It's the question that is asked a lot. Even to myself. How many hours do I need to put in? Is this enough?
The short answer is, it's never enough. Most of us won't ever be perfectly satisfied as musicians. It's the nature of the work. There is always more we can, and would like to do.
At the end of the day it's not too difficult an equation. The more constructive hours we put into something the better we are at it. We have all heard of the 10,000 hours. If you want to be a good musician, the best part of your life should be spent doing that. You have no choice. Want to play the saxophone well? Then a good number of hours most days need to be spent playing the saxophone.
The key to this in my experience, is not necessarily pushing yourself to work more, but time management. We all have lives outside music. Families, other work, chores, relaxation time etc. Cutting those is not always the best solution. However, if we look into how we structure our days, we will find there is plenty of room for improvement. Have a look at the amount of time wasted. In this day and age there are lots of ways to be distracted and it is increasingly hard to stay focused. Not only that, simple management of daily routine can add hours to your practice time. Looking closer at those is probably for another post.
Health is another big factor that is underestimated. Many musicians find themselves not taking proper care. Eating, drinking the wrong things and then wondering why they are unable physically to do the work they need. It's another huge topic, but simply looking after oneself can easily add to the amount of time you have to spend doing music.
Ultimately we can only do what we can do, and we should be satisfied with that. There will always be people who are better and can find the time to work harder. If you want to be accomplished in music do as much as you can, but be clever and sensible about it. There are many ways to achieve the same goal.
The short answer is, it's never enough. Most of us won't ever be perfectly satisfied as musicians. It's the nature of the work. There is always more we can, and would like to do.
At the end of the day it's not too difficult an equation. The more constructive hours we put into something the better we are at it. We have all heard of the 10,000 hours. If you want to be a good musician, the best part of your life should be spent doing that. You have no choice. Want to play the saxophone well? Then a good number of hours most days need to be spent playing the saxophone.
The key to this in my experience, is not necessarily pushing yourself to work more, but time management. We all have lives outside music. Families, other work, chores, relaxation time etc. Cutting those is not always the best solution. However, if we look into how we structure our days, we will find there is plenty of room for improvement. Have a look at the amount of time wasted. In this day and age there are lots of ways to be distracted and it is increasingly hard to stay focused. Not only that, simple management of daily routine can add hours to your practice time. Looking closer at those is probably for another post.
Health is another big factor that is underestimated. Many musicians find themselves not taking proper care. Eating, drinking the wrong things and then wondering why they are unable physically to do the work they need. It's another huge topic, but simply looking after oneself can easily add to the amount of time you have to spend doing music.
Ultimately we can only do what we can do, and we should be satisfied with that. There will always be people who are better and can find the time to work harder. If you want to be accomplished in music do as much as you can, but be clever and sensible about it. There are many ways to achieve the same goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment