What is your practice routine?

[BishopHastur]

I'm a firm believer in osmosis, but it's not really a believer in me.

 

[eldorado2001]

My practice 'method' is to first work on the songs my band will play at the next gig, then work on them some more. If I have extra time I'll put on a record and play along with it. I view gigs as paid practice, too.

 

[dalkowski]

Somewhere, I read that Anthony Jackson said "If you keep your skills up, there is a place for you. If you don't, then there isn't."

Applies to every profession or trade.

 

[Acoustic356]

I was doing some good natured teasing because that was his signature line... lol

 

[Kipp Harrington]

I am curious, what is your practice routine like? Is it focused, is it noodling? Are you happy with where you are? Do you set goals? Are you happy with your playing? When you finally have 20-30 minutes to pick up the bass what do you do?

My music director recently said he noticed some subtle changes in my playing that really improved the overall feel of the band.

Little did he know, that came from 2 months of drilling small things to make a big difference.

• Really locking into note duration
• Changing my attack on the strings
• Changing from using the tip of my fretting hand fingers to the pad based on the song
• Left hand vibrato (light vibrato)
• And a few other boring things

So... what are you working on?

These are all great "drills" that some bassists probably don't even think about (including myself). The old adage, "it's the little things that make a difference" rings loud and clear here. I have been consciously practicing/incorporating string muting in order to play as cleanly as possible. I will definitely add some of the above-mentioned practice drills in my playing. Yeah, they're boring, but if a person gets these techniques down, they will be a noticeably better bass player. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kipp Harrington]

"It's really easy to pick up the bass, play stuff you know and call it "practice".

I almost fell into this trap early on in my bass playing. Not anymore... I have to welcome a challenge. When I do, It's so much more satisfying!

 

[arbiterusa]

The band usually picks four tunes for the next practice, so I learn them - figure out the main parts, chart 'em out. We practice weekly, get new charts afterwards. We gig weekly.

I don't practice bass as such and haven't for years. I get all the different/new/technique/challenge work I can use from the new songs/band rehearsals/gigs. My "practice work", to improve a set of musical skills these days is for drums.

 

[blakelock]

practice is important to me and ive clearly seen my skills and enjoyment increase with it.
i do two things.
- main practice is in the morning (~6-7am!!) kids are still asleep, wife goes to work early, it's my time.
warm up with a randomly chosen garageband beat
work on writing bass parts for original band...adding vocals
learn covers
maybe a bit of scales, arpeggios, techniques stuff

- at night, when kids are taking baths
i only have ~10-15 minutes, but i've learned that this is enough to focus on one specific thing.
i pick something and work on it for ~a month. then choose something else.
for a while, i worked on slap technique.
right now i'm practicing ALL the arpeggios from within the first degree of the scale. then i move to the second mode and work on all those arpeggios. then move to 3rd mode. of course, they're all the same chord tones but the shapes are different sometimes.

 

[chaosMK]

I have a few warmup workouts I do for left and right hand and can get way into that (like 30-60 min if I am "training" for something) but usually after a little of that, making sure my hands are still functioning, I start jamming my own riffs/ideas and then go off on long tangents exploring tapping.

 

[InhumanResource]

I am curious, what is your practice routine like? Is it focused, is it noodling? Are you happy with where you are? Do you set goals? Are you happy with your playing? When you finally have 20-30 minutes to pick up the bass what do you do?

My music director recently said he noticed some subtle changes in my playing that really improved the overall feel of the band.

Little did he know, that came from 2 months of drilling small things to make a big difference.

• Really locking into note duration
• Changing my attack on the strings
• Changing from using the tip of my fretting hand fingers to the pad based on the song
• Left hand vibrato (light vibrato)
• And a few other boring things

So... what are you working on?

In serious practice, which I don't do that much anymore:

Scales and arps, 2 octaves in all keys with metronome

Melodies to a few jazz heads in multiple keys

Walking over changes but emphasizing the third or some other non root tone (just challenging)

Improvising over recorded changes

"Name that interval" with keyboard

Reading which I am still absolutely terrible at and don't do it anymore because I don't have to (but I should)

... Stuff like that.

 

[rtslinger]

I practice our entire 4 set lists either the night before or 3 hours before my show been doing this for years
I have the set list on youtube and just play straight through

 

[JRA]

younger: my ax was a constant companion = it was rarely out of my hands: all the music in the universe to learn and not enough time to do it!

now: i mostly work on tunes when i have new material or old material to refresh (original/covers/standards). i work with a metronome at some point (or a clik, or a quantized drum track, etc.). i run scales and finger exercises more regularly if i notice a limitation/ache/pain i wasn't expecting (old age! ). these days i do memory exercises almost as much! i do any/all of it on an as-needed basis as a focused routine --- but: i pick the instrument up and play something every day. i generally play with younger cats so i have to be keen on both the physical and the mental. it's useful work/effort and it's almost always fun if not daunting!

 

[corndog]

Well right now I am in a new band, first gig in a few weeks and have 40 songs to learn. So I and learning the set list with all of my free time. It’s been a challenge as I have never even heard a third of the songs on the set list.

For my regular practice I tend to work on difficult songs off of guitar charts or improvisation.

 

[Chickenwheels]

I pull up jazz charts on iReal Pro and play DB to them. I sometimes change the rhythm or tempo. I work on quickly absorbing the changes and then being free enough to “sing” on my instrument over them.
Reading practice on electric is whatever show I’ve been lucky enough to have been sent charts for.
Sometimes I jam to YouTube. I might work on stuff that I suck at, like Chick Corea EB, Jaco, slap, etc just to stretch my chops.
Everything I play is stolen from players I dig, so I listen to lots of music to stay inspired.

 

[DrThumpenstein]

Learning four to six songs every two weeks for a new band. I still go back and play old favorites once in awhile just because I miss playing them, but not even much time even for that these days.

 

[IamGroot]

Michael Brecker transcriptions.... very hard

Gary Campbell "Expansions" .. a different way to practice scales.

Sam Most Jazz Improv

A little of each every day.

 

[twinjet]

Somewhere, I read that Anthony Jackson said "If you keep your skills up, there is a place for you. If you don't, then there isn't."

That's my signature quote.

 

[juancaminos]

I just practice playing songs on Bass, guitar, mandolin and singing. Scales only on Mandolin

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I am curious, what is your practice routine like? Is it focused, is it noodling? Are you happy with where you are? Do you set goals? Are you happy with your playing? When you finally have 20-30 minutes to pick up the bass what do you do?

My music director recently said he noticed some subtle changes in my playing that really improved the overall feel of the band.

Little did he know, that came from 2 months of drilling small things to make a big difference.

• Really locking into note duration
• Changing my attack on the strings
• Changing from using the tip of my fretting hand fingers to the pad based on the song
• Left hand vibrato (light vibrato)
• And a few other boring things

So... what are you working on?

Rehearsals are for the band. Anything that is required of me is 90% locked down before I show up at rehearsal. Rehearsals are no place to waste other people’s time while you are working on something that should have been done days before.

Noodling is a bozo no no. Again, this is band time not your time.

 

[Rock Salad]

If I have a groove in my head, then I practice. I will lay it down straight till it is pumping, then start adding (& resting,) and try to tear it up for as long as I can without dropping it. I can tell when it is on too because my room mate is tapping his feet bopping and the animals get quiet. I try to shoot for 10 plus minutes with no changes and up to 30 minutes. Trying to get deep in it.