My 4 Tips to a Better Practice Routine
The great painter Joan Mitchell was asked if she painted everyday?, to which she replied, "I'm in the studio everyday". We all have our ups and downs when it comes to consistently doing something. Even if we care a lot sometimes the lack of motivation, lack of direction, lack of knowing what is it we want to do takes over and makes us fall off track. It certainly happens to me when it comes to sitting down everyday and play my instrument. This is what I do to achieve some consistency.
Plan around my days
I'm one of those that believe can squeeze 90 minutes into 1 hour. After repeatedly failing to do more in less time, I've learned to accept I have this shortcoming. Although I would love to practice for long hours, is not realistic, work and daily tasks get on the way. I try to start my days with a 30 minutes practice, is not much but if is well planned and consciously done I can cover some ground. After that I go about my day. If the days becomes too busy or my schedule gets out of control, at least I've play some music that morning. After a normal workday, some exercise or fun activities and dinner I like to finish my day with another (longer) practice session between 8-10pm. I'm more of a evening person, for some reason the silence of the night and knowing that no one can bother me for the next few hours allows me to surrender into the creative space more easily.
Create a flexible system
My free time is either in the morning or evenings, so in addition to planning around my days, I also want to be specific with what I need to work on during my practice time, otherwise I run the risk of wasting the time trying to figure out what to do. I know I need to work on the things I struggle as a player but the moment I grab the instrument my brain tends to forget my weaknesses (probably as a defense mechanism to avoid all the struggling and humiliation) and I start playing what I already know. To avoid those traps, I have a "What to Practice" note visible at all times. The content of this note ranges from scales, chord changes, learn new songs, improvisation and composition. In the morning I work on the mechanical stuff like scales and arpeggios, at night when I'm normally more motivated or inspired I work on the more technical stuff like improvisation or composition. As you can see, the list is not very detailed, is just a small push to remind me what I need. I say flexible because if I need to tailor the practice session for any gig coming up I can always do that, also if I get super motivated with a new idea I'll follow that instead. But when there is nothing in the calendar or in my head, I still know what to do.
Keep it challenging but learn to make it fun
Finding the right balance between challenging and fun is the trick for maintaining constant motivation. And how do I do that? By practicing what I like. If I hear something and it captures my attention, that is what I want to play, and that gives me the opportunity to listen to other voices and other music. After all these years outside of Puerto Rico not playing folk music, I still have my folk accent, and that stays with my music. So everything I am doing is through a folk lens, and through that lens I do jazz and fusion, and I also write my own music. In fact a lot of my compositions are developed through the process of working an exercise or ideas above mentioned, and finding a way to make it a song. Me wanting to learn the things that I did not grow up playing makes it challenging, finding ways to make them sound "right" in my instrument makes it fun.
Avoid all or nothing goals
Not setting the right goals could be a major motivation drainer. A while ago I decided to learn the tune "Donna Lee". It is a very complicated jazz tune, usually played very fast. I would write "Learn Donna Lee" in my practice note. After probably 4-5 weeks seeing the note "Learn Donna Lee" in my list I was super frustrated because I had done nothing but to practice the damn song and I still had not "learned it", I would treat myself poorly and considered quitting the song for a while. I can be super goal oriented, and not being able to cross off an item from the To Do list drove me crazy. Self-compassion comes along way, I tend to be my toughest critic so much that I forget to also be my own "cheerleader". All or nothing goals are not realistic since they are very hard to do on one sitting, and bring the worse in me. I'm learning to set my goals and To Do's more aligned with the way I can actually do them, piece-by-piece withing the hours I have available to work on them. I've been using some of the tools developed by Mosaiceye to keep me motivated as I make progress (big or small) on my goals. Writing what I want to do and why then visually tracking it over time keeps me in check and reminds me that is all about what can I do today and that's it.