A New Better Practice Routine (Practice Music Better - part 1)

Swapping instruments will take you out of what you’re most familiar with and make you think just a little bit more about playing your instrument. It may cause frustration; What used to be easy for you on a familiar instrument will probably require tiny adjustments on the unfamiliar one - a little more or less force; a slightly smaller or larger reach.

New Ideas

Have you ever listened to Brazilian samba, Mexican cumbia, German polka, trap? Listening to a variety of music will expose you to new musical ideas. The more unfamiliar the music, the better! Jazzers can benefit from studying metal, or punk rock, and vice-versa. Cliff Burton of Metallica was a fan of classical music and knew music theory. He joined the group on their second album, and it clearly shows in the difference from the first album.

If you' rather not venture too far from your musical preferences, (Even though I would HIGHLY recommend giving previously unheard music a sincere chance), you can sidestep to related genres. If you’re mostly jazz focused, you could brush up on Dixieland, third stream or some other sub-genre of jazz. If you’re mostly a pop-rock musician why not learn some of the other pop/rock styles; perhaps country, jazz, EDM?

Every genre emphasizes different aspects of music making and will teach you how to listen and play in a new way. Learning how to execute the requirements of different styles will improve your breadth and effectiveness as a musician, and keep your learning muscles strong!

Change Your Practice Routine

A good practice routine will introduce something new every once in a while. A study by Pablo A. Celnik concludes that " simple manipulations during training can lead to more rapid and larger motor skill gains because of reconsolidation," Celnik says.

"The goal is to develop novel behavioral interventions and training schedules that give people more improvement for the same amount of practice time."

Every little change you make is a new thing you have to adapt to and learn to overcome. Read on to learn how to apply this and have a more productive practice routine.

Change your environment. Practice outdoors if possible, or just another room. The new environment will break up the monotony of being in the same physical space, and will spur new thoughts and ideas.

Practice an instrument of a different instrumental family on your days off. Some easy and convenient ones are: ukulele, guitar, banjo, ocarina, djembe, congas, bongos. The point is not to master them, but to think about making music in a completely different way even if it’s just for a few minutes each week.

Organize a sight reading or jam session. It doesn’t even have to be the same instruments! Different instrumental families (wind, brass, percussion, strings, etc) have unique capabilities of musical expression. A wind player will think about phrasing and dynamics in a different manner than a percussionist would. A guitarist thinking and phrasing like a brass player would yield some interesting results. The more unrelated the styles or instruments, the better!

Try changing things about your instrument. Use a different size drumstick, guitar pick, reed, or mouthpiece. Organize an instrument swap with friend for a few days. Different companies usually have different weights, dimensions, and will respond differently than what you’re used to.

Swapping instrtuments will take you out of what you’re most familiar with and make you think just a little bit more about playing your instrument. It may cause frustration; What used to be easy for you on a familiar instrument will probably require tiny adjustments on the unfamiliar one - a little more or less force; a slightly smaller or larger reach. STAY WITH IT, this is exactly what Celnik's research found was beneficial!

Non Musical Skills

As a musician, you are already good at music, but how many languages do you know? Do you know how to take a proper photograph? Have you tried archery, juggling, or learned to solve a Rubik’s cube? That dance class will probably help you become a better musician, so will that cooking class, and learning how to code, or learning basic auto care!

Learning new skills, even if not directly related to music, will challenge your brain to operate in new ways. You will learn to synthesize disparate information and skills - a handy ability that will transfer over to music. As this article by Andrea Kuszewsk in Scientific American points out, the synaptic connections you make

“build on each other, increasing your neural activity, creating more connections to build on other connections. Constantly exposing yourself to new things helps put your brain in a primed state for learning.”

The more you are in a state of acquiring a skill, the more readily available your brain can make itself to learn. It is a positive feedback loop of constructing your skill acquisition skills!

sidenote:

Getting physical will give you double benefits

of learning a new physical skill and

the plethora of cognitive benefits of exercise.

(seriously, google “cognitive benefits of exercise”)

Try yoga, calisthenics, strength training, running,

a martial art, a dance, a sport, etc.

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Conclusion

Being in a perpetual state of learning will make you a better learner which means you can learn music faster and better! Change something about your instrument, practice environment, or occasionally make music on an instrument unrelated to your main instrument. Do something different and try out a non musical skill . The point is to always be learning or doing something new. This is how you can become a more creative artist and get better at learning!

What non-musical activities do you practice that help you with music practice? Share in the comments! If you want some help or suggestions on what new thing to learn, send me an email and we can figure something out.

BONUS

Dr Jordan Peterson briefly mentioning how novel situations and environments literally change our genes!