bass players: practice routines?
 

Hey guys,
I know some of you play bass, and i've been playing for a few months, but i've really just been tooling around with it. any suggestions on a daily practice routine?

thanks in advance for any help!

i do NOT play bass! but i would guess, classic rock songs. smoke on the water, sunshine of your love, dazed and confused, classic stones and kinks, etc.

Just find some songs that are kinda easy (Zep: Dazed and Confused) and keep working on them. Look for tabs if you need help and cant do it by ear.

Learn how to play an easy song and learn some scales.

Scales, scales, scales. And when you think you've done enough scales, do some more.

Arrange the scales in the following order (going around the cycle of 4ths):

C - F - Bb - Eb - Ab - Db - Gb (F#) - B - E - A - D - G - back to C

I know that everybody swears by the Cycle of 5ths, but Western music resolves functionally in 4ths, and this arrangement of scales SOUNDS more musical.

Hell ya, work on scales.

Do lots of finger exercises.I play guitar not bass, but spend 2-3 hours a day alone on them. Stuff like (fingers)1-2-3-4,1-3-4,1-2-4,1-3,2-3,3-4,1-4 in every imaginable combination.Up,down,across,skip strings vibrato,one finger, whatever.

Learn your arpeggios in all keys--Major,minor,diminished,augmented as well as the extensions( ex. A min7#5 arp)

Learn your diatonic modes(ionion,dorian,..etc) as well as harmonic and melodic minor modes.

Always play with people better than you.It is one of the best ways to learn.

ultimately, you want to tune in to your instrument...
so finger excersizes are good for strengthening and stretching your fingers out,
but you want to play songs you like, and seem within your current capacity to play.
or challenge yourself with something you aspire to play.

if you get some bass line in your head, try to figure it out on your bass. thats the connection, between your mind and your instrument.

listen your your own music in your head, and lay it down on your axe.

bottom line::::
play, play, play,play,play,play,play,play.......

thanks guys, i appreciate the advice. just found out today though that it looks like i'm gonna be stuck on the guitar in the new band i'm forming. oh well, could be worse, they could make me sing... :-)