Practice and Time Management

Practice is essential, yeah yeah yeah, practice makes perfect and all but it is true! That's how you build in music and it's a hard habit to get into for sure! If you're having a bad day, you don't want to pick up the sticks and practice your doubles or learn new fills, or familiarize more with sheet music, you just want to jam! That's something I struggle with - finding motivation to practice. Practicing isn't learning a new song, it's learning more dynamics and sharpening your edges, usually I'll play the songs I know I can play or find a new one but that's not building in skill, that's finding a song that you can already play and learning that. Find a song you can't play and practice hard to play it!

Practice is not mean't to be precise, it's not a gig or a show. It's sloppy and it sucks but that's how it is, however, you don't have to follow the guidelines! You know, one of the best rock gods, Dave Grohl says "music is like an ikea chair, you can follow the instructions to build it from people who have already done so or you can find out how it's built on your own, that's the beauty of music, because at the end of the day, and you're sitting in your crappy Ikea chair, you're proud that you built it on your own." but this, by no means, does not certify anybody to drift from what your teacher tells you or from the guidelines, it means you can add your own aspect and creativity to whatever you learn and thats more rewarding than getting help and doing it just like the next person.

"But I don't have time for practice, what do I do?" You might say. Well I can tell you all you need to know in one word: change. Everybody's schedule is built around what matters most to them, sometimes it's need, like a job, other times it's want, like other hobbies. But in order to practice, change your schedule according to practice time. So instead of "I'll eat at 8, I work from 9-5, then I have friends to hang out with, then dinner and chores. I can practice guitar tomorrow", you could change that to "Well today, I'll wake up 30 minutes earlier to practice my scales, breakfast, work from 9-5, then try to practice guitar from then to dinner, then chores. I can hang out with my friends tomorrow." Because if music is a serious passion for you, then you have to plan accordingly with your practice and your instrument always the main subject of your schedule. It shouldn't be built around your work or school or your daily requirements. If you have a serious passion for an instrument, your first thought of the day is when you can practice and for how long. On the other hand if you want to practice TWO (or more) instruments, I can only wish you good luck! XD XD

For me it's not "I'll hang out with Chase and then maybe practice." its always "I'll practice then maybe hang out with Chase." see how that outlook changes significantly? None of this means anyone has to practice everyday and just completely dismiss and bypass your friends or free time. It, as a musician, means you have to put practice above free time.

This is surely not an overnight process, I'm struggling to managing time (see what I did there?) myself, and even when I do practice, its even harder to practice on the little things. So I'll leave you with a message constantly repeated in my music lessons:

Are you going to become better than you were yesterday? Will you be better tomorrow?

- Levi, the idiot in disguise