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Practicing for Results:

by Gahlord Dewald

We're all busy. We should all practice more. But our time is limited. Maybe we can make better use of our practice time instead. This article might be pretty basic for some folks, but the ideas can be modified and expanded to fit any level of playing experience.

I used to spend many hours noodling around and thought it was practicing. Then one day after an upright bass lesson I asked my teacher, Mark Morton, how he managed to improve given his hectic schedule. The core of the following is based on what he told me about practicing; all of these ideas are applicable to the electric bass as well as the upright (and probably any instrument for that matter). No more noodling for me (at least not when I think I'm practicing).

1. Figure out what your musical goals are. Do you want to give solo recitals? Play in a punk band? Gig out with a country band? Seduce women? Whatever it is, think it over a bit. This is the most important thing you will think about in relation to playing music. Spend some time with this, and don't be afraid to revisit this. Talk to your teacher/coach and get feedback from people who are important to you. But ultimately, be able to say out loud in under 2 minutes why you want to play the bass.

2. Develop a real practice regimen. I mean something that actually helps you achieve your goals and doesn't burn you out. Most every practice regimen will contain the following components:

A. Hand Stretching
Oh you don't stretch before you play? Try it. You'll be amazed at how much "warm up" time you'll save.

B. Scales/Arpeggios
Practice the scales or arpeggios very slowly to get them perfect, then speed them up slowly. If you're already at a point where that's too rudimentary, try your scales in rhythmic patterns, or try them very, very, very, slow, or very, very, very fast, or concentrate on your shifts… there's always some nugget to work on while using scales. But keep it very, very simple, and focused. Only think about one thing at a time. It is easy to noodle on forever with scales but you will rarely have a goal of "Play a perfect scale to an audience of thousands" so keep it focused and get on with it.

C. Technique
No. Etudes. Ever. This is about improving a specific technique or physical aspect of playing. Be focused. Bring out your books and work on the meaty parts (those sections with eight bars interspersed with pithy advice), skip the etudes though, unless your goals include "play etudes to a crowd of thousands."

D. Styles
This is similar to technique, but where technique is mostly about getting your hands to go to the right place at the right time, styles is about getting your mind around the nuances of what makes a particular genre of music work; it's about the head and the hands together.

E. Ensemble work
Do you play music with other people? This component of your practice time is where you learn your part so you don't have to waste everyone else's time learning the charts at rehearsal. Now if only the guitar player would do you the same courtesy…

F. New repertoire
This is the time you practice for you. It should be stuff that is directly related to your musical goals, not just random noodling.

G. Sight Reading
If you don't read music, learn. If you do read music, pick something out of nowhere, put it on the stand, and play through it. Music written for other instruments is always fun to try here.

H. Performance
Put your bass down. Walk out of the room. Walk back in as if you were on stage and play through something from start to finish without stopping (if you make an error keep going, pretend there's an audience).

Depending on your goals, you'll spend more or less time in any of the above components. You may not even use some at all. You might come up with additional core-components of practice (please tell me about them if you do).

Look at your goals, look at the components, figure out which components are most valuable to achieving your goals. It would be wise to get input from your teacher/coach on this as well.

Now, assign percentage points to each of the components you've identified as important to achieving your goals (the total cannot exceed 100). The percentage points correspond to how much time you will spend on a component regardless of practice session length. If you only have 10 minutes to play one day, you will use it well.

Since starting this method of practicing I can honestly say that I can achieve noticeable results in 10 minutes. It requires razor-sharp focus, but it's possible. Before using this method, if I only had 10 minutes to practice I might have just not bothered. My loss. Don't let it happen to you.

Here's an example of my practice regimen (again, develop one that works for you: this example is tailored to achieve my goals, maybe not yours):

Hand-stretching exercises
(I do this when I wake up and throughout the day, so I don't let it count against my actual practice time)

10% Scales/Arpeggios
Usually I pick a key of something I'll be working on later in the practice session.

20% Technique
Lately I've really been working on paying attention to my shifts. I'm also trying to learn some slap bass. And there's always tone related exercises to work on….

20% Styles (Jazz, Zydeco)
I used to play in a Zydeco band and it was great fun, so I still work on the stuff now and then. I also do jazz because I like it. My main band is a strange avant-post-rock band and the jazz thinking helps more than straight up rock stuff would.

40% New rep
I tend to work on Jaco stuff or Jamerson lines here. It helps get it out of my system so I don't geek-out and overplay in a performance with the aforementioned band. Everyone appreciates this. And I have a goal of doing a solo electric bass recital someday so it's working towards one of my goals, makes me happy, and makes my bandmates happy too.

10% Performance
I try to record this part of my practice at least once per week. I listen to it and use it to help me figure out what to work on in the coming week, sort of like giving myself a lesson. It's really important to get used to playing straight through even when you make a mistake.

So if I have ten minutes to practice one day I'll spend one minute on scales (boy do I pay attention when I only get one minute to do my best), two minutes on a specific technique, two minutes memorizing a jazz chart, four minutes working in-depth on something I haven't memorized, and one minute playing as if to a crowd. Those ten minutes will absolutely yield me results, because I can stay focused and I'm working towards a goal. Sure, twenty or more minutes would be better, but even with ten minutes I can get something done, and that feels good.

There are lots of other things people could/should want to add/delete from this depending on their own personal goals. Just add/delete as you wish, and tweak with the numbers until it feels right. Have your teacher or coach help you figure out what is working. And if it isn't working: change something.

If any of this doesn't make sense, or you're interested in something else to help make the most of your practice time , send me an email gahlord@thoughtfaucet.com and I'll write more next time