(Continued from Friday, August 27, 2004)
In my previous post I had stated that practicing requires a degree of discipline. That is, our body should remain in practice motion. Follow a set schedule and try to stick with it. Well, to continue on that point of inertia, a person who practices should also get into a certain routine that they practice within. First off, I believe that you should have a set place that is designated for practicing. Similar to how we have set places to sleep, eat, and go to the washroom; we should also have a place to that is known to be for practicing.
Also, once we get into the actual practicing, there should also be a type of routine to get into. On a bass forum that I stumbled upon, people talked about how they're practicing habits. A majority of people on that forum had come with similar routines. That is, they would start out slow with a little warm-up with a couple of scales and chord arpeggios. Then they would get into the meat and work on various pieces or transcribing. After that, there would be a bit of a "cool-down". That is, a return back to scales. Granted this form of practicing may not be for everybody, but, it is one way of trying something new. If this isn't much of a problem, keep raising the ante on the warm-up section. Whether it be working on speed and time with a metronome, or focusing on working on accuracy and tone.
Whatever your practice routine is, the important thing is that you get your hands/body on your instrument. You can never over-prepare, but, it is possible to over-work yourself though.
More to come...
