Get in the habit of…

Habits are the most powerful tool in a person’s arsenal to achieve any goal they may have. Consistent, steady progress towards your aspirations can only be achieve when you create good habits that lead you towards your goals. If you are inconsistent and let things slide often then you will find it very hard to make any progress. How do you start new good habits and make them stick? Let’s get into it.

Habit forming

In the “Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, Charles goes over all kinds of methods to form and keep good habits. The most important thing I gathered from it was to effectively form and keep a good habit there needs to be a positive feedback loop or the habit will just fade away with time. Let’s say you really love playing video games every morning but want to get into the habit of going for a run in the morning. You would set a clear rule that you cannot play video games at all until that run has been finished. When the morning comes and you don’t feel like running that little motivation missing might just be knowing that once your run is over you get to play video games. If you don’t do the run then you don’t get to play video games. Everyone remembers a parent growing up that said you can’t hang out with friends or play games until your homework is finished. That’s the same concept. The positive feedback loop of getting to do something you want after doing something you have to is what keeps you on track.

Habits obviously don’t have to be boring or feel like a chore before you get to do fun stuff. I know practicing music is fun for a lot of us most of the time but sometimes it just isn’t. When it isn’t fun you need some sort positive feedback to keep you on track consistently. Maybe you only eat breakfast after 30 minutes of practicing your guitar or after drilling drumming rudiments you allow yourself to scroll on instagram afterwards. The point is to reward yourself in some way after a good, healthy habit and it is more likely to stick.

Another very useful tip is to make doing a habit is easy as possible. If I have to get my guitar case out of the garage before playing, then set up my amp, and then set up my pedal board before I can even start to practice then I’m probably going to put off practicing. You should be make things as easy and simple as possible to form good habits. Get a guitar stand and keep you guitar right by the bed or in the chair you sit and have coffee in. Have it be ready to be played at any moment so you can just pick it up and start plucking away at it.

Good habits to have

Practicing every day is a must for anyone serious about being a musician. Maybe practicing in a structured way every day is a little ambitious at first but at least get in the habit of showing up. The best thing to get started with is getting in the habit of having your instrument in your hands. If you get a guitar or drum sticks in your hand, you’re going to play something. Playing something is better than not playing anything, that simple.

Of course, just playing won’t be enough to make big improvements in skill and ability but it’s a great place to start to at least get in the habit of practicing. What you would really want is to have some sort of study followed by practice. An online course, YouTube channel, music class, or book where you learn something new followed by a time period of practice where you try out the new thing you just learned. This is a tried and true method to getting better over time. To really make the habit of studying and practicing stick try rewarding yourself for being disciplined with your time. Allow yourself some tv time or a small treat, anything that will reinforce the good habit of practicing.

Writing a little bit of something everyday is another great habit to have. Lyrics can be hard to write well if you aren’t practicing. I’ll write some words everyday about a random prompt, or a few lines of poetry just to get the mind in the flow of writing about something in a more imaginative way. Doing it every day for just a few minutes goes a long way into improving your lines. My trick for this one is I do it while my coffee is being made and once the coffee is ready I am finished. I of course can choose to write more if I wish but my goal is a small one of writing every single day and my reward is a cup coffee when I’m done.

Another important habit to have is listening and testing yourself. Ear training will help recognizing what someone is playing and will help with improvisation. Find an app or study program for ear training and make it a daily practice. Try to listen for what interval changes are happening in a piece of music and how it make the song feel. Try to match pitch with your voice or grab a guitar and try to find the key. Even better try to learn how to play something without looking anything up and just listening to it. Like a song? Work out the music on a guitar or piano and you’ll learn ten times the amount than you would’ve just looking up the tabs to the song. Listening is a crucial skill that needs to be practiced constantly to improve as a musician.

I find it really important to get in the habit of studying a little music theory every week. It is very important that you understand simple concepts such as intervals, triads, and chord construction. Theory isn’t necessary to play music but it will help immensely with understanding music and why certain things work so well. When you come across a writer’s wall your strong theory fundamentals will allow you try something different in a more structured way instead of having to rely on the muse of creativity again. It also makes it a lot easier to communicate music with other musicians if they know some theory as well. Calling out key of G major with a I - IV - V progression is going to save a lot of time rather than explaining every fret your finger needs to hit to someone over and over again. And if you don’t know what that last sentence means then I implore you to just put 30 minutes a week into studying some theory and you’ll have that bit nailed in no time.

And then…

After some time these habits will become a regular part of your life. They will hopefully become so second nature that you will feel off and like something isn’t right when you don’t do them. Don’t expect this to happen overnight though, it takes about 3-4 weeks for a new habit to form. Once it does, you will look forward to your daily routine. It will provide you with structure, balance, and a confidence knowing that you are working towards becoming better every single day and it’s just a matter of time before the work pays off.