Practice TODAY

Posted on June 7, 2017 by David Motto

David Motto’s Practice Tip of the Week
Practice TODAY

Reasons Musicians Don’t Practice Every Day

Today’s practice tip is a variation of last week’s “Practice Every Day.”

But, it’s a very important variation. Here’s why:

Even though musicians know they’ll benefit from daily practicing, very few people actually do it.

There are many reasons for this, including:

  • People are busy with other things.
  • It’s hard to get a practice session started.
  • Many musicians focus on “practicing” instead of “playing” music, and “practicing” does not excite them.

Psychological Barriers to Practicing

There is also a subtle, psychological barrier that stops many people from practicing daily.

The thought of practicing every day for the rest of your life is a difficult concept to face. It’s just too much to think about. It’s like a long road fading into the distance–with no set destination!

This barrier has actually gotten worse in the last few years because of a couple changes in our society.

First, the popularization of the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to get really good at something has scared off a lot of people. Many musicians wonder if they can just be happy at the level they are today if it’s going to take so long to experience the type of improvement they’re dreaming of. The idea that it takes so long to master a musical instrument is even stopping some people from taking up a musical instrument in the first place.

Second, the rapid growth of new technologies that promise extremely rapid learning systems makes the years-long pursuit of mastering a musical instrument seem, at best, old-fashioned and, at worst, not really a worthwhile way to spend time.

The Philosophical Side of Practicing TODAY

The solution to erasing your thoughts of the endless road ahead is to focus on practicing today only! Don’t worry about tomorrow. Your one and only responsibility is to practice music TODAY.

That’s all your responsibility ever is. Why? Well, without getting too philosophical about it, Today is the only time we ever have. After all, Tomorrow doesn’t really exist–it’s just a concept in our minds.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make long-term plans and goals. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t dream of a better future. But, it absolutely means that to carry out those goals and plans so that our dreams come true, we have to do something TODAY.

You have control over Today. So, make the most of it!

The Practical Side of Practicing TODAY

From a purely practical point of view, look over your schedule for Today and decide the best way to fit in your music. Decide when you’ll practice and for how long.

Once you know when you’ll practice, set a practice goal – just for Today. Having this daily goal gives you the focus you need to make real progress. Your responsibility is to meet Today’s goal Today. Nothing else.

With your daily goal in place, you’ll get carried away by the music you’re working on. All thoughts of Tomorrow and the endless road ahead will disappear. Taking action has an immediate, positive effect on any worry musicians have about the future.

Try thinking about just one day at a time – Today. Leave me a comment and let me know how this strategy works for you.

To Your Musical Success!
– David Motto

Posted in Achieving Goals, Motivation, Music, Music Lessons, Music Practice Tips, Positive Thinking | 7 Comments

Quick Rehearsal Tip – Don’t Be Too Specific

Posted on June 2, 2017 by David Motto

Don’t get too specific with your musical decisions. It’s better to say, “We’ll vamp until cue” instead of “Play this 6 times.” No one will remember to play that section 6 times at your performance, and being so specific will just add to the stress of being on stage!

Posted in Achieving Goals, Music, Music Rehearsal Tips, Performance Preparation | 2 Comments

Quick Performance Tip – Don’t Give Away the Next Song

Posted on June 1, 2017 by David Motto

Never play the beginning of your next song before you actually start performing that song on stage. Don’t give it away!

Posted in Music, Music Performance Tips | Leave a comment

Practice Every Day No Matter What

Posted on May 31, 2017 by David Motto

David Motto’s Practice Tip of the Week
Practice Every Day – No Matter What!

Most musicians intuitively understand that practicing every day is the best way to improve.  And, we’ve heard the cute reminders such as, “You don’t have to practice every day– just on the days you eat.”

But, there’s more to it than cute sayings.

Practicing every day has three big benefits that, taken together, are life-altering. Really, practicing daily is simply a game changer for musicians.

Reason #1: Daily Practicing Means More Time Improving

Practicing every day means you’re probably putting in more time than if you don’t practice every day. More time is important. According to research by Anders Ericsson at Florida State University (the world’s leading authority on building expertise and learning skills), time spent practicing by yourself is the #1 indicator of increased skill. Not rehearsals. Not performances. Just spending time alone with your instrument. More time equals more progress.

Here’s the irony of the situation. Most people think they’ll get more practice time by having two or three practice sessions a week and devoting some real time during each of those sessions. Unfortunately, these people are usually wrong. If you tell yourself you’ll practice when you have a lot of uninterrupted time available, chances are you’ll skip practicing more than you’ll do it!

For most people, most of the time, putting in short amounts of daily practice time, as surprising as it seems, will actually mean more overall time practicing music.

Reason #2: Daily Practicing Gives You More Focus

More progress also comes from learning your music in small increments. The human brain cannot absorb huge amounts of information at once. Sure, you can cram a lot of material into your brain (like the night before a final exam), but that information will quickly disappear.

If you’re trying to get all your practicing in during a 3-hour session on the weekend, you’re going to be playing through every single thing on your practice list. All your scales, arpeggios, exercises. All your songs. All the sections of these songs. Your ability to focus in on what will really help you improve when you’ve got so much to cover will be impaired.

Along with time spent practicing, how focused you are while practicing completely changes how much you get out of your practice sessions. Targeting specific goals on a daily basis allows you to totally focus on these goals, give yourself useful feedback, and make changes to your technique or musical approach. These small, daily, focused goals are the key to achieving your musical dreams.

In Professor Ericsson’s book Peak, there’s a great quote about the importance of focus:

“Shorter training sessions with clearer goals are the best way to develop new skills faster. It is better to train at 100 percent effort for less time than at 70 percent effort for a longer period. Once you find you can no longer focus effectively, end the session.”

Reason #3: Daily Practicing Builds Long-Term Memory

Practicing every day helps with your long-term memory. For the brain to transfer information from short-term memory (think: a phone number you heard just once) into long-term memory (think: your own phone number), your brain must perceive this information as being important.

Basically, the brain will only think something is important if there is emotion or repetition attached to that information. Practicing every day gives you the repetition your brain needs to move the information into long-term memory. This is true for musical facts (like music theory rules), song lyrics, physical technique (like an exact movement you need to make to play or sing a note accurately) and anything else you need to remember far into the future so you can perform effectively.

Another aspect of long-term memory is just being understood by research scientists: the importance of sleep. Apparently, one aspect of sleep is a process in the brain where decisions are made about what gets put into long-term memory and what gets erased. If you’re only practicing once a week, it doesn’t seem that anything you do that day will make it through this filter so your work becomes part of your long-term memory.

Daily practice means you’ll do some focused work, sleep, work more tomorrow, sleep again, and so on. Your brain will have multiple opportunities each week to commit important aspects of your music to long-term memory.

Committing to Daily Practicing

Practicing every day gives you more time with your instrument, makes learning more efficient, and increases your ability to remember what you’re playing. For me, these three reasons are an incredibly compelling incentive to put in some daily time improving my musical skills. I hope you feel the same way.

Short practice sessions every day are simply better than one or two long practice sessions per week. You’ll learn faster which means that, in the long run, you’ll get more done in less time.

Commit yourself to practicing music every day – no matter what! If you’re having issues making time in your life to play music each and every day, I recommend reading my blog article Making Time for Music When You’re Busy.

To Your Musical Success!
–David Motto

Posted in Achieving Goals, Motivation, Music, Music Practice Tips, Ten Minute Virtuoso | 4 Comments

Pursue Your Passion

Posted on May 30, 2017 by David Motto

What could you do today for 7 – 10 minutes to move you toward something you’ve always wanted to do? These short bursts of highly focused energy are the very essence of my Ten Minute Virtuoso method for building success. Give it a try!

Posted in Achieving Goals, Motivation, Music, Positive Thinking, Ten Minute Virtuoso | Leave a comment

Quick Performance Tip – Count In Every Song

Posted on May 29, 2017 by David Motto

Count in every song. Don’t just start playing and expect everyone else in the band to know where Beat One is. Too dangerous!

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Four Ways to Have Fun When You Practice

Posted on May 24, 2017 by David Motto

David Motto’s Practice Tip of the Week:
4 Ways to Have Fun When You Practice

It Can’t All Be Work!

Practicing music can be a lot of hard work. Mastering the technical demands of your instrument, learning challenging music, and having the discipline to practice every day require dedication and perseverance.

However, if your practicing feels like drudgery, something is wrong. Playing music should be fun.

One element of having fun is realizing that, out of all the activities you could take part in, you have chosen to play music.

Think about that for a minute.

Whether music is your hobby or your profession, you have countless other ways you could spend your time. Something has made you decide to play music. Make sure you’re enjoying this time!

If you’re not having fun in the practice room, I’ve got four suggestions for you.

Four Ways to Have Fun

1. Start and End with Something Fun:
Putting some fun songs, licks, or riffs at the very beginning and the very end of your practice session is a terrific way to sandwich some of the more serious stuff you’ll need to get done in the practice room. You’ll get fired up at the beginning, and you’ll hold onto the positive memory of ending with some music you truly enjoy playing.

2. Ignore What You’re “Supposed” to Do:
It can really be a lot of fun to forget about the way you’re expected to play and try some unconventional techniques. Go crazy! Do whatever you want. Try playing music without worrying about how you sound. Just play. Mess up some pitches and rhythms. Use bad tone. Make it comical.

3. Leave Your Serious Side Behind:
Hey, don’t be so serious! It’s actually no big deal if you play something and it doesn’t sound good. Actually, trying something and failing, giving yourself objective feedback, making an adjustment, and trying again are all hallmarks of the deliberate practice process. It’s a totally normal set of activities when you’re pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Please stop worrying and learn to laugh at yourself!

4. Play What You Love:
Play some music you absolutely love – even if it’s not on your “official” practice list. Your practice time can’t be 100% filled with technical exercises and the most challenging section of whatever song you’re working on right now. Even better, put music you absolutely, truly love on your official practice list. That’s a great way to make practicing more fulfilling and fun.

Feeling Lucky

Sure, there’s a lot of serious work that needs to get accomplished in the practice room, but the overall feeling should be one of joy.

In the grand scheme of things, we should all feel lucky to play music. Whether it’s 10 minutes a day or 6 hours a day, playing music is a pretty terrific activity.

Make practicing music the fun part of your day.

To Your Musical Success!
David Motto

Posted in Motivation, Music, Music Lessons, Music Practice Tips | 2 Comments

Quick Performance Tip – Keep Your Game Face On

Posted on May 22, 2017 by David Motto

While you’re on stage, keep your game face on and keep going . . . no matter what! Never let the audience know that something is wrong.

Posted in Music, Music Performance Tips | Leave a comment

How to Deal with Frustration

Posted on May 17, 2017 by David Motto

David Motto’s Practice Tip of the Week:
How to Deal with Frustration

Frustration is Bound to Happen

Practicing Music- Unfamiliar topics causes frustration

It goes without saying that when you practice music, you are trying to play things that you don’t currently know how to play. Practicing music is about taking musical information that is currently unfamiliar and slowly working it into something familiar.

Unfortunately, tackling unfamiliar topics is frustrating for most people, and musicians are no exception.

What if musicians expected to feel frustrated sometimes? If frustration is expected, then you won’t let it get the best of you.

4 Strategies for Dealing with Frustration

STRATEGY 1: Recognize that It’s Normal
When you begin to feel the slightest bit of frustration, you can recognize what is happening and nip it in the bud. You can say to yourself, “I’m outside of my comfort zone working on this new material. It’s no big deal. That’s what practicing is all about.”

STRATEGY 2: Move On
If you find that frustration is getting the best of you, then it may be time to move on to something new, maybe some music that is already familiar and fun. Or, just a different section of the same song. Just leave the source of your frustration behind. It’s probably a good idea to be switching often among all the various items on your practice list anyway. This process, called Interleaving Practice, is super effective for learning new material and for never giving yourself enough time to get frustrated with anything.

STRATEGY 3: Take a Break
If switching songs doesn’t do the trick, take a break. Yes, it really and truly is fine to walk away from the source of your frustration. When you feel calm again, return to the task and approach it with a fresh start.

STRATEGY 4: Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself
We must always remember that mastering a musical instrument is a process that takes time and patience. Be realistic about how much you can get accomplished at any one practice session. And, cut yourself some slack!

Give Yourself Time for Improvement

As David G. Myers says in his book The Pursuit of Happiness, “Although we often overestimate how much we will accomplish in any given day, we generally underestimate how much we can accomplish in a year, given just a little progress every day.”

Musicians need to be reminded of this pearl of wisdom at each and every practice session.

Don’t get frustrated. It’s not worth it.

To Your Musical Success!
David Motto

Posted in Achieving Goals, Motivation, Music, Music Lessons, Music Practice Tips, Positive Thinking | 3 Comments

Quick Rehearsal Tip – Know Who is Giving Cues

Posted on May 15, 2017 by David Motto

Decide as a group who’s giving cues where they’re needed in different songs. Make your communication clear inside your group! Clear cues, and knowing where they’re coming from, will make everyone feel more confident on stage.

Posted in Music, Music Performance Tips, Music Rehearsal Tips | Leave a comment