David Motto’s Practice Tip of the Week:
How to Overcome Any Musical Challenge

It’s Not About Working Harder and Harder

Many musicians hunker down and work harder and harder – and get more and more frustrated – whenever they face a musical difficulty. This week’s Practice Tip focuses on some creative ways to overcome these challenges – without driving yourself crazy.

8 Strategies to End Your Musical Frustration

1. Don’t blame the challenge on yourself.
Be objective. It’s just a problem and it must have a solution. Don’t let the fact that you’re facing a challenge get you down.

2. Don’t let a particular challenge define you.
Instead, define yourself as the musician you WANT to be. Picture that future version of yourself, and you’re already on the road to becoming that person. This is a very effective use of Visualization. Never underestimate the value of Visualization to help you overcome a musical challenge.

3. Don’t exaggerate the importance of the challenge.
Many musicians say “I always have difficulties with…” It’s probably not true that you ALWAYS have this difficulty. It clearly bothers you when it comes up, and you might be making it more important than it really is.

4. Look outside where you think the problem is.
Musical solutions are often found by focusing on the opposite of what the problem is. Here are two examples:

Example 1: If the problem is that you can’t play something fast enough, make sure you really, truly have total, absolute control of the notes at a slow tempo. Controlling the music at a slow tempo is the only way to eventually control it at a fast tempo.

Example 2: If the problem is that you can’t play the rhythm correctly, first make sure you can play all the pitches correctly. Sometimes it’s the struggle with finding the notes that messes up the rhythm.

5. Describe the challenge VERY clearly.
Saying, “I’m playing out of tune” is not specific enough. If you say, “I keep missing that one C#,” then you can more easily find the technical answer to overcome the issue.

6. Know what the music should sound like.
Define what the music would sound like if the challenge were already eliminated. Say something like, “If I played this the way I wanted it to sound, I would breeze through that C# as I move into the next phrase.” That gives a very different perspective on where you’re going and allows you to start moving beyond the challenge itself.

7. See what other musicians are doing.
Watch videos of other musicians who are not having the challenge with this song. See what they do. Maybe there’s a technique you haven’t thought of that other people are already using. You can use it too.

8. Be objective.
Stay open-minded, positive, calm, and objective. And make sure you are open to any and all possibilities of what may be causing your issue. This will always help you deal with musical challenges. Objective descriptions of problems and solutions are crucial to your success.

Any one of these eight strategies will be helpful for you. Taken together, they’ll create a very powerful force in helping you overcome any musical challenge without getting frustrated.

To Your Musical Success!
David Motto