What are you doing in the practice room now?

[EdwardofHuncote]

Lucky dog!

Hard to practice with all that pink smoke in there...

I actually have been wood-shedding quite a bit, but not because of the virus. My job as a Water Treatment Plant Operator is the definition of "essential service" so I've been on a special emergency type of staffing designed to keep the shifts and platoons of Operations Staff isolated from accidental cross infections if an outbreak were to happen. Translation: they been working my butt off!

No... my extra playing time is a rebound from that dad-gum cervical fusion surgery a while back. I lost 100 lbs in the aftermath, and with it, all my strength and ability to stand up and play a gig. I've worked my way back to a good couple hours now, and my chops are pretty sharp from the workout.

Jeannie is just a welcome distraction anytime.

 

[Spidey2112]

Of course she is...

 

[IamGroot]

Revisiting Oscar Stagnaro's Latin Bass Book.
It's a lot easier now and feels natural at tempo or faster.

 

[LBS-bass]

I have to say that the time I'm spending in the woodshed is beginning to pay off pretty well. I've taken on the task of becoming more familiar with standard notation in the bass clef; I haven't read much since I was a little kid playing the violin, so it's been a lot like starting from scratch, except I already know the basics and how to play, I am just not used to having to relate those things to notes on a page/fingers on a fretboard, so it's kind of like learning to reconnect two things that I have some knowledge of but no facility for putting them together.

It was frustrating at first to go through simple exercises because I know I can play those exercises well enough if I just hear them and play them by ear, but I have to remind myself that the reading is the point, not the playing.

I'm starting to get up to speed again and feel confident enough now in my reading that I've ordered a couple of more advanced theory books that I'm also going to start digging my teeth into. Can't hurt. I'm also practicing the piano again.

It will be interesting to see how motivated I am to continue studying once things open up and we're all playing again together. I think I will probably want to continue.

 

[Spidey2112]

Just watched Bob and Doug leaving Mother Earth, transitioning to the ISS...

... no amount of personal practice could ever top what I just saw.

I guess we all are hosers, eh?

 

[LBS-bass]

Good luck to them. Hope they return safely!

 

[IamGroot]

I do what all mad scientists do in the basement.

 

[Lownote38]

Revisiting Bach, but on a different bass every day of the week. I have 7 basses and am rotating them so I am used to all of them. This week it's my '88 MIJ Fender Precision (my first bass I recently re-acquired).

 

[Gustopher]

I am trying to learn how to properly play Rio by Duran Duran. With all the syncopation it gets really tricky for me, can't quite keep the pace up.

 

[Clark Dark]

I'm taking time to play with my 3 multi effects unit to personalize them more for me.
Zoom B9.1ut

Roland Me6B

Roland Me8B

I had been using the single effect for each control switch but I've been working on some combinations and saving them.
I'm also learning how to program my drum machines.

 

[Whale guy]

Yes. I try to adhere to a rigid and strict practice routine. Usually I have two sessions a day -- at least, an hour in the morning (and I get up an hour early to ensure I get this time in most days) and at least and hour in the evening (if I'm not playing out).

The morning session is based around the keys. I used to work on a key a week, however, this year I decided to work on a key a month to enable me to do a deep dive. This month is dedicated to the key of E. I do all of the basic stuff like scales and arpeggios (multiple octave and fully extended), inversions, different fingerings. etc. But primarily focus on chord progressions within the key, technique, groove, articulations and so on.

The evening session is all song related. Working on new songs, working on the set list, creating new music, etc.

Impressive!

 

[James_E]

Every morning, working on Ariane Cap's bass course. I'm on week 9. Sometimes I take more than one week per week. I've owned this course for a while but now I've got 7am - 8:15am most mornings dedicated to it, so making good progress. I've started watching the week 10 videos to get ready for starting actual work on them this weekend.

I spend about 10 minutes per day on "Bass Hanon" (the book) stuff as well, and working on some Dream Theater riffs from Metropolis Pt 1.

Band is rehearsing every two weeks now, as things like rehearsal studios in Ontario are opening up (with limited use and new rules), so evenings I'll keep on top of existing tunes scheduled for rehearsal as well as work on new ones we are adding.

And if I'm hanging out watching TV, I'll try to have a bass in my hands and work on the Ariane Cap exercises of scales and notenames, to memorize the fretboard.

I've been thinking about getting one of the talkingbass sight reading lessons, or subscribing to Joe Hubbard at some point.

 

[sonojono]

Well I’m learning guitar which may sound sacrilege in a bass forum! But hold onto your Ban Gavels!!! I’m also sight reading off my old charts when I was in school for Bass Guitar studies learning at least 3 scales/chords a week in constant repetition without any outside distractions. I took out the TV in my room, left my phone on airplane mode and because of that it has helped tremendously in my practicing/studying time.

 

[ComesATime]

Honestly, just playing. I've attempted to dabble with theory many times, but it just isn't sticking. I find that I either know or do a lot of things in practice without knowing the technical terms or theory behind it, however, I know that my playing would be more fluid if I had that solid basis where it was intuitive and I don't need to take a minute to familiarize myself.

I like listening to songs, playing the melody on bass, and then working out the bass parts. I find it improves my ear, and figuring out the melody is great for learning about the relationships to the bass in the song.

My guitarist is working on a folk-y solo project, and he asked me to do some bass. The frustrating part is that the guitar work is a bit busy and often doubles the melody, leaving not much bass space. I've found it's probably just to just follow the roots and outline the melody, butt I feel like it's lacking creativity.

 

[Bassist59]

I am trying to learn how to properly play Rio by Duran Duran. With all the syncopation it gets really tricky for me, can't quite keep the pace up.

Now that is a bass line! It would be amazing to pull that off live with a band. Every time I play that song, I wish the bass was up a little louder. That guy knew what he was doing!

Good luck with that song! One of the best bass parts of all time, IMO.

 

[Rob112]

Been doing two octave scale drills switching patterns, trying to learn to sweep arpeggio but it’s coming slow, and working through the bass parts of the band intervals most recent cd which also is somewhat hard but I think it’s helping me become better.

love the thread. Getting ideas from everyone here.