Snowball Your Practice Routine

Gone are the days when you could stay home and practice your own music
on your bass for 8 hours a dayeveryday! Its easy to fall into a deadening
cycle, consuming your days learning other peoples material, and practicing
the same stale exercises just to maintain your chops on the bass so you can
make it through your next gig.

With limited time on your hands, every minute of your personal practice
routine counts. If you havent given up on working on your own music, but
just not finding enough time to work on it, then read on. Here are 4 Potent
Habits that can snowball your practice routine, allowing you to achieve
extraordinary results in a short period of time.

Introduction

The 4 potent habits are:

1. Differentiate your Primary and Secondary Purpose

2. Shift Your Learning Perspective from Memorization to Language

3. Never Lose Sight of the Three Principles of Music

4. Align Your Behavior.

Potent Habit #1: Differentiate Your Primary and

Secondary Purpose

Your Primary Purpose is, and should always be, what you are doing now
exactly now. Your Secondary Purpose should be what you wish to accomplish
minutes or years later.

By understanding this differentiation, you are able to execute any practice

routine with precise laser-sharp focus and accuracy!

Distractions reduce the quality of our actions. Focus allows our mind to soak
in more information with less time and accelerate the learning process.

The faster we learn and see our musical growth, the more we become
motivated toward practice. Motivation naturally thirsts for more growth. And
witnessing growth feeds for more motivation! This is effortless learning.

Understanding Your Primary Purpose: Your Moment

 Your Primary Purpose is and should always be your moment. Here are two
examples of how you can make your moment your undeniable purpose:

Developing Technique: If you are practicing a certain technique,

then do only that! Experience all of the subtle details in developing that
technique. Become aware of all the the tensions in your feet, legs, waist,
back, arms, fingers, shoulders, neck and head. Adjust and re-adjust from
what you become aware of. Become aware of the subtle changes and
behaviors in groove, tone, and sound when you execute the same technique
using different strings and different notes. Notice all details. Awareness
accelerates the internalizing process! Conscious awareness makes every
action that you take an action of highest quality and intentionality.

Learning Musical Vocabulary: If you are practicing a melodic run,

be aware of all possibilities to play the same melodic run. Discover each
combination of fingering. Notice how certain fingerings feel more natural.
Discern the fingerings that naturally groove. Be aware of any changes in tone
quality, due to shifting up and down your fretboard and changing strings. Be
aware of how the duration of one note can drastically affect the melodys
mood and groove. You are striving for intentionality. You are striving for
conscious awareness.

Being aware of all subtleties may seem anal and more time consuming.
However, in the long run, you will find that you naturally end up avoiding
many pitfalls that will ultimately stunt your growth and musical freedom on
the bass.

I encourage you to explore ultimate focus and conscious awareness in

everything that you do for at least one month. Drastic results can become
apparent within just one month!

Subtle awareness in technique naturally helps you play longer, faster, and
more fluid. Subtle awareness in groove, makes your groove sound more
polished. Subtle awareness in melody and harmony are what make and
break great musicians!

Understanding Your Secondary Purpose: Your

Immediate or Long-term Goals

Here are some examples of an immediate or long-term goal:

Be able to play a 3 over 4 poly-rhythm

Walk a bass line over any difficult set of chord changes

 Be able to effortlessly play a specific melodic run.

Secondary Purpose provides direction. Primary Purpose provides quality.

Effective Practice Maintains a Continuous Interplay

Between Primary and Secondary Purpose

An example of an effective practice routine may look like this: Your

Secondary Purpose is to get your bass. As you pick up your bass, that
moment becomes your Primary Purpose. You become aware of how cold your
bass may feel. You become aware of the weight of your bass. Your Secondary
Purpose then changes to accomplishing playing simple rhythms over a
metronome. As soon as you begin practicing these rhythms, your Primary
Purpose then shifts to the practice itself. During this shift, your awareness
also shifts. You become aware of the sounds that you are playing. You
become aware of how each simple rhythm affects the groove. Your
Secondary Purpose then shifts to maintaining this rhythmic exercise for 20
minutes. During your entire practice routine you are aware of the current
moment and where you are going.

If your Secondary Purpose is not met at the end of your practice, it is not
important. It is still okay.

Potent Habit #2: Shift Your Learning Perspective

from Memorization to Language

Try this exercise. See how long it takes for you to memorize this set of 10
words:

1. Zortdon

2. Wexjoif

3. Teleop

4. Lajdoetow

5. Alwogksnf

6. Worejfns

7. Ajeiovmasl

8. Alkjeod
9. Ako

10. jnodjf

Now, see how long it takes for you to memorize this set of 10 words:

1. the

2. dog

3. went

4. to

5. my

6. school

7. because

8. he

9. was

10. hungry

Which set of words was easier to learn?

Im sure the second set of words was easier!

Why is that? The first set of words had little to no meaning for us. The second
set of words have meaning and form a language. This exercise teaches a
valuable concept: Personal meaning creates language and language is easier
to remember and manipulate.

Begin applying this concept to everything that you are trying to learn.
Explore these examples:

Here is an example of how you can create personal meaning

for a simple G7 chord and turn that meaning into a language that is
easily manipulated: A G7 chord, is comprised of the notes G, B, D, F. The
notes B, D, and F can be perceived as an incomplete B diminished chord. A B
diminished chord is comprised of the notes B, D, F, Ab. If this G7 chord can
be perceived as an incomplete B diminished chord, then it can also be
perceived as an incomplete D, F, and Ab diminished chord. You now have a
 deeper understanding of a G7 chord. Your available options for playing over
this G7 chord have increased significantly.

Here is an example of how you can turn your musical

perception into a language: Start applying rhythmic and melodic phrases
like language. Play these words over many different contexts. Experience
how each combination reacts and behaves and how they make other people
react and behave. Some rhythms and melodies feel abrasive and offensive.
Other rhythms and melodies feel pleasant.

Potent Habit #3: Never Lose Sight of the Three

Principles of Music

Never lose sight of these principles of music:

1. Rhythm

2. Melody

3. Harmony

These principles should always be present in every approach of your

practice. If you are practicing chromatic permutations (one finger per fret
type of exercises), then always strive to make it groove. Play these exercises
over different rhythms. Also, strive to find what chords these chromatic forms
sound good in!

For example: A fingering of 1, 3, 2, 4 (G, A, Ab, Bb) sounds great over an

Amin7 b5 chord! There are other possibilities as well. You have now created
meaning for an otherwise meaningless chromatic permutation exercise and
you also made music out of it!

Apply this knowledge to music and all your exercises will no longer be just an
exercise for exercise sake!

Potent Habit #4: Align Your Behavior

Are your behaviors inline with what you wish to accomplish?

If you want to have an awesome jazz feel, then you need to immerse
yourself in jazz music. If you want to be able to play deadly grooves that
make people move, then you need to immerse yourself in music that is
danceable. If you want to play organically then you need to listen to
 musicians that have a time feel that breathes and whose playing is
melodically free.

The answer to this question requires total honesty. Is your behavior inline
with the behavior of people that are already achieving what you are trying to
achieve?

*Im not suggesting that you adopt destructive behavior here, such as drugs,
ego, etc

Strive to eliminate all weakness! Drop all egos! No need to worry about
losing your coolness. Take a good look at yourself and face your
weaknesses!

This potent habit is crucial to ensuring that everything that you decide to
practice never loses sight of your ultimate goal as a bass player. By aligning
your behavior you will inevitably achieve your goals!

Wrap up

Lets wrap things up!

The 4 potent habits are:

1. Differentiate your Primary and Secondary Purpose

2. Shift Your Learning Perspective from Memorization to Language

3. Never Lose Sight of the Three Principles of Music

4. Align Your Behavior

Get This

Awareness accelerates the internalizing process! Conscious awareness

makes every action that you take an action of highest quality and
intentionality.

You are striving for intentionality. You are striving for conscious
awareness.

Secondary Purpose provides direction. Primary Purpose provides

quality.
 During your entire practice routine be aware of the current moment
and where you are going.

Personal meaning creates language and language is easier to

remember and manipulate.

Make music out of any meaningless musical exercise!

Align your behavior

Adopt these 4 potent habits to your personal practice routine on the bass
and you will own any limited time you may have and always progress toward
your personal musical goals