What do you practice?

Thought this would be an interesting topic in which every one can share what they practice and how they do it, this can then maybe inspire others of seeing new ways and things to practice.

Okay i'll start off. Usually I write down what im going to practice the night before and for how long, that way when I get home I try to use time as well as possible.

So something like this

Warm up - Usually consists of playing along to a metronome starting off at 80bpm doing variations on the 1234(like 1324) for about 5 minutes. Then for the next 5 move the metronome up to 100bpm. This warming up the right hand to, if you hands are cold I often have to double this time.

Sight-Reading - Well not every one wants to know it but I do! 30 minutes or more a day, at the moment im working through simplified sight-reading for bass.

Chord Tones - Using the cycle of 4ths/5ths I run through every mode in 2 octaves of every key(only done 6 keys so far! Best not to overload yourself) saying the name of the note while I play, that way I find im getting to know the fretboard that much better as im starting to remember what notes make up the chord tones as opposed to just knowing a pattern. This is something which i'll continue working on even once i've done it through all 12 keys.

Jazz improv/walking - 30 mins to an hour. Can do alot of different things here, but latley its been transcribing some simple standards such as blue monk and looking at what the bass player is doing in walking basslines, and then coming up with my own ideas incorporated with what i've just worked out. The thing even with walking lines in jazz is its all done on the fly so i've been trying that, not to good at it - but hey its something to work for. Soloing is hard for me, its very hard not to overplay and stay interesting, but its nice to look back say a month and see that I have improved on it.

Learn songs - Something which is important as its FUN! At the moment im working on Do i Do by stevie wonder and thats not to far of completion and Turn it again from Graham central station which is going to take a while longer. At the moment its about half an hour a day on each song.

Be Creative! - Something I don't do enough really, now im going to start being!

And then of course any technical exercises I want to get working well such as double-thump / four finger picking.

Ah well sorry for rambling im just interested to know what the rest of you do, sorry for any spelling/grammer mistakes! Since I left school i've forgotten everything to do with English!

Get bass, do a few hand and tendon exercises, a few easy songs. Play.

I usually play piano before I play bass, so my hands are usually ready to go.

I had a routine before my tendonitis but since I've healed I've been a bit lax with my practice... I usually stretch, warm up, maybe make up some short funky lines, then do whatever I feel like doing, maybe playing a song or walking over a chord progression...

New years resolution: Get a practice routine and stick to it!

i dont really have a practice routine
usually every one is asleep when im home anyways so whenever i can make sum noise i either play along to some songs or just mess around really
probably should do some technique exercises but oh well

1. Warm up

2. Practice or run through songs I already know

3. Optional: Learn something new

!. Just play.

I'm new to bass (or any instrument for that matter). Only been practicing for five months and I need a good practice routine.

Since I'm so new I feel like anything I practice is gonna help me improve.

I'm sure there's a better routine out there but for now I usually warm up with scales to a metronome for about 5-10 minutes. Then I may do some of Dman's finger exercises for a while and then practice a song I'm trying to learn or improve on. I practice every day for an hour or two.

I wish I could get to the point where I can just pick up my bass and start playing something decent.

Alright you've encouraged me to get one, at the moment i've just been doing some stuff by ear, trying to learn chord patterns and jst jamming some stuff out. Really need to get some structure for it to benefit me greatly

Whenever I get the urge to play something, I play it.
I don't have a routine or anything...
If I feel like playing a song, I'll play it.
If I feel like learning a new song, I'll learn it.
If I feel like just playing random groovy stuff, I'll put my groove cap on.

I don't really have a daily routine, but I do focus on certain things I want to improve.

For a warm-up I started a cycle ages ago that I'm sticking to even today. I play through a few most recently learned songs. I do this because I want to be at the point where I can play my songs without the need for a warm-up. That way, when I perform and I do the warm-up everything becomes 10 times easier and I can relax and use my energy on a stage show.

For technique I tend to learn, again, through songs. I find songs that related to the technique I'm trying to learn. Ever since the beginning I've been trying to get down Steve Harris' finger style and now I've gotten extremely good at. Currently, improving that technique means playing some of the more endurance challanging songs of Iron Maiden.
Another technique I'm doing is Flea style slapping. I started out learning some RHCP songs with slap lines, now I picked up random slap lines which are played with the "standard" upward thumb style and I'm practicing those Flea style.
Most recently I've been trying to get Ryan's style of playing down. Very aggressive and he mixes techniques up quite a lot. So, I've started practicing some Mudvayne, but it's a serious challange.

Here's something no one mentioned: Music style. Not every style of music plays the same way, obviously. Jazz sounds different, Rock sounds different, Funk, Metal...bla bla bla. It all sounds different.
Since I've got the Metal area pretty much down, because I've been playing it (and still am) ever since I started, I decided to try a few other styles. Currently that's Funk and Hard Rock. How do I practice this? A lot of listening to songs from the selected style and paying attention while listening of course (the bus ride across town is perfect for this ) and of course I pick up a few standards now and then and learn them, most of the time with improvisations included in order to get the feel down properly.

Finally - Free styling! This is just to build my creativity. It's not just picking up my bass and playing anything...although I sometimes do that. I take a song that has an extremely simple bass line and just play around with it to make it super complicated. This is not something I would do live, but the more complicated the improv is in practice, the easier it will be to the simple ones live. Something I really like doing is to turn on some cartoons and just...play. Without even thinking some great stuff comes out. Cartoons are good for this because of the variety of mixed sounds and constant wacky music.

Like I said, I don't use a strict regime, but I have noticed that if I look back three days and sum up what I did - all together I've spent at least an hour or more on each of these segments.

Guzco wrote:1. Warm up

2. Practice or run through songs I already know

3. Optional: Learn something new

This.

Warm up stretches.
Run through a few scales slowly then speed up.
Play the bass solo from The Lemon Song.
Practice all the songs for the band I'm in, twice.
Work out lines for new songs.
Jam, improvise for ages.

I don't really learn songs anymore, I do occasionally but I find it takes away from other things I have to do.