, Emotion, Dynamics, Tempo, Tone, Phrasing, Space, Listening. You could spend 40 hours a week on those!

Well put. Practice musicality and expression.

Ultimately, I guess everyone has to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are and work on those things. But, generally, for me...I think practicing scales is one of the least interesting things to do. In bass aren't we supposed to focus on chord-tones anyway? So, if you wanted to do that type of thing I think arpeggios would be more useful. Learning some cool turn-arounds would be good for improving your vocabulary. But even then you have to be careful of over-using those types of things and playing a lot of standard licks - even though they are useful at times.

 

[Shanannigan]

At 15 years my main focus has become expression. Essentially focusing in on very minute details regarding tone, timing, and movement, trying to ensure that my intentions are coming through clearly in my playing. I'm pretty much done learning new techniques, at this point it's more about refining and being anal about little details. The Bach Cello Suites have been the best practice material that I've found, my current goal is to be able to play all of them.

 

[csc2048b]

cool turn-arounds

priceless stuff - will elevate the dullest I-IV-V to something pleasing to listen to.

 

[ryco]

After 45 years rarely sit and run scales or mode scales anymore. But did put in a lot of time on that exercise for years and years. Both straight up and down two octave and in intervals (3rd,4th, 5th, 6th, 7ths).
I have two practice sessions - one early morning; one afternoon. Most of my early morning is spent with headphones playing fretless - 90% of being focused on intonation. The first 15 minutes I just play - think up a line in my head and find it on the bass and work with it. Maybe write a little rhythmic groove or work it into a chord progression or transpose it through different keys. If it’s worth keeping I’ll transcribe it.
Then I’ll usually spend about 20+ minutes going through an instruction book. Lately going through Chuck Shur’s Improvisation Method for the fourth time. I lied - he has A LOT of scale exercises, concentrating on two octave studies. Just finished an old jazz book given to me “Patterns for Jazz” by Jerry Cocker. It’s in treble clef, so it’s a good reading exercise. I have collected a ton of reading material over the years I can go through.
Then I have some Aebersold exercise workbooks, which are like “Music Minus One” for jazz where one can turn of the bass track and play to drums and piano. I’ll go through a couple of tracks everyday for awhile; ii-V7-I books, blues books, Dom v7, keys, progressions. That probably takes a half an hour.
Then stream in a classic jazz internet radio station called Slacker and just play along with whatever comes up. This station plays a lot of classic big band, standards, and bop; but also plays a some newer fusion and modern latin stuff. This is what I love doing most anymore: is hearing, interpreting, and playing as fast as the songs go by. Really focusing on hearing the changes on chord progressions cold. This is my end game anymore.
With anytime left over I’ll go to YouTube and run through songs my rock band is learning or playing. Anything I need to tighten up on. This all amounts to about two hours.

In the afternoon i go out to the garage and fire up the big amps (2 Sunn rigs or the GK). I spend about 40+ minutes playing and working on slap funk. Not that there is ANY market for it where I live and it's kind of passé — but I just love the hell out of the style. It is SO FUN! Have an old Roland drum machine and run through some slap books or mostly just make up grooves.
Then I work on playing with a pick. I just started this a couple of years ago and it’s a lot of fun! Turn on the iPod and play whatever comes up. I’m kinda old so there’s a lot of 60-70s pop/rock/soul, and 80s metal and wave/punk, and 90s-2000s indie alt/“grunge”, so I just cold play songs as they come up. Work out all the difficult parts. Usually 1 1/2 - 2+ hrs.That’s pretty much what I do every day.

Also spend a couple of hours learning piano in two daily sessions about an hour apiece. And sometimes work on learning guitar, but that instrument hasn’t really drawn me in as much as I thought it would.

 

[stu42]

Dang, ryco....that sounds like a hell of a great way to spend a day!! Are you retired? Or is music your main/only gig?

Jealous!!

 

[ryco]

Yes, I'm pretty much retired. And yes, through the 70s-80s music was pretty much my main gig in between and along side day jobs. Was a time one could make a pretty decent living playing live music. But even when working regular day jobs I would get up pretty early in the morning to allot for daily couple of hours of practice before having to go to work. It's really a GREAT way to begin a new day! lol Like someone above mentioned [para] you have to want to make the time. Some call it discipline - always felt it was more a passion.

 

[BrotherMister]

You can apply stuff in different ways all the time.

Have you practised every possible chord quality and all the available extensions with in?

Major, Minor, Augment, Diminished, Maj7, Min7, Maj7#5, 7#5, Dom7, Dim7, m7b6, m(maj)7, Sus4, 7sus4. 9, Maj7#11, min9, 7b9, 7b13 and so on and so on and so on...

Play them in all in every key and all inversions. Ascending to the highest available note/descending to the lowest etc

Then you have permutations on how to do play them.
1357
3571
7135
1537
3751 etc etc etc

Do that over two octaves opens things up even more.

You can play them with an approach tones a semitone below/A scale tone above/a double chromatic below/double chromatic above/an approach note on only a specific chord tone and so on, and so on.

You can play diatonic arpeggios in all keys/modes. Play them ascending/descending/ascending up one and descending down the next/descending down one and ascending up the next. Then you can do that with diatonic 7ths.

With scales/modes you can play them in broken 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, 10ths etc ascending in groupings of 3,4,5,6,7 etc

You can play them going round cycles of 4ths, 5ths, Major 3rds, minor 3rds and through chord progressions.

It's a rather endless amount of possibilities and then when you introduce different rhythms and time to the equation you end up with even bigger pool of stuff to practise and ideas to draw on. You can mix and match from all of the above.

Dig deeper into this stuff you begin to realise how little we any of us actually knows and how much we can still learn from the most basic of material.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Ron Carter says his practice routine is scales - seems to work for him.

I go through major scales in all 12 keys, sometimes minor as well, then three octave chromatic scales. Works to warm up and work on position shifting. Then I pick songs to work on, either bass parts or melody lines. I try not to fall into habits, and use different positions. I think about it when practicing, so when performing, I don't have to.

 

[ZenG]

Anything and everything.