Practice

[Roger2611]

Just wanted to do a straw poll (whatever that actually means)

I am in my 40's and still practice around 10 hours a week, where do I fit in with the rest of you?

Edited March 1, 2013 by Roger2611

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Straw poll?? Not horse eat again..
Well, you play more than me. I used to do 10 -12 hours a week when I was learning .
In bands, 4hrs rehearsal room, and about 2 hours a week.
Now ,I do about 3 hours a week. Need to do more

[Les]

Afraid I never pick a bass up unless I'm gigging, learning a new song or rehearsing. That can go from no hours to a fair few depending on the week.

[Bilbo]

10 hours a year.....

Seriously, it varies. I practice a lot less than I need to because I spend time composing instead. I have more technique than I know what to do with, anyway, so no harm done but I do feel sluggish sometimes when I gig.

[SpaceChick]

Im 39 and do about 5 hours.... I'd like to do more, but at the moment the rest of my life is getting in the way.

[Delberthot]

between 5th January and Thursday nothing, then 15 minutes today - I have a last minute gig with the rock band tonight

[Lozz196]

Age 47, two band practices a week - one with each band - totalling 5 hours, plus at least 30 mins a day.

[TheGreek]

I try to get at least an hour in every evening - TV is sh*t around 7 o'clock so that's when I try to practice. Upstairs have a 8 month old baby so have to take this into account though.

[thisnameistaken]

I pick up a bass guitar whenever someone asks me to but I rarely 'practise'. Although I got the urge to play a little earlier this week and discovered I could play stuff that I couldn't play cleanly before, despite having hardly played the sodding thing for two years. Makes me think practising is a waste of time!

I do try to play double bass every day though, even if it's just half an hour, just to stop my intonation getting awful. I don't really work on 'chops' or anything, mostly just noodling through changes trying to find new ways around, practising keys I don't use much just in case, and playing the melodies from tunes I know to try to figure out how good tunes work.

Overall in a week I might play for five hours at home, but a lot less if I've been doing a lot of playing elsewhere.

[ead]

The wrong side of 50 and currently doing around 10-12 hours / week + band practices.

[louisthebass]

I do about 4-6 hours a week on average, if I have a week where there's a rehearsal on, then add another 3 hours.

[scalpy]

This weekend 3 rehearsals and 2 gigs! Apart from that snippets every day if possible. The fingers benefit but I need to keep my brain sharp more.

[ambient]

College days little, except Tuesday when I get home early, then I'll try and do 2 or 3 hours, though I play at college anyway. I read theory books on my commute, and do production/arranging stuff on my laptop.
None college days I'll do between 6 and 10 hours a day, depending on what else I've got on.

[yepmop]

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1362175767' post='1996939']
The wrong side of 50 and currently doing around 10-12 hours / week + band practices.
[/quote]

+1

[JapanAxe]

Not sure why we're owning up to our ages, but what the hell, I'm 52.

I play guitar and bass and I sing lead and harmony vocals. Not many days go by without me doing an hour's playing and/or singing practice, usually in preparation for an upcoming gig. If I don't have something specific to aim for, I will work through stuff in Guitarist magazine or transcription books.

[TG Flatline]

A lot less than I should!! I'm 29 next week, before the last band met it's demise I was doing two 3-4 hour rehearsals a week plus around 5 hours a week alone. Child and child on the way (poor wife not having the best pregnancy!) combined with no band quickly led to about half an hour a week if I was lucky!!! To rectify this I now have bass no.3 (I got it free and it is worth about that) in my living room at all times so I can pick up for even five minutes if need be. Reckon I'm getting an hour a day in now, which I can live with considering everything else I've got going on!

Edited March 1, 2013 by TG Flatline

[RussFM]

2-4hrs if the band are practising, 20mins if we're not. 1-4hrs if I'm writing.

I don't get in from work til 7pm so don't get to play til 8pm if nothing else is going on so it doesn't give me much time. My wife works shifts which sometimes rules out weekends too if she's sleeping.

Edited March 2, 2013 by RussFM

[WhoNeedsYou]

I have two days off a week (that are child free) so I would say 2 or three hours each day, making between 4-6 hours plus if like last week I'm cramming for auditions, an extra hour most nights after work and a few hours on a Sunday, getting randomly interrupted by a 5 yr old girl & her pink ukelele who tries to distract me & feed me biscuits.
So roughly ten - twelve ish hours if needed.
4 to 6 hours if not.

[Mog]

Outside of band rehearsals I usually do about an hour per day. I try to do at least 15 minutes with the metronome.

[MarkWJenkins]

I'm 25, work full time and when I'm not working, I'm a carer for my disabled mum. Don't really sleep that much either, so I average an hour or two of practice per day, sometimes less, sometimes more. Always try to do at least 20 mins to a click though (per session). Recently, I've had my hours cut in work, so thats afforded me a bit more time, so I've joined a new band.. Seems to be going well so far, and the drummist is one of the tighter ones I've jammed with, so that helps too lol :-P

Mark

[Bassman Steve]

This thread is uncomfortable reading. I have pretty much never practiced except to learn songs.

I guess I'm just naturally incredibly gifted.

[BigRedX]

Since the age of 14 when I learnt to change from one chord to another without having to stop and get my fingers into position, I don't think I have done any practicing that wasn't specifically for a song that whatever band I was in at the time was going to be playing.

These days I work from home, and will take breaks throughout the day to play guitar or bass - mostly working on new song ideas. From time to time I'll come up with an idea that I can't actually play and then I'll work on it until I can.

[spongebob]

38, and at a guess, I practice about 30ish minutes a day (some days more/less).

Most weeks they'll be a practice or a gig as well (obviously often both) as well.

I just try to make sure that I pick up a bass as close to everyday as I can.....except this week when I had (now recovering from) the flu. Didn't play for about 5 days, and that's my biggest gap in yonks!

[discreet]

[quote name='Bassman Steve' timestamp='1362205707' post='1997094']
I guess I'm just naturally incredibly gifted.
[/quote]

What luck!

[Roger2611]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1362179512' post='1996982']
Not sure why we're owning up to our ages, but what the hell, I'm 52.[/quote]

I guess I asked about the age thing because as we get older life pulls from different directions, kids grow up, abillity to practice increases because you are not going to keep waking them up but, work stresses and pressures increase so on the other side life offers less time / desire to practice. Older still and I assume (I will tell you when / if I get there) the work pressures decrease but health becomes more of an issue / influence on our abillity to practice

I played a lot more when I was younger but feel that practice time now is far more productive than ever before, I sat down last night and put some compilations on, nothing complex just some songs I like but have never wanted to or been bothered to learn to play, I picked up the acoustic bass and the result was by the end of each song I could play it and understood what the bass was doing