Habits. These are things that we naturally do, whether positive or negative. What is the first thing you do when you wake up? More than likely, it’s what you do every day. These habits affect our day, our productivity and so much more! When it comes to being a musician, habits are extremely important. There are probably more than 3 habits that make students successful, but these are the top 3 that I’ve seen and experienced in my years of being a musician and teaching musicians.
Consistency
Being consistent is my #1 habit for students. Daily is best, but as often as you can spend time with your instrument will make you better in what you do. Yes, life can get in the way and challenges with schedules come up, but if you can set aside even 15-20 minutes a day to spend with the instrument, you’ll see improvement very quickly!
Knowing What and How to Practice
Back when I was a young musician and fought back against my mother wanting me to practice, she’d set a timer for 10 minutes and I had to sit there and make sounds on the piano for that long and not get up. While that’s consistent, did it help me? Of course not! Because I was just messing around, playing my music and not practicing. Practicing is not just starting at the beginning and going until the end a certain number of times. Practicing is figuring out where the trouble spots are, figuring out how to fix them, drilling over those spots again and again, taking the music apart into small chunks, going slowly, and then working toward putting those smaller chunks into bigger chunks so that you can work on putting the entire piece of music together.
Patient Diligence
Because this is my list, I put two somewhat together, but it does work as one complete concept. Being patient with yourself as you learn the music is an essential habit as a musician. Being diligent in taking on a challenge, not giving up and working at it is also an essential habit. But when put the two concepts together, being patient AND diligent, that’s where you’ll see the improvement. As an example, if you listen to a beginning musician, say 3 months into their musical journey, you may not hear beautiful music. But after a year into their musical journey, if the patient diligence is exercised repeatedly, you’ll hear improvement. And of course, that continues into year 2, 3 and beyond.
So what do you think? Would you agree as these being the top 3 habits? Or is there one that you would put higher? Comment with your thoughts.
Check out this blog post about practicing!
Check out this video about practicing!