I have acquired even thicker calluses on my fingers now, and on most weekdays average around an hour of practice time. My current practice routine looks like the following:
- Warmup, scales, proficiency exercises (string crossing, hammer ons, pizz drills etc) for about 10 to 15 mins
- More scales for another 15 mins
- Bowing practice 15 to 25 mins
- Pizz practice 15 to 25 mins (walking basslines, chords and songs)
All with a metronome, of course. For scales, I started the month with Bb and D one octave. I now have the following major scales under my fingers:
- Bb (one octave)
- F (two octave)
- D (one octave)
- C (one octave)
- G (two octave, ending at the harmonic)
and working on the following:
- A
- Eb
Areas of focus
In terms of proficiency training,
- Maintaining my left hand shape (especially when moving from string to string)
- Holding my left index finger in place
- Training my left pinky not to lift off far away from the strings
- Maintaining a consistent tone when doing "long" bows
Adding more theory and learning, especially with regards to jazz bass playing,
- Chords in Bb major
- Chords in F major
Songs
- All of Me (first standard!)
- Autumn Leaves
- Studies 1, 2 and 3 from Twenty-One Studies
I also attempted to transcribe Count Bassie's Segue in C - well, the first 20 seconds or so from when the bass starts.
Materials
These are the current materials I'm working with,