What is your practice routine?

[spanndrew]

I'm curious what all you TBer's do for your daily practice. Personally, I start out with some stretches, about 15 minutes worth of warm ups and then go into my normal practice. My usual practice is about an hour a day and I go through a few different categories that rotate daily; like composing walking bass lines, practice at staying with the groove on pieces I've already learned, scales/arpeggios/pentatonics, memorizing the fret board, tapping, and reading more challenging pieces. I'll usually split up the categories so that I get to each at least twice a week, and sometimes practice does go over an hour. Anyway, can't wait to hear from you guys.

 

[devinp17]

I definitely don't have a "routine"... I just practice whenever I want and just do whatever. I usually just play a bunch of songs, either with my iPod or just the bass by itself.

 

[tangentmusic]

I definitely don't have a "routine"... I just practice whenever I want and just do whatever. I usually just play a bunch of songs, either with my iPod or just the bass by itself.

Same here.

 

[spaz21387]

not real routine I practice when ever I can squeeze It in. I just jam out to my bands songs playing along with my stereo

 

[Mushroo]

My practice regimen these days consists of singing along with the radio in the car. Bass comes out of its case for gigs.

 

[Liam Wald]

If I will be playing with a band that day I run through the set list and just play verse, chorus, bridge of each song before going to the show.
If I am not playing with a band that day I spend anywhere from 2-5 hours cruising YouTube and playing along while drinking beer.

 

[Luke19Boarder]

If I'm sitting watching TV, I'm usually noodling around on my bass/guitar/drums. If I'm listening to music, I usually try to work out various parts of the song (bassline, vocal melody, lead guitar riffs, etc.) within once or twice through the song.

 

[basschanges]

run through standards, walk and take solos. Practice some ii,V ideas both solo and walking, slap practice, read through a couple of charts on upright and electric, stop practicing when I begin to feel fatigue (3-4 hours).

 

[rtav]

I have two different types of practice -the daily one (which, depending on my household obligations, can run from half an hour to an hour), and my weekend practices, which run 3 to 4 hours each (or more) on Saturdays and Sundays.

In both cases I start with a song list. I begin warming up with some Porcupine Tree (PT) stuff.

If it's a weekday daily practice, I'll finish about 2 or 3 shorter fun PT songs and then switch to our bands newest originals and newest covers, or learn them (depending on if the song is still being written or learned). That's usually all the time I have on weekdays, and that's the critical stuff.

For weekend long practices, I start off with PT then go to Rush or ELP, and get progressively more difficult until I hit the Dream Theater/Liquid Tension stuff, and then I go through my band's originals, then go back over the very difficult stuff in sections, repeating the hard stuff over and over (sometimes slowing stuff down with an app I use called iRehearse and repeating it a dozen times slowly), play through the most difficult sections/riffs, anything that didn't go smoothly during the practice to that point. For instance, this past weekends 'most difficult stuff' was an original with a four-finger right hand finger picking intro and Dream Theater's Metropolis Part I, going over and over the bass solo, and the section immediately following the guitar/keyboard solo (riding that F#!) until the end.

I don't really go over scales or anything very often (unless I'm playing something in a song and I want to try an easier fingering). I do go over techniques like tapping and chording in between songs, or if I'm finishing up a weekend practice and noodling around a bit. I will sometimes put on a drum track and jam along just for the fun of it, but that's it.

I also record all of my practices and rehearsals with my bands through an iRig into my iPhone and listen back later to see what I'm doing - what works and what doesn't. I'll often take something I'm hearing there and work on it during a weekend practice, or, if it's short and critical, a weekday rehearsal where time is tight.

I'm sure my practice routines could be improved upon enormously with a more disciplined approach to practice (scales, etc.), it's just that I have limited time and a lot of difficult material to cover, so I have to make choices as to what to work on, and I'd rather spend my time working on a difficult part to a difficult song.

 

[pacojas]

i noodle every day for hours. sometimes i get carried away and it's 4am, suddenly! so much to learn with bass, drums, keys, & guitars sitting in my Man Cave.

 

[Asher S]

First I place the bass on a padded stand, and sit exactly 4.5 feet away in the lotus position while deep breathing at a tempo of 60. I consider approaching the bass if and when I sense it is receptive to being played. Usually this only takes about 45 minutes. Some days the instrument is clearly blocked and I need to just walk away.


Seriously though, I do 2 things:

• I play along with mp3s of tunes I really like, as well as tunes we'll be playing at our next gig.
• I play out as often as possible.

 

[stratovani]

I play along with MP3s just about all the time nowadays. I run the player through my amp, connect a pair of headphones, and play along with whatever come up. I'll usually play for a half-hour or so, then put things away for a while.

 

[xUptheIronsx]

I run scales first
then do some improv walking stuff mostly to a metronome
I play along to mp3's that I know - usually randomly chosen out of my playlists
I run all of the originals form my band (about 52 right now)
I work on mp3's or stylistic stuff that i am learning - working on Latin stuff now

usually am doing this while watching tv...ir I should say, the tv is on in the background while I am doing this

 

[crucislancer]

When I practice I usually run through some scales to the metronome to start, then some improv with the drum patterns/metronome on my Korg Pandora, then I work on anything that needs the most work (new song, parts that are giving me issues, things I need to tighten up, old song that's returning to the set). If I still have time left then I usually do more improv or play along to some songs on the mp3 player, usually by setting the player on shuffle and playing along with whatever comes up.

I don't do this every day, unless I have a gig or recording coming up.

 

[petrus61]

I never practice after 12pm. When I have songs I need to learn for an upcoming gig, I'll usually have a very big cup of coffee and run through them either before or right after I get my daughter on the school bus, and only on non-work days. I find I have the most creative/musical energy in the very early morning hours after I wake up. Plus, it frees up the rest of my day for more pressing matters.