Practicing

[mint_bass]

i have only been playing bass for 2 years and have made alot of proggress
 
i am concerned that i am not making the best of my practice time so does anyone have any practice tips
 
i am completly self taught but try to practice a few hours a day and four hours at weekends and holidays how long do you practice

[David Houck]

Scales and variations of scales, attention to technique, left hand exercises and right hand exercises, music theory.

[dean_m]

Oh boy!!!
 
Where should I start??  Andrew here is something that I tell all of my students and I also practice this myself.
No matter what you practice, you have to stay very focused.  Here's what I mean.  How many of us pick up our basses, play for about 20 mins, put the bass back down, and then think we just practiced?  The human attention span is very short.  So here is my suggestion.  
 
Let's say for instance, you are working on Major 7 arpeggios up and down the neck.  First off, you should be working on all twelve.  Take each arpeggio and devote only two minutes to it.  Literally set a timer for two minutes.  When the time is up, move on to the next arpeggio.  But while that time is ticking, you ONLY focus on that one arpeggio!  Remember, you only have 2 minutes so even if the house falls around you, you stay with it.  
Slow, fast it doesn't matter.  Some keys may take a little longer to figure out so you may only get half way up the fingerboard on the harder keys.  It doesn't matter, when that 2 mins is up, stop, take a breather, move on to the next one.  I figure 2 minutes for each key with a minute in between for a breather gives you 3 minutes per key.  Three times twelve keys will give you 36 minutes of intense, focused, practice time IN ALL TWELVE KEYS.  Even if you bump it up to 3 minutes with a minute breather, you're still at 48 minutes.  You won't get more out of such a short practice regement.  From there, go ahead and treat yourself to learning a tune off of a CD, or catching a new slap lick.  Remember, NO NOODELING!!!!
 
Try this EVERY day for a week, I promise you, you will not only know your arps cold, but you will also learn your fingerboard.  You can apply this method to ANY lesson that you're working on too. The trick is the repetition doing it every day.
http://www.monotunesmusic.com is my website if you're looking for stuff to practice too.  I just put a Major 7 lesson on there and I'm putting a minor 7 lesson up this week.
 
Hope this helps!!!!!
 
Peace,
Dino

[palembic]

Sigh ...I love you Paul the fake one!
This time I'm really gonna be a decent bass-player when I'm grown-up.
I play bass every day and have 2 rehearsals a week.
The point is: I like to practice with a goal and in a way I can see something in it. I always have problems with scales because ...I can not fit them in. I still lack a lot of musical insight. Beware ...I can sightread parts but ...help ...the logic behind ?
Anyway I plunge into that walking-off-beat-mertonomish-greek-friend-of-mines-website and will start ...practicing ...at least ...but not long ...no not long!
***Sigh***
 
Paul the bad one

[bracheen]

Dino, is your clinic schedule anywhere on the website?  If you make it to Jacksonville, I'd love to toddle over for the lesson.
 
Sam

[dean_m]

Brother Paul the bad one,
You keep on feeding me family advise and I'll always be happy to give you what I know for lessons.  You can apply the timing method to anything you're learning.  Even if it's a song off of a CD.  You might want to modify the time to say 5 minutes per section or so but it will still work.  I only used arpeggios as an example because that's one thing I have my students really focus on with this method.
 
Sam, unfortunately I don't have anything on the books as of yet but I'm working on it.  Clinics are coming too far and few between.  I love doing them but sponsorships have sort of tightened their belts the last year or so which really hurts on my end.  One problem that I encounter is that unless my name is Victor Wooten, or Steve Bailey, it's hard to draw people into the store which makes the store a little reluctant to set aside the time.  Don't get me wrong, I love and respect these guys very much.  I just don't have the name recognition (or the chops) that they have to draw people.  I can tell you this though.  Everyone that has come to one of my clinics, has walked out with stuff they can take with them to work on.
I'd love to come to Florida for a clinic.  Believe me, as soon as I get a schedule happening, I'll keep you all posted.
Anyway,
Keep practicing!!!!!
 
Peace,
Dino

[palembic]

I have this stupid question: what are the noodles doing in that practicing story?? Noodling??
 
 
Paul the bad one

[dean_m]

Noodling; meaning, fooling around, not getting anything accomplished.
 
BTW-your cds are in the mail.  I just got back from the post office.  Let me know what you think.
 
Dino the fake one

[alemboid]

You are a bass player! Timing and feel is very important. Play scales, yes. Play scales with a metronome, very important. I possible, practice with a drum machine- try funk rhyhms, 2/4 country type feels, 4/4 driving rock, and listen to where the down beat is. Play around with the feel-play on top of the beat, lay back and feel the groove, try even dropping out and leaving space. Listen to bass players in bands you like- what are they doing? Imitate them, and then make it your own.
 
That's what I tell my students in a nutshell.
 
Bryant

[jazzyvee]

I'm slowly moving from guitar to more bass playing and I have so far been getting by by learning techniques and not practicing my scales as such on the bass, on basis that I know a lot of the scales from my guitarist background, and don't need to practice them specifically on the bass. How wrong is my assumption, I'm finding that when i get to need them live I know where they are but my fingers haven't learnt them in respect to the longer scale of the bass so I have not been as accurate or confident as I should be. So I have had to relearn them so that my hands can find them on the bass relative to its fret spacing which is far different from guitar.
 
The benefit is that when I get back to guitar the scales are a breeze as my dexterity and stretch is improving .... :-)
 
I think your advice is good Dean.

[angelboy]

I've been a drummer for 15 years and only played 'bedroom bass'. Having only really listened to Mark King I know I have a bit of flash but I really want to start improving my 'jamming' and writing original lines. I can sit and learn a part no problem but find it hard to come up with intresting original lines. My timing and feel are as to be expected with me being a drummer, (all over the place........only kidding........or am I?!?) Anyway, I don't read so it's either Tab........I can feel the eyes in the back of my head burning.......or ear.  
What do you suggest to get me on the jamming/writing role?

[bracheen]

Paul
The obvious advice of course is keep it simple.
There are plenty of players here with a ton more experience and knowledge than me but here's my two cents.  When working out a new line I stick with the basic 1,3,5 pattern at least at first and try to work out an interesting rhythem.  You can always go back and spice it up.  When changing chords I'll throw in a passing tone to make the transition.  Usually a note that's a half step from the new chord root.  
This works a lot better for me if I have the chord progression in advance.  That way I can plan the whole measure on ending up where I need to be for the next.  On the spot jamming is still tricky (that's tricksey if elf) for me.
 
Sam

[adriaan]

I've been playing by ear for longer than I care to remember. On piano it's been since age 5, when I saw my dad play wonderful classical stuff, and my elder brother and sister were taking lessons. Sure enough I didn't like the lessons once I was considered 'old enough' to start myself. On bass it's been since age 10, when said older brother started taking lessons. So it's been by sight and by ear for the most part.
 
Eventually, I did pick up reading classical notes, and in time also chord notation, but I'll always need to hear a new rhythm before I can play it. I've been playing bass for 28 years now, and I'll play lines (walking or non-standard) to any jazz standard you throw at me.
 
I don't practice much, and instead of scales I tend to go by ear. The two best tips anyone has ever given me:
 
(1) In jazz chord progressions, you can make the change using the special notes from the NEXT chord - well, most of the time you can. And never play a major 7 on a regular 7 chord (funny how those horn players insist on playing tunes in sounding F, never in sounding F#).
 
(2) In walking lines, as an amateur, you often find you're walking up to the tonica with one step in time to spare - oops, you've gone too fast. Most of the time, you can add a half step after the 5th, before the whole step, to win back that step.
 
Practice with others. Don't overdo it. Make music, not scales.

[bracheen]

Oh yeah, part of your practice time, IMO, should be used to work on sight reading.  At least learn which notes correspond to which lines and spaces.  You should also know your scales so that you know which notes work best together when writing.
 
Sam

[son_of_magni]

Ha!  I was wondering when some one would get to sight reading.  Get a copy of the Bach cello suites (I hope you have a low B).  Or get any of the standard cello exersize books, Stephen De'ak is my favorate.
 
Also when discussing scales and arpeggios, play in different modes as well as different keys.  At a minimum Ionian, Dorian, and Aolean.  Phrygian is very cool too.
 
I also like to play games like breaking up the arpeggios like 1 3 5 7, 2 4 6 8, 3 5 7 9, and so on.  Make up things like that and work on them so you really have to think about where you are on the neck.  Jaco liked to do 1 6, 2 7, 3 8, 4 9 up and down the neck.  I don't remember hearing him get lost too often.  After a half hour of that when you decide to relax and noodle around you'll find yourself doing all kinds of new things.
 
Ok, ok I've actually played cello even longer than I've played bass.  I suppose there's a De'ak book for bass too...