Setting your musical goals

With so much amazing music to play I often don’t know where to begin. Do I learn that cool drumbeat from that one song? Or that Van Halen solo? Maybe I should work on scales. I should write a song!

 All the indecision often winds up with me playing a few of my favorite songs and not making much forward progress as a musician. If you’ve ever felt a bit “distracted”, or scatter brained, here are a few tips that Can help in setting your musical goals.

What are your goals?

Be honest with what you want right now. Do you really want to learn a specific song? Maybe you want to master your craft.  Write more music. Perform live more. We all have a big picture but we only climb to the top of the mountain by putting one foot in front of the other.  Pick about 3 goals.

Make a practice schedule

I play guitar 7 days a week. I do not proudly admit there are definitely weeks where I don’t work on my goals though.  What has really helped me get better at working towards my goals is devising a practice schedule. Pick 3 separate days a week, and set aside 30 minutes to work specifically on one of the goals you’ve set. If one of your goals is “write more music” inspiration can be impossible to schedule. Once it strikes get to work and dedicate time to that idea. I’m sure you’ll rock out tons during the week but set aside time specifically for these goals. And don’t hold off! Don’t push your practice day aside to another day. Dedicate time and keep on track.

Set deadlines

It’s great to have goals but don’t let yourself work on one song forever! When you're setting your musical goals, you need to be setting deadlines as well. Set a realistic, but strict deadline for yourself. If you want to play that open mic next Wednesday, be sure you have a set ready by then. Some goals may have more vague deadlines, such as writing an album, or mastering your craft. But you can always set a quota! Learn 3 new scales, or write 3 new songs by the end of the month.  With other goals, give yourself at most 2 weeks to complete. The cool thing is if you don’t meet your deadline you’re not getting a bad grade in school! Even if you don’t meet your deadline look at the progress you’ve made! It’s shocking how much you’ll have accomplished.

Rocking riffs and cool lyrics will still easily distract you, and you should be distracted! Music is way too cool to focus on one solo at a time.  But set aside even just 2 hours a week and you’ll blow your mind with how much progress you can make by setting your musical goals. If you want to learn more about setting your musical goals, or need some guidance on your musical journey, Band Dynamics has the best instructors that can help you accomplish any musical goal. Learn more here about how we can help. Rock on!