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I hate to admit it, but here goes: I hate practicing the bass, mainly because I miss the dynamics of working through the songs with a band, and I'm overwhelmed with everything there is to learn. I learn best from practicing for...a practice session and then actually working on the songs with a band.
Do you practice much? And if you do, what are you practicing? I really do want to work on my skills, mostly by expanding my knowledge of theory and applying it to my playing.
My practicing now days is to just to keep my speed (what’s left if it) and agility up. When I have to learn new material I’ll practice a lot to just drive a song into the muscle memory to understand where chord changes take place. Once I’m comfortable with a song I’ll work more with the “feel” I’m looking for.
I've never been one for rote practice. Scales, arpeggios - uck!
I'm the most active on bass when learning new songs for a band. Right now with things they way they are, I'm a bit dormant. I'm working on writing new tunes so the bass does make an appearance.
However, I've been jamming on some 70s funk/soul to keep the fingers nimble and the hands-brain connection intact. I'm hitting YouTube and iTunes for new material, learn a song or two and then move on. I do that once a week or so between other musical pursuits.
I posted elsewhere that I want to dust off my BIAB and the Real Book and play through some jazz numbers. That forces me to think about chord theory - never a waste of time!
I was just telling my best buddy that I need to explore chord theory for my bass and guitar playing. I'm at the point where that would take me to a whole new level--I'm mostly interested in that for songwriting and arranging. The more I know, the better I'll be able to arrange and play all of the instruments on my recordings.
For the last 30 years, bass is all I play. Still able to do some recording. I have enough sheet music that I can still practice different styles of music, and keep my dexterity up.