Musicians Dojo

I tend to read a number of personal development blogs. They give me a whole world of insight into ways I can improve my day to day life. But the other day, I stumbled upon the blog ZenHabits.net. I read on a number of topics all hitting on tips as to how to simplify your life to create more room for what you love doing. As I read, it became clear, this is an excellent approach to a subject that I have tapped on in a couple of past posts: Finding time to practice. After some great insight from my reading, I would like to transpose this idea just for you, the aspiring musician, to help you create a stable, enjoyable practice routine.

Quality and quantity of practice depends on you.

One of the most important things about your practice isn’t even concerning your practice. It’s actually concerning everything else you do through your days, weeks, and months. It’s your mourning, noon, and evening routines (or lack thereof). It’s the events and occasions that happen to you and around you. It’s the people you’re connected to and the places you dwell. It’s every major aspect of your environment.

A cluttered schedule = Fail

If you can’t find time to practice, I have a question for you. What is your day schedule like? How many things do you have going on through your day? How many tasks have you already packed into the time your awake? It’s no wonder you can’t seem to get the most out of your practice. I’m surprised you get anything substantial out of any of the other things you are busy with throughout the day if this is you.

This is my suggestion to you. Take a good look at everything you have packed into your day, and clean it up. What tasks are the least important? What kinds of things can you put off for another day, or another week? What kinds of things do you not even need at all? A daily/weekly schedule is much like a bedroom. It gets very cluttered and messy and if we want to move in another piece of furniture, we need to rearrange some things and take out somethings to keep in another room. If you’re serious about musical improvement, clean up your time and make room for your practice. It’ll be one of the most important links in the chain reaction to better practicing.

A cluttered mind = Fail

Another thing I got from Zen Habits is how to clear out your thoughts. I have anxiety a little bit more than the average person. I grew up in an environment that constantly had me on my feet worrying about what I’m going to do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. I didn’t realize it, but it became chronic and built up stress. This stress limited my ability to think clearly for myself and to get out and do the things I had to do. Some anxiety is not bad. We need a healthy amount to keep us aware of surviving and bettering ourselves, but too much of it will ultimately result in the opposite effect. The stress from anxiety can greatly affect your mood, and therefore your ability to effectively practice. Even when you have mastered something, it can sometimes even hamper your overall performance.

Before your next practice session, take a walk and during your walk, turn your attention to what is going on inside of your head. Talk to yourself and get the major issues and how you feel about them out of the way. Afterward, bring your mind out of the subject and settle it on the trees, the wind, everything that is going on around you at that moment. The point is to start being present. The ability to be present now is one of the most important things anyone with an abundance of anxiety can do to keep the mind clean and in order. Keep the RAM free so you can dedicate it to your practice. Once you’ve done this regularly for about a week, you will notice a significant amount of improvement in the attention you are able to give to practicing your instrument. When you have more attention toward it, you are able to concentrate with less frustration, and with more enjoyment.

A cluttered environment = Fail

When practicing, its all about concentration – focus, focus, focus. You want 0 distractions. The kind of things that can bring distractions include TV, radio (unless you are playing along with it), chattering people, vacuum cleaners, low flying b52’s, nuclear holocausts, computer desktops with a bunch of distracting elements (in the case you are practicing in front of the computer with tab or software)… you get the picture.

You want to be in a room that is as quiet and simple as possible. It’s probably also good for the room to be clean, as a very messy room can create obstacles and eye catching elements that steal your focus away from your playing. Turn any TV in the room off. Unless your playing along with something on the radio, turn it off too. If you usually use your computer to hook up to for software and sheet music, make sure all other applications are closed. Turn off email notifications, RSS programs, alarms, and any other things that could make noises or steal focus away from what you are using. Use ONLY the programs that are essentially necessary for your practice. Close all other applications.

If there is any pattern you see here, it should be one of simplifying every aspect of your day to day life. The less you have cluttering your life, the more room you will have for improving your practice. Of course this takes compromise, but actually wanting to become a great musician should require such a compromise to properly and completely focus on this passion. It’s a very important one after all. It is your stress reliever, it is your personal time for expression, it is the one thing that makes you feel most worth the effort of art in this world should it not?

There are plenty of other things you can do to improve your opportunity to play consistently and consciously. These are just some that I’ve realized myself. Share your own methods of keeping your routine together here.