i love to do these reverse bowings and fingerings... it can be a bit of a puzzle at first, but i feel more well rounded. edwin barker has a philosophy about this i like. can someone elaborate on this cuz i can't? i studied with stephen lester of the CSO and he introduced me to this sort of practicing. you should know how to play inside and out and these types of exercise help not only in warm-ups, but in all playing.
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Double Bass Your Practice Routine
- Thread starter thedbassist
- Start date
i love to do these reverse bowings and fingerings... it can be a bit of a puzzle at first, but i feel more well rounded. edwin barker has a philosophy about this i like. can someone elaborate on this cuz i can't? i studied with stephen lester of the CSO and he introduced me to this sort of practicing. you should know how to play inside and out and these types of exercise help not only in warm-ups, but in all playing.
I've been on the Forum for about a month now and I've always seen this thread as a bit of a challenge. Not a 'who's got the best practice routine?' challenge of course but more a challenge for me to put into words my practice routine. As you may or may not know I started playing again at Christmas, after about 4 years of doing something else (composing, in fact). This gave me the opportunity to put into practise (not practice) some of those fundamental principles we all learn but so often forget immediately we pick up a double bass.
For about 4 months now I have been enforcing a regime (selfdictatorship?) on my practice routine and as a result I reckon I'm now playing better than ever. I have a fuller repertoire of solo pieces better tone, dynamic range, bow control etc. In general I feel better about the bass.
I try to play at least 1 to 2 Hrs between 8:30 and 12:00 but it could be any time that suits you in the morning.
in this session I will do the following.
1. Apply one (yes, only one) stroke of Nymans rosin. Clean strings with meths on a cloth. Set the metronme off at 60 bpm. Then I play tenutos on the D and A strings with a count of eight in each direction trying to keep a firm tone with the bow completely straight and enough hair on the string to redistribute the rosin evenly on the bow. After about 2 minutes I will play the octave harmonics on these strings after the firdt four clicks and adjust the bow speed to keep the tone the same while maintaining the same distance from the bridge. Keeping the bow straight is one of the key factors in producing an even tone throughout the full length of the bow.
2. Next I play a series of exercises on the G string. the first is a simple left hand finger workout which starts G-Bb-Ab-Bb-A-Bb after which I gradually move up semitone at a time until I have covered one octave. This is done 'hammering' slightly with the finger tips to build up the musicles in the forearm. These execises are played martelato and ff. Next come vomits and shifting exercises on the G and D strings. String crossing at slow tempos to observe the details of hair contact is important. I had a problem with bouncing too much so I have a couple of exercises to keep the bow contact to a maximum which I include in this section of my practice routine.
3. I have a program which I am trying to prepare so it is obvious that this will feature strongly in my practice routine but I don't just launch into a run through or even a slow practice with the metronome yet. (I include some Bach in my program so I use it here but you could do this with any piece that is in G or D that move around the break region.) Without rhythm I go over the notes of Allemande from 3rd suite checking the intonation with available harmonics, open strings previous notes I can find. For example in the opening phrase I check the D with the open string, the E with the A harmonic, the F# with the open D and the G with the G octave harmonic in the same place.
This goes on for at least fifteen minutes and I fine tune the bass at the same time. As my intonation becomes more regular and my left hand warms up I sett the metronome of at a slowish tempo (60 at most) and play some major scales going as far as two and a half octaves up the G string in D major. I don't do too amny other scales but the ones I do I do with a slow ff sostenuto focusing on straight bow and full tone, good bow changes and intonation.
4. After all that I move on to my program starting with Gliere Intermezzo which is a fairly simple piece which allows me to get a 'feel' for the 1st thumb position and clear intonnation. I start off with a computerised accompaniment set at 80 bpm (the final tempo is 120) and play the piece at least four times concentrating on bow changes to erradicate my bouncing problem and I shunt the tempo up a few clicks at a time till I get to 120 after about 12 playings. I do the same for Bottesini's Allegretto Capriccio which I am learning for the first time and when I feel I've got as far as I can with that I have run at the Sonnambula pushing the tempo as far as I can go. This is not the real practice but more a warm up which will pay off later in the day.
This should cover about 2 hours of practice time.
Later in the day I do another session of one hour in which I basically examine passages I isolated from the morning session which could go better.
I set up the metronome to a really,RALLY sllow tempo and try to nail everything under the microscope so to speak. Then grradually the tempo goes up and when they get close to the final tempos these segments are incorporated in the pieces. This is very laborious and takes a lot of self control not to go to fast or start messing about!
There is another session later in the evening when I play this stuff to my wife who generally doesn't mind but don't bore your relatives! She has learned all that Bottesini by heart even though she's not a musician at all.
A warm down is also important. I play the Elegy in D as meditatively as possible often much slower than the usual 96 bpm but I usually do it quite a bit faster (as much as 116 bpm! if it's for an audition).
Clean hands are important to a good practice session wash in warm water a few minutes before starting. Don't drink too much coffee especially during the day. Drink lots of water and make sure you have a decent posture before doing more than a few minutes of playing.. ever.
This may not be the most comprehensive practice routine but it does show that you have to hone youe routine for the task in hand and also finally a cautionary tale.
As a young player I used to ignore scale practice even more than I do now. In my undergrad audition for the Royal Academy of Music in London I was asked to play Ab melodic minor in 3 octaves with one bow to the octave. I couldn't do it then and I guess I couldn't do it too well now. But now I know that I will never find this in real music so it doesn't bother me. At the time however it was a big shock and I got into playing scales. There are some on this forum who will dissagree with what I'm about to say, but I can say that these Gb wholetone scales didn't help much in later life. Learn some scales and the princples of scale construction and you will get through just about anything that lands on the stand in front of you.
Phew!
FC
For about 4 months now I have been enforcing a regime (selfdictatorship?) on my practice routine and as a result I reckon I'm now playing better than ever. I have a fuller repertoire of solo pieces better tone, dynamic range, bow control etc. In general I feel better about the bass.
I try to play at least 1 to 2 Hrs between 8:30 and 12:00 but it could be any time that suits you in the morning.
in this session I will do the following.
1. Apply one (yes, only one) stroke of Nymans rosin. Clean strings with meths on a cloth. Set the metronme off at 60 bpm. Then I play tenutos on the D and A strings with a count of eight in each direction trying to keep a firm tone with the bow completely straight and enough hair on the string to redistribute the rosin evenly on the bow. After about 2 minutes I will play the octave harmonics on these strings after the firdt four clicks and adjust the bow speed to keep the tone the same while maintaining the same distance from the bridge. Keeping the bow straight is one of the key factors in producing an even tone throughout the full length of the bow.
2. Next I play a series of exercises on the G string. the first is a simple left hand finger workout which starts G-Bb-Ab-Bb-A-Bb after which I gradually move up semitone at a time until I have covered one octave. This is done 'hammering' slightly with the finger tips to build up the musicles in the forearm. These execises are played martelato and ff. Next come vomits and shifting exercises on the G and D strings. String crossing at slow tempos to observe the details of hair contact is important. I had a problem with bouncing too much so I have a couple of exercises to keep the bow contact to a maximum which I include in this section of my practice routine.
3. I have a program which I am trying to prepare so it is obvious that this will feature strongly in my practice routine but I don't just launch into a run through or even a slow practice with the metronome yet. (I include some Bach in my program so I use it here but you could do this with any piece that is in G or D that move around the break region.) Without rhythm I go over the notes of Allemande from 3rd suite checking the intonation with available harmonics, open strings previous notes I can find. For example in the opening phrase I check the D with the open string, the E with the A harmonic, the F# with the open D and the G with the G octave harmonic in the same place.
This goes on for at least fifteen minutes and I fine tune the bass at the same time. As my intonation becomes more regular and my left hand warms up I sett the metronome of at a slowish tempo (60 at most) and play some major scales going as far as two and a half octaves up the G string in D major. I don't do too amny other scales but the ones I do I do with a slow ff sostenuto focusing on straight bow and full tone, good bow changes and intonation.
4. After all that I move on to my program starting with Gliere Intermezzo which is a fairly simple piece which allows me to get a 'feel' for the 1st thumb position and clear intonnation. I start off with a computerised accompaniment set at 80 bpm (the final tempo is 120) and play the piece at least four times concentrating on bow changes to erradicate my bouncing problem and I shunt the tempo up a few clicks at a time till I get to 120 after about 12 playings. I do the same for Bottesini's Allegretto Capriccio which I am learning for the first time and when I feel I've got as far as I can with that I have run at the Sonnambula pushing the tempo as far as I can go. This is not the real practice but more a warm up which will pay off later in the day.
This should cover about 2 hours of practice time.
Later in the day I do another session of one hour in which I basically examine passages I isolated from the morning session which could go better.
I set up the metronome to a really,RALLY sllow tempo and try to nail everything under the microscope so to speak. Then grradually the tempo goes up and when they get close to the final tempos these segments are incorporated in the pieces. This is very laborious and takes a lot of self control not to go to fast or start messing about!
There is another session later in the evening when I play this stuff to my wife who generally doesn't mind but don't bore your relatives! She has learned all that Bottesini by heart even though she's not a musician at all.
A warm down is also important. I play the Elegy in D as meditatively as possible often much slower than the usual 96 bpm but I usually do it quite a bit faster (as much as 116 bpm! if it's for an audition).
Clean hands are important to a good practice session wash in warm water a few minutes before starting. Don't drink too much coffee especially during the day. Drink lots of water and make sure you have a decent posture before doing more than a few minutes of playing.. ever.
This may not be the most comprehensive practice routine but it does show that you have to hone youe routine for the task in hand and also finally a cautionary tale.
As a young player I used to ignore scale practice even more than I do now. In my undergrad audition for the Royal Academy of Music in London I was asked to play Ab melodic minor in 3 octaves with one bow to the octave. I couldn't do it then and I guess I couldn't do it too well now. But now I know that I will never find this in real music so it doesn't bother me. At the time however it was a big shock and I got into playing scales. There are some on this forum who will dissagree with what I'm about to say, but I can say that these Gb wholetone scales didn't help much in later life. Learn some scales and the princples of scale construction and you will get through just about anything that lands on the stand in front of you.
Phew!
FC
In addition to the previous post here is a short article I wrote about practicing a new piece.
Bass players have a rum deal as far as solo music is concerned. A wise man once said 'the bass solo repertoire is made up of works by fifth rate composers except for Bottesini who was second rate!' He might have been right, but had it not been for Bottesini being not only a second rate composer but a first rate bassist, the repertoire would be incomprably poorer. Every bassist who reaches a certain level no doubt tackles at least one piece by him. Usually it is the Elegy in D which is porbably his most popular solo piece. Beyond the already difficult Elegy lies a whole legacy of intimidatingly pyrotechnical solo music for bass and piano. His output was enormous for this combination and no composer before or since has come close to this vast body of work. The amazing thing about all this music is its insanely high level of virtuosic demands on the bass player. Of course Bottesini wrote with the purpose of showing off his own talents on the instrument but the duets which must have been played with students or fellow musicians have two parts demanding some high degree of technical skill so he must have realised that someone else might eventually play this music. Personally I have about 4 or 5 pieces 'on the go' at one time which come to about 25 minutes or so of program. My plan this year is to relearn some of Bottesini's works and record a few pieces for the internet. Included in this program is the idea that I would learn at least one new piece by Bottesini. I chose a lesser known piece which is about 4 minutes long, and would make a nice opener for a recital - the 'Allegretto Capriccio'.
I had never heard this piece played or even looked very closely at the score which I have in a collected edition that I bought over twenty years ago! Since I was looking for a 'new piece' then, I leaved through my scores and this work just jumped out at me. It is quite simple in structure and not too taxing on the listener. A gentle scherzo with a pretty tune and a flourishing finish, the piece breaks down into about 6 seperate sections.
Practicing a piece like this is best done with a strict regime so I planned a week of practice, each day divided into slow note bashing, very slow bow control, memorizing session and finally consolidation. So last Monday I set off with the first page open infront of me. Before I even start playing I warm up with some long notes and finger exercises, some position shifts and slow scales for intonation. I use very little rosin so I spend most of this time removing rosin from the strings and bow with a dry cloth. Once that is out of the way, I reset the metronome to a speed which I can play each note and concentrate on its tuning, tone, dynamic etc individually. this often means rediculously slow! Years ago Ninian Perry told me that it is very important not to practice mistakes. He means if you get something wrong in your practice then you have to unlearn it (even if you only got it wrong once) and then relearn it correctly. A waste of valuable time. So really slow pracice to begin with. The piece will eventually reach a metronome marking of about 162 so I set my metronome at.... 22 (44 played at half speed)! Yes very, very slow. Next is the problem of fingering.
It is not a good idea to start without having a clear idea of what you are going to do. One bar at a time I work out a fingering which will not only produce the best sound (longest string length) but will set me up for the next bar or some leap coming up. Only now do I start to play. Repeat the bar or two in question several times, making sure of the tone, rhythm, bowing, fingering etc until it has all 'sunk in'. This is continued until the end of the phrase and then the pieces are put together 2 at a time, at this tempo until the phrase is complete. Then gradually the metromone gets shunted up, playing the phrase at least 4 times at each setting. Thankfully this only lasts for a few days and soon the piece begins to take shape, but how?
As I practice each phrase seperately, (only being concerned that I finish in a sensible position to begin the next phrase if need be) my fingers and bow get used to the phrases one by one and develop a 'tactyl' memory of the music. A tactyl memory means that you will be able to play the phrase without thinking about the mechanics of moving your fingers. By using your ear which will then subconsiously guide your hands to make minute adjustments rythmically, dynamically, in intonation, etc. This hybrid between mechanically learning the notes and then allowing yourself to be flexible about interpretation is a key asset to filnally producing a musical rather than mechanical performance.
There are phrases which are technically harder that others and thus they will need special attention. In the Allegretto Capriccio one such passage is the wide leaps between alternate stopped notes and harmonics just less than half way through. I'm going to get technical here so this bit is for bassists only.---
I found after some practice that I can use the harmonic F# on the D string (where you would normally play a 'B' in 4th position) followed by the harmonic G (where you would play middle written C on the G string) in this passage. It significantly simplifies the shifting involved in this passage. ----
Back to the real world.
Having changed my fingering for this passage I went back and relearned the passage from the slow tempo back up again. Remember Ninian's comment about unlearning and re-learning? So if you change fingering you should re-learn the passage from the ground up so it become part of that tactyl memory I mentioned earlier.
When you start to feel that the tactyl memory is 'kicking in' it is time to close the score and see what has really been learned. I don't get rid of the score completely at first but I do close the book and leave it on the stand. Things change completely in this new situation. Firstly we are forced to 'resource' something other than the printed page to play from. This is where you must try to access your tactyl memory which should ultimately be guided by your ear.
Another point here is that this will not work at the final tempo! I cannot stress this enough because trying to play 'from heart' up to speed at first will undo lots of hard work. This week I have memorized the piece and I have actually put the score back on the shelf. The metronome went back to about half tempo and I started playing from memory section by section.
I mentioned that I would write about joining up the sections, so here goes.
In this (as in any other piece) there are sections which could be conceivably isolated even if the next section follows on without a pause (as is the case here). These are made up of short phrases which could be played seperately and usually consist of a few notes up to a few bars. Once you have learned a phrase and the following one you should try to make a mental concetion between the two. For example, The first phrase of the piece is 4 bars long and the second phrase strting a semitone lower than the last note of the first. They
sound very similar, so you could play an echo effect in the second phrase or, as I chose, a question-answer feel for the two phrases. I found this works for the first eight phrases (which make up the first section). So I have a kind of dialogue going on the first section.
Now the second section starts with a 3 octave arpeggio on G dominant 9th ending on a high harmonic A. This comes without a pause after the first section so I have to have a 'tag' or link which will get me into the second section. It is different every time but here's what I do: Towards the end of the first section There is an F natural which I consciously tell myself is the seventh of the G arpeggio (even if it is actually a Neapolitan 6th in E minor). This reminds me of the second section so I'm mentally prepared.
Once I have the whole piece together in this way I again start to shunt up the mentronome to about full speed within a few days (I got to 152 yesterday).
Then I start to work out some interpretation. This is not an easy job but without this any performance would be dull and mechanical. I find it helps to think architectually about the music and build an idea about the structure of the piece before working out any individual 'corners'. In the Allegretto Capriccio there is a short section like an expostion followed by a modulating section. The third section is a flowing semiquaver section which comes back as the coda etc. When I get a feel for how the piece works as a whole I look for places where I can make some 'corners'.
Corners are what I call ritenutos which link one phrase with the following one. For example, at the end of the question-answer exposition I make a tiny pause to get into the second sectrion. In order to get this pause I actually rush ever so slightly through the last phrase of the first section. Later on there is a point where the music 'circles' around a 'B' after an eight bar unaccompanied passage which sets up the recapitulation. This is a big corner and I will eventually take a lot of time over this passage even if for now I'm playing it in tempo.
Bass players have a rum deal as far as solo music is concerned. A wise man once said 'the bass solo repertoire is made up of works by fifth rate composers except for Bottesini who was second rate!' He might have been right, but had it not been for Bottesini being not only a second rate composer but a first rate bassist, the repertoire would be incomprably poorer. Every bassist who reaches a certain level no doubt tackles at least one piece by him. Usually it is the Elegy in D which is porbably his most popular solo piece. Beyond the already difficult Elegy lies a whole legacy of intimidatingly pyrotechnical solo music for bass and piano. His output was enormous for this combination and no composer before or since has come close to this vast body of work. The amazing thing about all this music is its insanely high level of virtuosic demands on the bass player. Of course Bottesini wrote with the purpose of showing off his own talents on the instrument but the duets which must have been played with students or fellow musicians have two parts demanding some high degree of technical skill so he must have realised that someone else might eventually play this music. Personally I have about 4 or 5 pieces 'on the go' at one time which come to about 25 minutes or so of program. My plan this year is to relearn some of Bottesini's works and record a few pieces for the internet. Included in this program is the idea that I would learn at least one new piece by Bottesini. I chose a lesser known piece which is about 4 minutes long, and would make a nice opener for a recital - the 'Allegretto Capriccio'.
I had never heard this piece played or even looked very closely at the score which I have in a collected edition that I bought over twenty years ago! Since I was looking for a 'new piece' then, I leaved through my scores and this work just jumped out at me. It is quite simple in structure and not too taxing on the listener. A gentle scherzo with a pretty tune and a flourishing finish, the piece breaks down into about 6 seperate sections.
Practicing a piece like this is best done with a strict regime so I planned a week of practice, each day divided into slow note bashing, very slow bow control, memorizing session and finally consolidation. So last Monday I set off with the first page open infront of me. Before I even start playing I warm up with some long notes and finger exercises, some position shifts and slow scales for intonation. I use very little rosin so I spend most of this time removing rosin from the strings and bow with a dry cloth. Once that is out of the way, I reset the metronome to a speed which I can play each note and concentrate on its tuning, tone, dynamic etc individually. this often means rediculously slow! Years ago Ninian Perry told me that it is very important not to practice mistakes. He means if you get something wrong in your practice then you have to unlearn it (even if you only got it wrong once) and then relearn it correctly. A waste of valuable time. So really slow pracice to begin with. The piece will eventually reach a metronome marking of about 162 so I set my metronome at.... 22 (44 played at half speed)! Yes very, very slow. Next is the problem of fingering.
It is not a good idea to start without having a clear idea of what you are going to do. One bar at a time I work out a fingering which will not only produce the best sound (longest string length) but will set me up for the next bar or some leap coming up. Only now do I start to play. Repeat the bar or two in question several times, making sure of the tone, rhythm, bowing, fingering etc until it has all 'sunk in'. This is continued until the end of the phrase and then the pieces are put together 2 at a time, at this tempo until the phrase is complete. Then gradually the metromone gets shunted up, playing the phrase at least 4 times at each setting. Thankfully this only lasts for a few days and soon the piece begins to take shape, but how?
As I practice each phrase seperately, (only being concerned that I finish in a sensible position to begin the next phrase if need be) my fingers and bow get used to the phrases one by one and develop a 'tactyl' memory of the music. A tactyl memory means that you will be able to play the phrase without thinking about the mechanics of moving your fingers. By using your ear which will then subconsiously guide your hands to make minute adjustments rythmically, dynamically, in intonation, etc. This hybrid between mechanically learning the notes and then allowing yourself to be flexible about interpretation is a key asset to filnally producing a musical rather than mechanical performance.
There are phrases which are technically harder that others and thus they will need special attention. In the Allegretto Capriccio one such passage is the wide leaps between alternate stopped notes and harmonics just less than half way through. I'm going to get technical here so this bit is for bassists only.---
I found after some practice that I can use the harmonic F# on the D string (where you would normally play a 'B' in 4th position) followed by the harmonic G (where you would play middle written C on the G string) in this passage. It significantly simplifies the shifting involved in this passage. ----
Back to the real world.
Having changed my fingering for this passage I went back and relearned the passage from the slow tempo back up again. Remember Ninian's comment about unlearning and re-learning? So if you change fingering you should re-learn the passage from the ground up so it become part of that tactyl memory I mentioned earlier.
When you start to feel that the tactyl memory is 'kicking in' it is time to close the score and see what has really been learned. I don't get rid of the score completely at first but I do close the book and leave it on the stand. Things change completely in this new situation. Firstly we are forced to 'resource' something other than the printed page to play from. This is where you must try to access your tactyl memory which should ultimately be guided by your ear.
Another point here is that this will not work at the final tempo! I cannot stress this enough because trying to play 'from heart' up to speed at first will undo lots of hard work. This week I have memorized the piece and I have actually put the score back on the shelf. The metronome went back to about half tempo and I started playing from memory section by section.
I mentioned that I would write about joining up the sections, so here goes.
In this (as in any other piece) there are sections which could be conceivably isolated even if the next section follows on without a pause (as is the case here). These are made up of short phrases which could be played seperately and usually consist of a few notes up to a few bars. Once you have learned a phrase and the following one you should try to make a mental concetion between the two. For example, The first phrase of the piece is 4 bars long and the second phrase strting a semitone lower than the last note of the first. They
sound very similar, so you could play an echo effect in the second phrase or, as I chose, a question-answer feel for the two phrases. I found this works for the first eight phrases (which make up the first section). So I have a kind of dialogue going on the first section.
Now the second section starts with a 3 octave arpeggio on G dominant 9th ending on a high harmonic A. This comes without a pause after the first section so I have to have a 'tag' or link which will get me into the second section. It is different every time but here's what I do: Towards the end of the first section There is an F natural which I consciously tell myself is the seventh of the G arpeggio (even if it is actually a Neapolitan 6th in E minor). This reminds me of the second section so I'm mentally prepared.
Once I have the whole piece together in this way I again start to shunt up the mentronome to about full speed within a few days (I got to 152 yesterday).
Then I start to work out some interpretation. This is not an easy job but without this any performance would be dull and mechanical. I find it helps to think architectually about the music and build an idea about the structure of the piece before working out any individual 'corners'. In the Allegretto Capriccio there is a short section like an expostion followed by a modulating section. The third section is a flowing semiquaver section which comes back as the coda etc. When I get a feel for how the piece works as a whole I look for places where I can make some 'corners'.
Corners are what I call ritenutos which link one phrase with the following one. For example, at the end of the question-answer exposition I make a tiny pause to get into the second sectrion. In order to get this pause I actually rush ever so slightly through the last phrase of the first section. Later on there is a point where the music 'circles' around a 'B' after an eight bar unaccompanied passage which sets up the recapitulation. This is a big corner and I will eventually take a lot of time over this passage even if for now I'm playing it in tempo.
I disagree. I used to practice like this. At the time, I thought this worked. But eventually, I made a practice schedule for each day. Before I even touch my bass, I make a schedule for that day, being realistic of how much practicing I can handle in that day with the time I have. This way, I can break up that time and assess what and how long to spend on each piece, etude, solo, etc.
If I just practiced something until I got it down, then maybe that would take up all my time that I have for that day, and then not have any time for whatever else I need to practice for that day. Then, sure you might have improved on that one piece, but you didn't make ANY improvement on whatever other material you needed to practice. And I do assume that everyone has more than one piece to practice.
I also disagree that just because you didn't get a piece down in the time you practiced, doesn't mean you wasted your time and didnt improve. If you use your practice time efficiently, you should improve in however much time you designate to to each piece, whether you spend 5 min. or an hour. For example, one day i might rehearse a piece at half speed. Sure its not full speed, but once I get half speed down, then the next day I'll move it up 10 BPM, and once thats down, move it up the next day, etc. Eventually, you will have the piece down at full speed, by breaking it down and working it up over time, meaning that it would require much more than one practice session of just playing until you get it.
you misunderstood me. anyone who tries to learn a new piece in one practice session is out of their mind unless it is extremely easy. my point is that you select certain sections and work on them until they feel better. Time limits are a waste. so you set aside 20 minutes for an excercise? what if yo get it in 10? what if you dont get it in 20? do you still keep going the extra 10 minutes? My point is that one should write down what they need work on. warm ups and technical excercises are different sure allow yourself 30 minutes or so of warmups and then practice. Time limits trap the mind. I only have 10 minutes to learn this section! or i have to do this phrase for 30 minutes? come on......time limits only make things more stressful. we arent running a business. when we practice and start getting bored it is time to move on. That is my point.
hello i am an electric bassist, what classical peices do you recommend i learn to improve my technique and comfort on the fretboard?
i have learnt chromatic fantasy and c minor prelude but they are pretty simple.
oh and i play 5 string bass
i have learnt chromatic fantasy and c minor prelude but they are pretty simple.
oh and i play 5 string bass
Ok what is the deal. How do you guys practice effectively for such a long period of time without putting time limits on yourself and breaking your time up into blocks? How do you stay consistent?
basically you just plan out what spots you need to to work on the most in a piece and just focus on those spots until they feel better or you get bored of them. it is not good to just run the piece over and over. also break the stuff you need to work on up and play it using different rhythms or anything that can make it harder. to me the key is just progressing. time limits are just setting barriers for youself. Warming up is different, warm up for however long you like. sometimes i say 30 minutes and it turns into an hour! it also about how much time one plans on spending in the practice room at one time. if you only have an hour then we must warm up for a short period of time and focus on trouble spots. it really is all preference. I just believe that working on something until your body tells you to quit is the best.
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I've made some changes to my practicing routine lately, i've been cutting back to 3 horus a day to avoid injury. also 3 hours is the max amount a day that many pros reccomend, such as rabbath and paul ellison. so heres how i've been practicing lately:
45 min - Bowing variations from Rabbath book 3
45 min - Scales, Argeggios, and scale excercieses from Rabbath book 3 (lots of thumb position work)
-----BREAK-----
30 min - etude
----BREAK-----
60 min - broken up between whichever solo or orchestral pieces I am working on. It might vary each day...maybe 45 min on one, 15 for another....maybe broken up 30 min/30min.....you get the idea
So......2 oout of the 3 hours of my daily practicing are set aside for fundamentals and technique. I have found this much more helpful. The more i spend on technique, the more easily and more efficiently I am able to work through whatever pieces I am working on. Before, I used to divide this time mostly on solo works on orchestral pieces, and not much time on scales, excercises, fundamentals, but my practicing became much more efficient after i started my new practice routine. I know i covered this in some previous posts...but whatever....
This past week i've been getting around 4.5 to 5 hours (not continuous) a day in. Mostly orchestral parts and with bowing exercises as a big "warm up." And arpeggios. But like bassboy said, we're doing what works for each of us. No one's right and no one's wrong. As long as you're making progress and having fun.
Also.....I'm curious to see how many of us here are planning on going into a career in music, or already have a career in music...as opposed to those just doing it as a hobby. I'm guessing the practicing routines would be very different between the two groups. I'm in high school now...planning on going into a career in music, so strict practicing is pretty necessary for me, and don't worry, I do have fun with it.
Sophomore in High School, going into a career in music. And if i remember correctly bassboy70 is at Ball State U. for performance.
My current routine is rather simple.
Loosening of the body in 7 second increments. It's more OCD than anything...
Scale work with the metronome in 2 octaves. Every key (Even the awful ones, never did like C# minor...) Whole, Half, Quarter, very similar to KPO. When I get to shorter note lengths, I vary on legato, staccato and spiccato.
Look over Sonatas, still complex yet good for getting to the difficult concertos.
Concertos: To really dig into concertos, I run through once at tempo with all the styling and phrasing to really get into the piece. At that point, I slow everything down and go pitch by pitch, really taking it to a whole new level of intonation and beauty, a perfect way to nail rhythms, tricky fingerings, etc.
Cool Down: Touch base (no pun intended) on concertos that I plan to work on for future performance. Go through various etudes that I have worked on and ones that I will need to perform eventually.
And in regards to writing down what you want to accomplish, I just started doing a new technique which is probably done already, but divide my works into rehearsal numbers. I take it chunk by chunk and nail it three times before going to the next chunk. It's a lot more efficient than doing a set time as the easier passages get by faster and the complexities are more focused on.
Loosening of the body in 7 second increments. It's more OCD than anything...
Scale work with the metronome in 2 octaves. Every key (Even the awful ones, never did like C# minor...) Whole, Half, Quarter, very similar to KPO. When I get to shorter note lengths, I vary on legato, staccato and spiccato.
Look over Sonatas, still complex yet good for getting to the difficult concertos.
Concertos: To really dig into concertos, I run through once at tempo with all the styling and phrasing to really get into the piece. At that point, I slow everything down and go pitch by pitch, really taking it to a whole new level of intonation and beauty, a perfect way to nail rhythms, tricky fingerings, etc.
Cool Down: Touch base (no pun intended) on concertos that I plan to work on for future performance. Go through various etudes that I have worked on and ones that I will need to perform eventually.
And in regards to writing down what you want to accomplish, I just started doing a new technique which is probably done already, but divide my works into rehearsal numbers. I take it chunk by chunk and nail it three times before going to the next chunk. It's a lot more efficient than doing a set time as the easier passages get by faster and the complexities are more focused on.
