What do you do when you’re not in the mood to write an ezine? Write about what you do when you don’t feel like practicing!
I Negotiate
I start out by talking to myself.
“If you get your horn out, you can play anything you want. You don’t have to do longtones or scales. You can play (insert favorite song of the moment) instead.”
“Just play for eight minutes. Set the timer and play until the timer goes off. Then stop!”
“Listen to that new CD you just bought. That will be inspirational. Listen to it with your horn in your lap all put together and ready to play. Simply listen to the beautiful, awesome music.” (The inspiration works and with my horn all ready to play, I only have to put it to my lips to get going.)
Sometimes I Guilt-Trip
More self-talk. This time with the voices of the nuns in my head.
“You’ve got that gig on Thursday. You want to keep your chops in shape, not to mention play well and not embarrass yourself. So practice!”
Impose A Deadline
This one has some guilt flavoring to the self-talk, but mostly it’s remembering why you are playing in the first place.
“OK. You’ve got the concert on the 22nd and eight tunes to learn. There are 25 days until the concert and I can – I will practice that music for 30 minutes on 17 of those days.”
Then I lay out a schedule of what to practice and when. When I see the plan all written out with clear steps how I will accomplish my goals, I get excited to enact the goals (read: practice) and relieved that I don’t have to do it all at once. I know that by following my plan of piecemeal learning, I will be prepared come concert time.
Here’s an example of three of those practice sessions.
- Hindemith March. Letter I to the end. Fast repeated tonguing. practice with m.m. start half-note = 63 and work up to half-note = 80.
- Hindemith March. Listen to recording. mark letter I with time-stamp. Play Letter I to the end with recording.
- Hindemith March. Letter F. Triplet runs. (unison with clarinets) work out fingerings. Practice 2 beats at a time, gradually put together all eight measures. work up to tempo half-note = 80.
Sing, Hum, Whistle
When you don’t feel like practicing, another way to ease into actual practice is to come at it sideways. I may start whistling or humming as I do some other task, like housework.
Whistling and humming are hands-free activities and require no special equipment. They get me in the mood. Now that the studio and waiting room are vacuumed, I am raring to get practicing. Whistling while I work has stimulated my music muscle. Singing or simple hand-on-lap drumming could serve the same function, too.
I Get Moving
I take a walk. I am fortunate that I live close to one of the best city parks in Portland, Mt. Tabor. Within eight minutes of walking out my front door, I can be on the park grounds and on a trail to the top of this extinct volcano.
The exercise is good for me physically and, surprise! It is also good for me mentally and emotionally, too. I return from my outing feeling better – more alive, happier and ready to make music.
Well, how about that! I just wrote my ezine.
Thanks, Anita, for your creative response to my whining this morning. “What do I do if I don’t feel like writing my ezine?” You said, “Write about what you do when you don’t feel like practicing.”
Invitation
We all have those times when we don’t feel like doing something.
- What do you do in those moments?
- How do you inspire yourself?
- Where do you find your motivation?
Comment on this post at Grace Notes Music Studio blog.
Thanks for reading! The next edition of Musician’s Motivator will be out on Wednesday, May 12, 2010.