As a growing musician, I always seek to find balance and get results in whatever music projects I’m working on. Uninspiring moments can get in the way of our growth. I think that it is important that we musicians are always finding ways to enjoy the process of growing. Here are a few ideas for keeping your journey alive while you are in progress.
Find new music
Of course your music teacher is a valuable resource for finding new music, you should always make a little time each week or month to find some yourself. I always make sure to find something inspiring to play when looking for new pieces. This made it easier for me to spend more time in the practice room. Here are a few links for places to find new music:
Classical Piano Music on Reddit – Great resource for getting exposed to classical music that you haven’t heard before.
Music Genres on Reddit – Full range of music genres available here
Spotify Music – This application will play music for free on a desktop. It is a great way to get a playlist of your favorites together. As you use it more it will suggest songs for you on a ‘discover weekly’ music playlist
Learn to detach yourself from the process
Let’s say you find a Debussy prelude for piano that you love listening to. You find the score on a public domain for sharing music You print off the score. As a result of seeing 8 pages of complicated music, you begin to have doubts that this song is doable for you.
A detached person can take on larger projects and enjoy the process. Steven Pressfield quotes “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying”. Because you can only do such much in a single day. A growing musician detaches from the project by looking at it realistically and not letting ego get in the way.
Be disciplined
As retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink says: “Discipline equals freedom”. For us growing musicians, it simply means that if we can be consistent with our music practice we will feel good about ourselves. While we make progress and grow consistently, we prepare ourselves for higher level music endeavors. The feeling of freedom you get after putting consistent time in is one of the best things that we humans can experience.
If you get good at this as a growing musician, it just might trickle into other areas of your life!