Cracking the Code of a Sustainable, Effective Practice (of anything):
Being a musician and music teacher puts one in somewhat of a bubble.
On any given day, I’m:
listening to music (for fun)
listening to music (to teach)
Practicing music (piano, guitar, drums, recording, improvisation, reading)
Playing music (not trying to improve, just to play)
Reading sheet music (to keep my sight-reading up a tiny bit)
Writing about music
Filming Youtube videos
(Attempting to) Record Music
Reading about music
Learning about music (via books, teachers on Youtube, interviews, etc)
I do so, of course, because I’m passionate about becoming a better musician, realizing some of musical dreams, and teaching others about what I learn. I’ve had the desire (through these pursuits) to achieve various musical goals my whole life, and I’m still on that journey. My students are all at different parts of that same journey.
Your Personal White Whale
Though my life is considerably more music-centric than my students, I resonate deeply with the struggle many of them have:
Just how can anyone (actually) find a sustainable and regular practice they enjoy and benefit from?
It’s a relative problem for those at every level of the game. The struggles I have really aren’t so different, just on different problems.
My version of this struggle:
How do I improve closing loops that I open? How do I actualize my potential as a player and educator on a daily basis?
Often we can be engaged at a surface level pursuing a skill- in our case taking music lessons, playing in a band or ensemble- essentially having an external obligation and common goal with other musicians as their only practice. In my case, it’s the pull of the status quo to coast on my previous accomplishments rather than to develop things that I can’t yet do.
Without direction it can be hard to find focus, accountability, and a musical vehicle by which to improve on our own, and we can end up regelated to only occasionally or accidentally improving. This is usually accompanied by limiting beliefs that justify and excuse away our inconsistency:
-we aren’t “talented” enough to go deeper or to find our own individual practice
-we’re too busy
-life is too chaotic, we lack focus
-a regular practice is only for a select few, artists, etc.
-we are somehow both too good for a daily relationship with it (only beginners need that, or we have “arrived”) and not good enough (regular practice is only for the pros who have ample time for it)
The main truth probably boils down to this:
You mainly just don’t know how, and you’ve never seen a good example and clear path,
explained step by step.
Catching the Whale
I’m here to tell you, why you pursue this matters. It can make the difference to keep you engaged and growing forever.
What will keep you committed and succeeding though (I’d wager) needs to be more general. If music is a language (which it is, at a variety of levels), we have our sights set on a fluency that serves us, in order to convey and express our feelings- not just a few sentences of one-off songs or parts of songs.
That’s what I think most want out of a music practice, to get to some level of basic fluency so they can feel and experience the benefits.
What does fluency look like? It can be found at any level. I touched on this in my 2nd lesson on Youtube
Ways of practicing fluency:
-Studying the smallest, most attainable amount of material possible: tunes, riffs, etc. Songs you know already are a great place to start. They are the musical sentences we can imitate to get us introduced to musical intuitions.
-Not minding being terrible at it, knowing full well that’s a necessary part of the journey. We’re learning a language that isn’t even necessary to speak so frustration makes no sense.
-Systematically integrating that small amount of content into the body, mind, and ears for 10-15 minutes a day (can be tweaked, but daily is essential).
-Playing in time, as slow as needed to make it effortless, as much as possible.
-Reviewing the music with the eyes closed, promoting muscle memory and deeper listening.
-Humming each note in a chord, or tagging it with information like the note name or scale degree.
-Novel, raw practice: playing while watching TV, sneaking in practice into your life.
-Practicing with no instrument-reviewing mentally throughout your day, by visualizing and putting yourself qualitatively there, using mental down time to review.
-Focusing growing an awareness and hunger for quality more and more, not only of your music, but in others’ music and in the quality of your practice.
In short: totally transferring information from mind to body and ears, from the conscious to the subconscious, unfamiliar to familiar, manual to automatic.
The above way of practicing works. I know this from not only personal experience, but from seeing students’ transformations when they got wise to the game a bit. Moreover, improving at music is no different than improving at anything else in life:
We honestly and authentically acquire the skills needed to achieve our goals, a little every day. The specific disconnected content studied is slowly but surely put into a connected wholistic framework that is infinitely scalable.
Realizing the Whale Doesn’t Need to be Caught
Musical goals are useful, short and long term. They enable our movement towards musical literacy and mastery. But the above information can only do so much without going a little deeper.
One half of musical trouble is akin to the above discussion, people often don’t know how to practice well, make time for consistency, or have a good musical role model.
The other half isn’t about music at all.
When I set out on this journey, I really needed to accomplish my musical goals. I had enough success to justify this need, so I forged ahead. Yet the harder I tried to achieve my goals, the worse it got.
I document the big blindspot I had and my subsequent rediscovery of music here. In short, my need for my goals to be realized was tied to my feeling okay about myself, my need for self-validation, and the need to create some “artistic” statement.
As my mentor Kenny Werner frequently reminds me, - if you need to get better, it probably won’t happen. If you don’t need it and it’s a gift, you can get as good as you want.
Now I know, if you’re reading this, or are studying music, your goals will vary. We all want something different out of music, and life for that matter. The beautiful thing about the luxury and joy of studying and playing music is that it can interface with anyone:
-those that are musically ravenous
-those who want to write songs they’ll never share
-those that play as an occasional hobby
-those who just want to play only three chord jams
-those who will play once a month/year/decade
-those who find therapy and joy through a music practice
All of us want to feel complete though, not feeling inadequate and insecure as a default.
I see many come through my teaching studios who remind me of me when I was their age, feeling insecure in my worth and doubling down on learning more, having more opinions, knowing more, owning more gear, putting up a front-as if that would finally fix my problems. All while shirking away from an authentic practice for myself that was sustainable and fulfilling. I’m slowly learning how to get through to them (and myself).
Be it music, or any other skill that calls your name- it’s all the same. Be in service to it and realize that the prize you want at the end of the game is the smallest part of the actual benefit.
Working on something in your life (anything at all) is built on a paradox-one I was only able to see plainly as an adult:
A daily qualitative practice of anything isn’t about:
the result,
being better than someone else,
to finally “make it” in some tangible way,
accomplishing anything for that matter.
It actually is about:
how it changes you
how it demands you lay your ego down
Seeing through the regular building of something
the expansion of your own consciousness, as well as the worlds’.
Being a conduit for emotional expression, beauty, meaning, and joy.
The above is true no matter the level of your aspirations. When it doesn’t matter how good you get because you enjoy the journey, you can make progress and feel complete and benefit from the practice at every level.
Whatever you’re practicing, test this advice, see if it helps you. Don’t fixate on the goals, and take your time making a qualitatively deeper journey. You might get farther than you’d ever imagine.
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