Practice is essential to developing as a bassist. Here are some tips on how to use your time wisely to improve faster.
In the spirit of being honest with how I manage time, I quickly came to these questions:
- How often do I actually practice daily/weekly?
- What is practicing to me? Is it practicing songs I need to learn or working specifically to continue to learn about my instrument and music in general?
- What skills has my “practicing” resulted in over the past 12 months?
What does practice look like for you today and in the past?
- Paul
- So half the time I tend to spend on learning songs — because this is where my next pay is coming from. No one cares if I can play all my modes, they want me to cover the songs on the list properly.
- The other half is “my time” — a lot of the time I’ll spend it with a study online, like a progression that’s new and interesting, or working on a specific skill. Something I can leave a half-hour or hour long session knowing something new.
- Dave
- Today, mostly planned but sporadic time blocks learning songs, writing music, and playing to chord progressions online
- I’ve had periods where I get into rhythmic exercises, modal exercises, scales, etc.
When you hear interviews with some of the cutting edge bassist/musicians today, the one theme I continue to hear is that for those that went to music schools, they point to the opportunity of unlimited practice for 4 years straight. And post education, most continue some regimen, although not at that volume. — Not all of us have had that opportunity.
How do you create a reasonable yet high impact practice regiment?
- TIme Blocking — make sure to check out our previous episode on this!
- 15 to 30 minutes daily?
- 1 hour 3 days/week?
- 3 hours on Sunday every week?
- Goal Setting
- Are there specific skills/areas you are looking to improve?
- Sight reading
- Learning the notes on your fretboard
- Developing your groove skills
- Applying music theory to the bass
- Scales
- Rhythm
- Harmony/Chords
- Textural skills
- Intervals
- Transposing
- New genres/styles
- Dexterity/endurance
- Are there specific skills/areas you are looking to improve?
- Build in accountability
As we build a practice regimen, what tools are helpful?
- The internet?
- A long way from this beginner book!
- Metronome
- Drone or reference tone tool
- Various visual aids
- Keyboard (Tones and Semi-Tones)
- Fake Books
- Arpeggios/Chord tone guides
- Constraints
- Playing arpeggios or scales using first 5 frets
- Sales on one string
- Ring & pinky only
Improving your craft improves your value you bring to the game
Be curious… be the student!
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash. Music: Jahzzar, Please Listen Carefully; spinningmerkaba, Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix).
thankds for the information