I know that sometimes when it comes to learning a difficult piece of music it can sometimes seem to be an insurmountable task. I know that whenever I come across something that’s too fast or too complicated and it just buzzes by in under a second it just feels like I’ll never be able to get it. But just know that it’s possible. Whatever mind blowing technical feat of fingerboard work you can find out there is within your reach to duplicate and even surpass. You might not be able to get it today, tomorrow, or a year from now but if you implement the right kind of goal ethic you’ll be able to be the kind of musician that you want to be.
Here’s the methods I employed to tackle a few of my goals.
When it comes to a particularly difficult piece of music there is no better way to reach your end game than taking it slow. I learn most of the stuff I want to play by ear. But whether you learn it by ear or if you have the note-for-note guide you should learn the piece as it is played. Once you know the difficult part it’s time to break out the metronome and start SLOW. The key to playing something fast and clean is to learn it and be able to play it clean and at a slow pace.
I learn the piece and start practicing it in a loop at around 60bpm. When I can play it perfectly without a hitch for about 5 minutes I’ll start increasing the metronome speed by 10bpm.
A lot of the time I’ll just watch TV and practice the piece at one bpm level for 30 minutes straight before increasing the speed. I’ll just zone out and let the muscle memory soak it in. If you tried to play the piece at 120bpm and it seemed to hard you’ll notice that after a few days of focused practice and slowing increasing the bpm a little at a time that 120bpm goal is within reach.
Some people hate practicing. I, personally, really enjoy it. It’s one of the few things that I can do where I can put in a bit of time and watch the results happen fairly quickly. It beats going to the gym for a month and barely seeing any results, that’s for sure.
There are other things in life that are a lot easier to achieve.
I’m an avid reader. I try to knock out a book a week. To do this I look at how many total pages the book has and I divide that by 7 days. Sometimes I’ll have to knock out 50 pages a day, some times I might have to knock out 80 pages a day.
I’m a little OCD about setting goals for myself.
Whenever I work on music for someone’s video project (like a short film or a commercial) they typically want the music done in an unrealistic amount of time. I’ve gotten pretty fast and being able to write, perform, record, mix and turning the product in. I usually set a goal for myself to finish a short film project in about a day.
This means I don’t sleep. I’ll stay up all night, as long as it takes, to be able to turn that project in when they asked for it.
But that’s because I’m good at time management.
I’m not going to futz around with a computer problem for hours knowing that I’m burning time. If there’s a computer problem I better have a back up plan.
It’s not enough to set goals for yourself. You have to be able to come up with a logical series of steps that will get you to that goal.
Here’s an example of how NOT to achieve the goal of getting a record deal: write songs, record a demo, hope it gets interest via word of mouth and someone somewhere will hear it and say, “hey, this sounds cool. Let me dish out big money on them.” Then wait, wait, wait.
Here’s a better example: write songs, play lots of shows, record a quality demo, send it to every magazine and website to generate interest and hype, work at upping your social media exposure, get permission to submit demos to labels, submit those demos in an interesting package, do that every day…work at it every day…keep at it every day. Don’t wait around for people to notice you; make them notice you.
Whatever you want in life you have to devise a series of logical steps that will take you to that goal. You can’t simply say, “I want to be the fastest guitar player in the world” and never practice. You can’t say that you want to get a record deal and never put your material or yourself out there.
If you want to be a novelist then you should start writing that novel TODAY.
Don’t say that you’ll start writing that book whenever you finish Dead Space 3.
Don’t say you’ll lose that weight when the new year comes around.
Don’t say you’ll try stand up comedy after you get that semester of college out of the way.
The reason why people put off goals is because in their minds they think that the goal is always attainable. They have this fantasy in their head that the goal is reachable and that they’re capable of grabbing it. However, they have a fear that if they try to do it and fail that fantasy will be gone. The fantasy of becoming a world-renowned musician, an influential author, or a successful actor is a comforting thing. We think that we’ll get to it in time. But if you don’t start on it now the odds are you’ll never start on it.
But that fantasy in your head of attaining whatever goal it is that you want to accomplish can be accomplished if you implement the right steps to take you there. These steps require logic.
Let’s face it, if your goal is to become the next President of the United States then you should realize that the odds will not be in your favor. If you goal is to find the Loch Ness Monster you need to realize that your goal isn’t really that practical. That’s not to say that you won’t be able to get close to you goal. There’s plenty of times that I aimed for a goal and got something else satisfactory in return. I tried out for Cirque Du Soleil and ended up getting a gig with Cirque Dreams. I tried to get a major label recording contract but I got a record deal with an independent label.
This is how the journey works.
Who knows, you might be looking for the Loch Ness Monster and instead find some other creature that hasn’t ever been discovered.
Sometimes you’ll miss your mark but you still have to try.
