7 Essential Tips To Maximise Your Practice Time (L#168)

"To make a real difference to your development as a musician and bass player you have to practice your craft."

That statement sounds like common sense, right?

Well trust me, most of the time common sense is not common practice!

I've been a professional bass player for many years now, and as a bi-product most of my best friends are also professional musicians. That's who I spend most of my working time with, and most of my down-time with too.

Now, what do you think one of the most commonly discussed topics between musicians is?...

You've got it - practice!

One of the most common things I hear from my friends is "Man, I need to practice more - I'm just not making any progress right now... I feel like I'm stuck in a rut".

Now bare in mind that these guys are already making a living from playing music - but still, they're struggling to get in the shed and do some serious practice to push their playing to the next level and beyond.

It's such a popular conversion topic because all of them have done a serious amount of practice in the past to get them to where they are today.

So, what's my point?

That wherever you are in your progression as a musician and bass player right now, the only way you're going to make a big difference to your playing is getting in that practice shed, knuckling down and putting in the hours. This never stops, even if you've been playing for 20, 30, 40 or 50 years - if you want to make that big difference, you're going to have to dig in and make it happen.

Sounds like a lot of hard work, right?

Well, the truth is - it is!

But, I believe the reason that many players struggle to practice is that their not maximising their practice time effectively - and therefore end up demotivated, and even worse stop practising and enjoying their practice time all together.

It doesn't have to be like that!

Spending time with your instrument, working on things that are tough, trying new things - these should all be enjoyable. In fact, they should be more than enjoyable - you should be looking forward to getting your hands on your bass every minute of the day.

Now don't get me wrong, it's still hard work - a lot of hard work, no doubt about that. But with the right mind set, systems and strategies in place - it can be fun, and you can take your bass playing to the next level with a smile on your face, not a frown!

In this lesson I'm going to share 7 essential tips to maximise your practice time.

I'm going to discuss why you need to keep a detailed practice log, why you should be surrounding yourself with other musicians and a likeminded community, how to keep inspired, why staying laser focused is so important, and heaps more.

As always, see you in the shed...

Scott :)