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What to practice

T

toshiro94

Apr 10, 2009
79
0
#1
I've found many sites that tell you to practice every day, and that quality is better than quantity.
but they never tell me what to practice!
I've realized I've never really "practiced" bass. All i've done is look at tabs for 15 minutes each day.

what should i be practicing? can anyone give me a practice routine?
let's say I'm somewhere between "complete beginner" and "almost not bad" :)
again, sorry for all these threads... it's probably annoying as hell.
 
#2
What i normally practice is some of my favorite songs (god save the queen, prayer of refuge, panic switch.) I play these several times a day alternating between songs. Until I'm able to play them perfect then i start working on a new song to add to my routine. It usually helps to switch up your techniques. I normally play with a pick, but I've been working on slap and finger playing lately.

variety is always good.


The P.C answer though is scales and chords.
 
#3
What's a PC answer?

Anyway, I'm kind of at the same stage as you, and this is how I practise:

1) I start off a warm up exercise;

2) go on to rehash the songs that I know;

3) do some rhythm exercises (triplets, syncopation etc);

4) get into the theory side of things (scales and omg-modes);

5) end off by trying a couple of new songs.

Then I try and keep my fingers healthy by stretching them.

It might not work for everyone, but I've improved quite a bit with this routine.
 
#4
record yourself playing along to songs, any song, even if its a polka. you can listen back and critique yourself as you go. you can play it back to other musicians and get their feedback. practicing everyday will make your playing improve dramatically. what I usually do is listen to some Jaco going ape**** on his bass before I practice for inspiration
 
#6
yehongxiang said:
What's a PC answer?

Anyway, I'm kind of at the same stage as you, and this is how I practise:

1) I start off a warm up exercise;

2) go on to rehash the songs that I know;

3) do some rhythm exercises (triplets, syncopation etc);

4) get into the theory side of things (scales and omg-modes);

5) end off by trying a couple of new songs.

Then I try and keep my fingers healthy by stretching them.

It might not work for everyone, but I've improved quite a bit with this routine.
Click to expand...

+1 for this routine.

Plus.. in number (4) above, after practicing your scales, practice the chords of that scale with different notes in the bass. For example in the key of C, instead of playing CEG play ECG, then GCE. Start with 1 3 5, then do 3 1 5 for the next chord etc, alternating the note in the bass. When you have nailed that, then include the 7ths.

This will get you out of the habit of always using the root first when playing a chord.
 
#7
In addition to all of the above, transcriptions REALLY sharpen your ear and help you get to grips with the language of the style you're listening to. Also practising sight reading is an invaluable tool. Not just bass books, but cello, trombone any melodic lower register instrument. It helps get you out of the bass disease 'rootbiasitis' that a lot of bassists suffer from especially when soloing.

A useful book I found was '101 Bass tips' by Gary Willis
If you don't know who Gary Willis is youtube him and checkout 'Tribal Tech' his is probably one of the greatest post Jaco fretless players alive.
 
#9
thanks for your help everyone! I'll incorporate all of this into my new practice routine :)
@Candybassed- Luckily, my sister plays cello. I got some music from her a while ago for this very thing :) i can easily get some trombone music too from my school. This is a great idea, thanks!
 
#10
2 more questions, sorry!
1. what do you mean by 'transcriptions'? i've heard the term before, but am only vaguely familiar with it.
2. when playing along with songs on say, the radio, do you just listen to find out the chords and stuff? or would most of you look the chords up?
 
#11
Hi.

As somone who teaches a lot of students and has had some of the greatest teachers available my number one suggestion is:

Don't 'practice' what you already know. Assuming you want to improve, it is important to work on things that you DON'T do well, or at least need some improvement.

Try to identify some of your weaknesses (a good teacher will help you with that), and target these areas. Break things down into smaller chunks. Work on the rhythm only (clapping or play rthythm on one note only). Work on the pitches only. Play passages slowly with a metronome and gradully increase speed. etc...

At the end of you practice session (or part of a session), then go ahead and play through some stuff just for fun. If all you ever do is just bash through things you can already play, you'll never improve.
 
#12
- warm up (exercises and scales and such)
- practice songs i've been working on
- work a new song, or look in a cello bass or trombone book for exercises/songs.
- study on Studybass.com (all their stuff is great!)
- recap old songs i know, just for 5 or 10 minutes so i don't lose my handle on them.

This practice plan gets me always working on new or unfinished things. I will definitely change this around, day to day, or when I get a teacher and he gives me things to work on, etc.
 
#13
you can also try a new song. When you have the bass part, try to play the guitar part on your bass like chords, riffs, etc then play melodic theme, singing line, try to emulate drumming with slap technique, horns solos, etc. That will help a lot to work by ears, and play things differents than bass lines. That will increase your "vocabulary".
 
#14
#15
scales scales scales scales

practice major minor and blues scales for a good foundation
practice the scales in one position and practice scales by going up the neck
start on C and run through the circle of fourths

this will exercise for fingers, get you familiar with the notes for each fret and teach you to play the scales anywhere on the neck
This lesson will give you a foundation that you can then apply to more advanced techniques in any given style

i have been playing for years and still do this everyday
 
#16
My current routine:

1- stretch

2- 3-5 minutes clapping with the metronome at a random temp from 60 to 100 or so

3- Slow subdivision exercise for 5 minutes. Set metronome to 40-50bpm with an eighth note click (the eighth click is to let you know more clearly when you are off) and play notes with each finger fretting, starting with quarter notes, then eighth notes, then triplets, sixteenths, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, octuplets.

I am speedin this up over time, but it's quite slow going since playing septuplets perfectly especially can get pretty hard ;)

4- Bass Exercises book for 5-10 minutes

5- Scale exercises moving smoothly from lowest string to highest string 28th fret (yeah I have a weird bass). I'm still doing E major now, starting from open B on the B string and ending on the last note of the scale on the G string.

6- Warmup songs; right now I do Soul to Squeeze and Interstate Lovesong but I rotate as I get perfect at a song.

7- Song practice, jamming new stuff, whatever I need to do for the band.

8- stretch
 
#17
toshiro94 said:
2 more questions, sorry!
1. what do you mean by 'transcriptions'? i've heard the term before, but am only vaguely familiar with it.
2. when playing along with songs on say, the radio, do you just listen to find out the chords and stuff? or would most of you look the chords up?
Click to expand...

Transcribing refers to notating (primarily) the melodic content of a song, in jazz this would be the solo segments. It can be labour intensive, but what happens is your ear starts to recognise phrases, intervals, chord progressions and is great for studying particular styles or even an artist that interests you.
It also refers to working out the chordal structure of a song.
I'm slightly old skool in that I use pencil and paper and a regular CD/mp3 player and rewind until I get it, but nowadays there's tons of software that allows you to slow thins down at pitch and even help isolate instruments.

When playing along to a song, I analyse EVERYTHING:

This was a gradual process, I started out listening for the bass line, then I got into the piano, (even what type of keyboard piano, Roland, Korg etc was used) then all the other instruments.

Then I got into production, so I'd listen to how things were mixed, (their position in the stereo field, production techniques etc.)

Chordal structures definitely come into it as well as how chords are voiced. It's handy to look it up on the net but it's more beneficial to work out the chords/voicings yourself.
 
#18
I'm working on the groove right now. I found http://www.pandora.com/#/stations/create/. Tell it an artist and it will play that type of songs for you.

Yes you have to pick out the key and the chord changes, but, that's good training. Playing to several songs in the same style is helping my groove.

For what it is worth.

edit --- playing to your CD's would do the same thing - give you several songs in the same style. I guess the groove fell into place while I was at that site.....
 

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