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I can't be bothered to practice! - 5 Useful Tips On Motivation

For some people instrument practice can be such a drag, especially for classically trained musicians. Scales, arpeggios, dominant and diminished sevenths, and if you're a lucky string player, octave scales and sixth scales etc. Practicing all of those theoretically vital gifts from the devil is generally enough to make you want to scream and definitely not pick up an instrument. Plus, even practicing pieces and tunes a musician of any level can go through a dry spell.

I've put some thought into my 10 years of musical experience and I've come up with a list of things that one can do to keep themselves motivated to play even dreary, boring things on an instrument.

1. Think about your goals on your instrument.
Not everybody wants to be a pro. In fact, many people take up an instrument purely for points to get into university. Evaluating what you actually want to get out of playing is a big help for time management. For example - is it vital that you practice scales for two hours every day, or can you give yourself a little bit of a breather? Some people say that you can never do too much practice, but I don't think that this is true. I have learnt from experience that over-practicing can lead to this dry spell and also to stress and anxiety relating to performance.

2. Stop practicing in big chunks!
Anything that you learn from practice needs to be retained in your long term memory. The chances are, if you are practicing solely for hours on end, you are not going to remember much from the beginning of your practice, you are going to get stressed and most likely agitated when things don't go your way. It works for some people, but not all. My teacher has always told me that short practices multiple times a day are the best, and I can honestly say that I believe this to be true. Half an hour here and there can soon add up to hours of practice without making you feel tired of playing.

3. Make a rough timetable.
Planning when you will practice what is a great idea to keep you on track. For example; certain scales and on certain days, or certain studies and techniques. For me, I like to practice all my scales and arpeggios earlier in the morning, my studies mid morning, my ukulele and vocals in the afternoon (both classically and jazz), and and other pieces for exams etc. in the evening.

4. Watch an inspirational video of a pro.
Needless to say, this is a very good way of motivating yourself if you wish to be just as good as them. Better, even. Always tell yourself that if you keep practicing you could become the best player in the world, and somebody that your muse looks up to, even. For me, I always find Mayuko Kamio's competition video from Tchaikovsky International makes me want to pick up my violin.

5. Give yourself a break.
If you've been working hard and find it impossible to motivate yourself, maybe you just need a break. Taking a day or two away from practice not only gives you space to breathe, relax and do what you want, but also can highlight the things that you are weaker on when you come back to practice, showing you what to work harder on. However, make sure to keep listening to music, as it might just motivate you to want to play.

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Sick Days

As you possibly know, I've been out of action with the flu and a nasty throat infection for the last two weeks, (hence my frequent blogging). Now, obviously this has been a downer on my music-making abilities, and I've been falling behind with my request list of covers. However, I've found that it has almost also been quite useful.

Instead of just lazing around for the full two weeks, I put my time to use and I listened to some of my roughs, my covers, and of course Your Only One. Not to say that I didn't laze around, I did *cough* watch all of season 6 and 7 of NCIS, but I listened back on these old things and I wrote feedback on each one. First, I wrote things that I liked about my songs, as my violin teacher always taught me to look first at the positive things because every performance, even if sung by somebody who has the voice of a strangled cat, has to have one positive thing about it. Then, I wrote everything I didn't like about it and everything I want to work on for live performances and recordings. For example, I hate my pronunciation of the word 'my'.

It may seem stupid, but little things like that often get forgotten and can make all the difference. I've realized that there is a lot I want to work on both vocally and instrumentally, and I know that if I focus on those specific areas, my recording and performance will become much better.

After I'd finished my self evaluation, which I kid you not, took me HOURS, I asked my brother to do an evaluation. Now, obviously I wasn't going to ask him to do it in the same depth, but I just asked him to pick out one thing that he liked and one thing that he didn't about each song, to see if we had chosen the same areas or if he spotted something entirely different. Of course, people have different musical tastes and biases and levels of training - I mean, my brother is classically trained like myself but loves electronic game music. This will only broaden your understanding of how people interpret you as an artist though, and while you might not necessarily agree with what they say, it won't harm you to know. I highly recommend doing this as it can certainly produced a much more polished, professional sound.

As a bonus, I'll tell you since I got my voice back, I did record this. You can hear an example of my strange 'my'.

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Songwriting: Which approach to take?

People often ask me how I write songs and if I can teach them how to write their own. The simple answer is no, I can't. Songwriting is unique to each individual person. There will be many books and articles out there on how to write the 'perfect' song, but honestly? It's mostly complete rubbish. There is no single way to write a song every time. 

There are methods out there that say you should take a theme and write as many words as you can think of about this theme on a piece of paper before beginning. Some people do find it easier to do this, and then begin to figure their song out from there, but it is not always necessary.

One method can be to choose the title first. But then, you have to be sure that it is a title that means something to you. Writing songs for songwriting's sake is never going to make a good song. Good songs should touch people, and mean something to yourself so that you enjoy performing them. My song Your Only One was written in this way. I was sitting there, feeling sorry for myself and wishing I meant everything to somebody, when suddenly I thought 'screw this, I don't need anybody, I need music!'. So, I took out the ol' uke and sat down. I messed around singing and trying to find a chord progression that fitted with the tune and suddenly a song was born. 

In general, this is my preferred way of songwriting despite the fact that it has no structure. However, I have also used other methods, such as creating the instrumental part totally before the lyrics. This works because you can create a perfectly theoretically structured piece of music to mold your lyrics around. Helpful, because the music can serve as a huge source of inspiration as to the mood and theme of the words you choose.

There are many other ways that people use too. Sometimes the inspiration just hits you, and you can just write it straight out. Some songs totally write themselves. They key is, not to necessarily take a scientific approach to it. If you do that, your music will most likely be boring. Experiment, let the music flow through you. Often, I pick up my instrument and record me just randomly jamming and singing any lines that come into my head. Of course, this leaves me with recordings of nonsense, but they are like little pots of gold. Each of them has some line in that I can use somewhere, and often more than one. Just experiment, and see what you come up with. 

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