Whenever it feels like it really. We have band practice every friday and that doubles up to include a Tuesday if we have a gig lined up (though we have only done 2!).
But generally every day or every other day. I have a bass upstairs on a practice amp within arms reach and often just grab it randomly.
I practice 4-8 hours every day EXCEPT for the days after band practice. Band practice is usually once (but sometimes) twice each week, and practice sessions usually go from 7PM to 1AM. Basically the same time frames we’d be playing gigs… When I practice at home, I’m usually working on the next practice sessions set lists. However, sometimes we’ll throw in a “fun” song or two (Like Tom Sawyer) to break the monotony of the session. Tom Sawyer is a fun Rush song to play - not to mention Geddy Lee’s bass line!! Maybe when I get it all figured out we’ll be able to add it to one of our set lists…
I’d love to practice more. But you know, life commitments (family, work, sleep, gym).
I try very hard to “touch” the instrument every day. Sometimes it is just 5 minutes, enough for a couple of “scale runs”.
When I have more time it is usually 45-75 minutes. I then do
a proper warmup followed by B2B workouts from the last lesson.
Then a minute or two of Billie Jean
And finally new B2B lesson.
Apart from technique practice, I try to maximise my focus on music during other activities:
I try to use gym time to listen to some cool bass lines and/or explore music ( this means listening to new things )
use one of the mobile apps to work on my “fretboard knowledge” while travelling or between exercises in the gym
recently I started listening to Victor Wooten’s “The Music Lesson” audiobook, which I find both entertaining and educational
I do 1 or 2 lessons of B2B, depending on how well things go and if my scrambled eggs of a brain struggle with things (varies day to day).
Do some technique by playing the melodies I’ve learned, play around with some of the scales and related stuff, or just walking the neck between 1st and 15th frets to keep my hands functional and it helps with the stretching of the fingers.
And I play Rocksmith for about an hour.
Either just songs in learn a song mode which gives me some standing time to train my legs as well and I don’t have to really think about the notes that I need to play if I don’t want to as they show up on screen when I need to play them. It helped me to find frets blindly and on time.
Or I can use it to actually learn a song, which is what I currently spend most of my time on Rocksmith for.
Rocksmith is a great tool but not THE answer. I learn some through it and it increases time on my bass.
So at minimum I’m on my bass at least 2 hours a day, sometimes 5+ depending on how cooperative my brain and body is.
With a full-time stressful job, wife, and kids, my practice time is limited to usually 45 min to an hour a night–but that also cuts out my exercise time, so I try and alternate. On rare weekends where I get to be home alone, I will do 3 hour practice sessions “on accident” as I will just get “in the music playing zone” so to speak.
“If the world spent more time listening to what people are trying to say and less if criticizing the way it’s said, we might learn a thing or too” - Me
Ok, since to my Italian ear “on accident” sounds perfectly fine (I was just thinking about “on purpose” and it seemed a perfect match…) Could someone shed a bit of light on this grammatical matter and reveal the idiomatic expression that should be used, on purpose, when one means “on accident”? Thousands of thanks (in Italian we say “mille grazie”)
In my experience, it had been “by accident” until the most recent generation. Others’ experiences may be different. At least one opinion on the matter agrees with my experience.
Regarding the topic of this thread, I don’t practice anywhere near as much as I should these days!