The Challenge of the Month Concept

You do have a prac­tice plan, right?

It’s one of the most impor­tant tools for any musician.

But what do you put on your prac­tice plan?

List all the impor­tant basics, all the cool play­ing tech­niques, all the styles you’d like to get into, all the tunes to mas­ter — put every­thing on your plan and you end up with a gar­gan­tuan prac­tice sched­ule that’s totally imprac­ti­cal and even counterproductive.

Why?

Because it’s not sustainable.

You have a life to live. There’s fam­ily, friends, social activ­i­ties, work (best case sce­nario in music), other hob­bies. There’s “stuff” — oblig­a­tions and com­mit­ments that pre­vent you from prac­tic­ing 24/7.

So there’s a lim­ited amount of time avail­able and a seem­ingly unlim­ited amount of mate­r­ial to practice.

No won­der you feel over­whelmed and frustrated.

The Solution

Here’s a con­cept that can help you over­come that feeling.

I call it “The Challenge of the Month”

Here’s how it works.

Step 1

You pick 1 sin­gle thing you’d like to focus on.

This could be a Jazz stan­dard like Giant Steps or a Rock clas­sic like Sweet Home Alabama. It could be a con­cept like chord sub­sti­tu­tions or upper struc­ture chords. You could focus on a spe­cific play­ing tech­nique for your instru­ment — econ­omy pick­ing for gui­tar, ped­al­ing on the piano, pizzi­cato for string instru­ments. It could be a musi­cal style like Flamenco or Blues.

Whatever tick­les your fancy. You get the idea.

Step 2

Decide how much time you want to ded­i­cate per prac­tice session.

Find the right bal­ance. No need to go berserk — too much time and it becomes an unre­al­is­tic chore. Don’t under­es­ti­mate the effect that focus­ing on some­thing for 1 full month can have. Even if you start out slowly with only a cou­ple of min­utes, the con­sis­tency really does add up.

Step 3

Follow through on your plan. Keep the com­mit­ment you made and muster up all your dis­ci­pline and work ethic.

Stick with it at all cost. Remember, it’s called a challenge.

Step 4

Observe and analyze.

Keep note of your find­ings. It’s amaz­ing what’s to dis­cover when you stay with some­thing instead of jump­ing around. Don’t worry, all the other things to prac­tice will still be wait­ing for you any­ways.

At the end of the chal­lenge set aside some time to reflect on your experience.

Why does it Work?

First of all, it forces you to make a deci­sion. You need to assess your cur­rent play­ing sit­u­a­tion and abil­i­ties and decide where you want to improve.

That in itself is worth a lot.

But since that focus will be valid for 1 month only, it takes away all the pres­sure. You are NOT mak­ing a huge com­mit­ment, this is NOT a deci­sion you are stuck with for life. It’s only for 31 days at the most.

After the chal­lenge is over you are free to com­pletely ditch what­ever it was you prac­ticed should you choose to do so.

Guilt free.

Also, there’s this com­pet­i­tive ele­ment involved.  Are you going to make it? Are you tough enough? You value your self-respect, you bet­ter make it through the challenge.

My Personal Challenge

I know this stuff works. I’ve used the tech­nique in the past. I will con­tinue to use it.

I’ve decided to pub­licly post my monthly chal­lenge goals here on AdvancingMusician. I’ll describe the goals and the exer­cises I’ve cho­sen at the begin­ning of each month and will post updates about my own real­iza­tions as well as my progress or lack thereof.

A true win-win situation...

You hope­fully end up with some ideas to imple­ment your­self, and I win because of the account­abil­ity fac­tor. By post­ing my per­sonal monthly chal­lenge goals I “force” myself to go the extra mile.

Most impor­tantly, have fun. A play­ful atti­tude — in my expe­ri­ence — is the best way to tackle the chal­lenge. Practicing is some­thing to be enjoyed. It helps you to develop as a musi­cian and there­fore should be some­thing to look for­ward to instead of a dreaded or feared activity.

Hopefully this post does inspire you to start your own monthly musi­cal challenge.

Come and join me and feel free to share your experience.

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Related posts:

1. Challenge of the Month — December 2009
2. Challenge of the Month — November 2009
3. Challenge of the Month — January/February 2010

Tagged with: accountability • concept • discipline • Giant Steps • goals • practice plan • Sweet Home Alabama

Filed under: Challenge of the Month • Practicing

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