When Do You Practice?

#1

Hey forum fam! I’ve had many different practice routines (or lack thereof) over the years, and I’m curious about your practice habits… :guitar:

  1. How many times a week do you practice (on average)?

  2. How long do you practice for?

  3. Do you do your practice after a certain event in your day? Like: practice after feeding your dog? Practice after watching a TV show? Practice after dinner? Practice after the kids have gone to bed? Or is it kind of random for you?

  4. If you’ve had a consistent practice routine for months or years, what has helped you stay so consistent?

Your answers here will help me be a better teacher and design better courses and lessons for you in the future, so thank you!

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#2
  1. around 5 times a week
  2. around one hour
  3. work → dinner → practice
  4. Months: yes, Years: no
    Honestly it was yousician when I tried to get back into a regular routine. After B2B i kept playing and when I joined a band I had motivation to practice the songs, but after that didn’t work out there was no path written out and I was a bit lost and unmotivated.
    Yousician helped in a way that I can pick up the bass and practice playing without thinking or planning much myself.
    Of course sometimes I still practice specific things or songs, but if I don’t I just start yousician and play. Depending on my mood new/harder songs or just things I alread know. I actually like the “guided lesson” feature.
    Playing together with someone on a regular basis is the best motivator, for me, though. I try to get into a regular schedule with a drummer. But especially in december around christmas time it’ll probably be hard to start the routine.
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#3

I have been playing for about a year. I practice everyday.

I do 50 minutes when the kids have ‘free time’ after dinner. During this time I try to work on my technique. Mainly I go trough the beast in all twelve keys. I have only just got to the point where I can play through in triplets with a metronome at 55 bpm. If I have time I also try to apply the beast to learning all the major, minor, diminished and augmented triads across the neck. But for this I can only manage one key a day.

After the kids go to bed I try to spend 45 minutes on my slap technique (usually a song) and then for however long I can stay up I work on a finger-style song.

Listening to RHCP and Jamiroqui keep me motivated.

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#4

Thanks for asking @JoshFossgreen and for seeking information to make your courses better.

I’m an odd duck, as my practice routine is all over the place. I normally practice every single day, but sometimes skip a day due to other activities in my life. However, even my daily practice schedule is bizzare. I may get up and make coffee, then practice for a few minutes while the coffee is brewing, and then once I’ve got my cuppa joe, throw some bacon in a frying pan and practice while the bacon is sizzling. I may practice for 2 hours, and then go make a batch of brownies and come back to practicing while they’re in the oven.
What I’m saying, my practice is an all day thing, with short and long bursts of practice, with short and long breaks in between. I may practice for ten hours, but with only 1-4 hours of actual practice.
Yes, I’m weird, I think that’s already been established.

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#5

7

Depends. If I can practice multiple times that day, then it’s usually 10-30 minutes per session. If I know it’s only going to be one session that day, then it’s usually around an hour (sometimes more, if I am enjoying it and have time).

I work from home and have my bass ready to play throughout the entire day. I usually practice a bit when I feel like I need to take a break from work. (Think of it as a smoke break, except in my case it’s a bass break.) These are the short 10-30 minute sessions I mentioned above.

I also do longer (up to an hour) practice sessions in the evening after work, gym, dinner, and everything else. That’s when I do my covers as well.

Your advice to have the bass in sight and easily accessible has really helped. Every time I walk past my basses I want to pick them up and play. (Having a crush on my two Laklands definitely helps as well.)

I also have a practice diary (I think that was your advice as well), where I sum up my achievements once a month. This too is a form of motivation, because I never want to leave a month empty.

But at the end of the day what keeps me going and makes me practice regularly is the fact that I simply enjoy playing bass.

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#6

1. How many times a week do you practice (on average)?
~5 days a week on average

2. How long do you practice for?
varies greatly with what’s going on, can be 30 min, can be 2.5 hours, can be little bursts in between other things. Then there is the occasional ‘learning a song’ that can pass 3 hours before you even know it!

3. Do you do your practice after a certain event in your day? Like: practice after feeding your dog? Practice after watching a TV show? Practice after dinner? Practice after the kids have gone to bed? Or is it kind of random for you?
Genreally after dinner for a bit then after kids go to bed (if I have the engergy).
However, will pick up the bass in the middle of the day esp. if I have boring work calls (don’t tell).

4. If you’ve had a consistent practice routine for months or years, what has helped you stay so consistent?
I’ve been in two modes - online learning and private instructor learning:

  1. Online - post B2B mainly talkingbass lessons - try to do enough each session that I am not overwhelmed with new concepts. I take notes of good things to build into a practice routine to reinforce the things I am learning, and keep progressing with modules. Then, always cover/song learning playing time.
  2. Private Instructor - has had me very busy with Smandl, Belleson, voice leading and other concepts that I cycle through in a session in the assigned pages / concepts - but - not crazy about the approach and ending the live lessons for a while and going back to finish a bunch of the online content

Of the two modes above, what keeps me consistent and motivated is the online format. I like the ‘check the box’ approach that shows progress visually and that the course has a theme with an end goal and is all related.

The motivation problem with private instruction I have found is there is no clear plan and path showing where you are, where you’ve been, and where you are going. It is more like a bad chiropractor who wants you to keep coming back endlessly for the sake of coming back, and you are not so sure you have any improvement at the end. When you take any class, there is a syllabus, you get the ‘in this course you will be able to learn…’. The non-structured private lessons keep me unmotivated. Having to record things and send them in along the way between lessons (what I thought was a really nice thing, and is) turned out to be a total pressure/stress/anxiety thing of having to record stuff by a due date. Life is busy for most of us older learners, and flexibility is the key to the learning path as well to keep me motivated and not feel like its a job.

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#7

  • How many times a week?
    Variable. I generally do 6 days a week, but also do multiple times per day.

  • How long?
    Try to get a good half hour of work in. Additional practice is on other stuff, can be a couple hours more in a day, but more sporadic

  • I practice a bit in the morning before work and when I get home, walk the dog, and eat dinner. I also practice what I call mechanics while TV is on. This is how I did Billie Jean, turned on a game, and just kept up the repitition while watching. I have the bass on a stand in the living area, always in sight. My practice has become a lot more consistent since I moved it there. I’m always seeing it, and it’s easy to set down, pick it up and play. When it was in a separate room I practiced less often

  • I don’t have a consistent routine. I had surgery, recovered, and re-establishing routines in general

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#8

I practice 7 days a week, usually on an evening after NCIS but sometimes I’ll throw a bit extra time in whenever I feel like it ( usually in the arvo but 1-3am is not unknown) and I’ll be practicing between 1 and 2 hours.
I’d probably do more if we had B2B mark 2 to enjoy ( hint hint :joy:)

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#9

Hey, Trusty Bass Teacher @JoshFossgreen

  1. 3 to 5 times per week
  2. 20 minutes to 1 hour
  3. Between 5:30 and 7 in the morning, sometimes a bit extra before bed
  4. I started to play just over a year ago, but I’m consistent because it’s the only time my kids don’t interfere.

EDIT: When I was doing B2B, i would start with prior B2B riffs, do the lesson with extra practice for 30 minutes and then noodle scales and riffs to a backing track.

Now it’s similar but i do B2B riffs and tracks as warmup and practice, then its song 1 of the 50 song challenge and specific exercises afterward. I’m balso trying hard to learn Wrathchild, because Steve Harris.

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#10

  1. 4-5 times a week when not traveling

  2. 45-60 minutes

  3. Usually after my mid-morning coffee (around 10AM)

  4. Desire to learn is mainly what keeps me consistent.

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#11

  • How many times a week do you practice (on average)?
    I’d say about 3x/week (while I was doing B2B probably 6 days a week but I lost some wind after that)

  • How long do you practice for?
    20min to 1 hour

  • Do you do your practice after a certain event in your day? Like: practice after feeding your dog? Practice after watching a TV show? Practice after dinner? Practice after the kids have gone to bed? Or is it kind of random for you?

Best for me is after dropping the kids at school in the mornings, before going to work… usually I have the house for myself

  • If you’ve had a consistent practice routine for months or years, what has helped you stay so consistent?
    I really need this, I keep looking for something, I’ve considered an acoustic bass that way I can leave it downstairs and practice some patterns/exercises while watching tv with the wife… but so far it’s just a thought :thought_balloon:
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#12

I usually practice about an hour every night - some nights I’m on the course and other nights I just youtube songs that I like and play along with them.

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#13

When I was taking B2B, I was pretty consistent, so about 5x/week. Since I’ve completed B2B, I pretty much fell off - I’d say 2-3x/week now, but I had a long stretch where I didn’t really practice much at all. I really benefit from having a structured agenda - left to my own devices, I feel a lack of progress which demotivates me in general. (I also had an injury right as I completed B2B that pretty much prevented me from practicing for a while - bad timing, as I had been in a routine and once I stopped, it’s tough to get back into it)

Anywhere from 10 minutes (when I’m forcing myself to “just do something rather than nothing”) to an hour and a half (generally if I’m working on a song time seems to fly)

After everyone is in bed, which is also a reason for not practicing as much as I should. Some nights I just don’t have the energy to push myself to do it.

I would like this to be applicable to me, but unfortunately it is not. Ask again next year. :slight_smile:

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#14

My goal is daily practice, but something seems to come up every few days, so on average about 5 days per week.

Typically 45-90 minutes. I stop when I get tired.

Not really, although I usually practice in the evening. I’ll practice during the day if my wife is running errands and I have the house to myself so I can crank up the volume. :smiley:

I’m not all that consistent, but what motivates me is that playing bass is a lot of fun.

Also, when asked, “Are you a musician?” I can respond “Yes, I am” which I find infinitely more satisfying than “I used to be, a long time ago.” :wink:

I’d probably practice more if I didn’t spend so much time on this forum. :roll_eyes:

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#15

:joy::joy::joy:

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#16

  1. How many times a week do you practice (on average)?
    Right now, working through B2B, usually 6-7 days a week.

  2. How long do you practice for?
    Sometimes there are multiple short sessions in one day, sometimes a single session for 1-2 hours, depending on whether I fall down a youtube bass tabs rabbit hole (found an awesome tabs video for the Stooges Search & Destroy yesterday – hawt)

  3. Do you do your practice after a certain event in your day? Like: practice after feeding your dog? Practice after watching a TV show? Practice after dinner? Practice after the kids have gone to bed? Or is it kind of random for you?
    Hmm, usually after work, after dinner. My daughter spends three days with me, then three days with her dad, so that definitely has an effect on when I can practice. Some days it’s late, like 10 or 11pm.

  4. If you’ve had a consistent practice routine for months or years, what has helped you stay so consistent?
    Since I’ve been playing for less than a month, I’ll answer with what I think will help me stay consistent in the future: there are so, so many songs that I would like to learn to play, and I have a drummer friend who is going to help me get some experience playing with another person. Maybe we’ll recruit one of our guitarist friends down the road, too, but one thing at a time :slight_smile:

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#17

  1. How many times a week do you practice (on average)?
    Not enough. Usually a couple of times. Would probably be more often if I didn’t have a PS5

  2. How long do you practice for?
    30 mins to an hour for the 2 sessions but will pick up the bass 2 or 3 times for a 5 min blast

  3. Do you do your practice after a certain event in your day?
    Random as I work shifts. 5 min blast tend to be first or last thing in the day

  4. If you’ve had a consistent practice routine for months or years, what has helped you stay so consistent?
    Online lesson to do/revisit or wanting to play a certain song

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#18

Basically I’m 24/7 down to play. Music never sleeps and neither do I. I work at home a lot of the time and I keep my ladies next to me ready to party at a moment’s notice…

  1. Seven days a week
  2. Typically between an hour to three hours a day but this is pretty unfocussed - learning songs, noodling, trying out effects, ear training etc
  3. Usually a main session after I finish work but I grab 15 min bass breaks during the day when I get a moment.
  4. I tie the session in to my work hours. Also I don’t have many other distractions…
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#19

I’m a bit of a nomad when it comes to practice. After trying Billie Jean, I put the bass down for over a month, but part of that was issues with my job (overtime sucks). Now, being a postal employee, this is our busy time and I’m limited. I’m planning to restart the B2B course once Christmas is over just to get back into the swing of things again. When I was playing, I’d practice about a half hour due to commitments. I’m hoping to extend that, but I can’t play every day…time just gets in the way. Having said that though, it’s something I want to commit to considering the investment I’ve made with my 8 basses.

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#20

How many times a week do you practice (on average)?
Pretty much every day, several times a day.

How long do you practice for?
Averages out to an hour. Some days I only get 15 minutes, but others keep me inspired for several hours throughout the day.

Do you do your practice after a certain event in your day? Like: practice after feeding your dog? Practice after watching a TV show? Practice after dinner? Practice after the kids have gone to bed? Or is it kind of random for you?
Randomly, as the mood strikes. If I get to the end of the day and realize I was too busy to have picked up a guitar, I make it a point to go pick one up and at least try working on a few scales or whatever.

If you’ve had a consistent practice routine for months or years, what has helped you stay so consistent?
I would say I’m in the intermediate stage of bass playing, so the thing that keeps me going right now is having the instrument as a form of expression. As a beginner, I didn’t have that, so my own discipline and the mania to “not miss a day” was a big push.

Far and away, the best motivator for all stages for me was when you learn something new and have breakthroughs. Luckily, you’re learning new stuff all the time as a newbie, so that’s actually an easier thing to achieve. You start to rely on “muses” as you get better at the basics, and as we all know, they’re fickle. Let’s be honest – buying new gear helps, but that’s an expensive way to go about things.

Honestly, I joke about this, but one of the best things you can do is keep a guitar ready to play in every room of your house. Or at least, keep your bass handy enough that it isn’t a chore to get it plugged in and in your hands. I can’t stand to be in a room with a string instrument I haven’t played for myself at this point. I won’t stop thinking about picking it up.

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

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