You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Ways To Find Time To Practice - #97

Episode Date: May 6, 2018

Today, Peter and Adam discuss 7 ways to find more time to practice. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at Podcast. Today we're going to give you seven ways to find time to practice. Good, because sometimes I feel like I can't find any time to practice. Right. Well, that's why we're doing this podcast, buddy. It's about us. Are you doing it just for me specifically?

This is a personal podcast. Wait, what are you trying to say? You're trying to say that I sound like I need to practice? No, we're going to try to scale this out to our lovely audience as well. I mean, I think that this at whatever level you're at, at whatever stage of your life you're at, whatever age you're at, this is always a problem, trying to find time to practice. But hopefully today we're going to talk about some sort of basic foundational principles that can help you. And it will be good reminders like all this stuff is for us so that we can

stop being hypocrites and actually follow what we say on this podcast. Yeah, I mean, here's a little secret sauce from a pro. You're never going to have more time to practice. Like this is what you got right now. That's right. I talk to high school kids or college kids. And to me, I think, like, oh, you have so much time. but they actually don't have a lot more time than us,

and we certainly don't have a lot of time. Right. So you've got to do some of these things to really get the most out of your day. Right. Okay. So number one is to stop doing other things that you're doing that are actually getting in the way of you practicing. So you're going to replace some things that are not as necessary as you think that they are.

If you want to prioritize practicing. But what if I really like doing those things? Well, then that's your, I mean, we're giving you ways of fine time to practice. have to do it. But, you know, one thing that would come to mind is like binge watching Netflix. Now, we all love to do this. All right. Maybe I'm not going to have to be. But I mean, the thing is, I don't have time to practice. Man, did you see the wire season five? I watched the whole thing the other night. Okay. It's great. But I mean, you could use that time to practice. We all do things besides just like caring for our children, eating, sleeping, you know, going to work, the things that we

have to do. So, I mean, look, it's, you know, it takes time to develop. as a musician. It's a very rewarding thing once you get good, once you can play well, you know, but your level of passion for doing this is really measured by your dedication in practice. There's no way around that. It's true. I mean, we're joking about it, but really when you think about the best people at anything they do, not just music, but they make incredible sacrifices of their own personal life so that they can become great at what they do. There's no getting around that. And so the level of comfort you have with sacrifice is really going to determine and how good you can be.

And that's just a fact, man. Yeah, and you don't have to give up all recreation. I'm not saying that or all consumption of media. No fun ever. But, I mean, the thing is you have to be careful because the way media companies operate, like their goal is to engage you in their product for as long as possible. No, be careful here because we are a media company. That's true.

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's why we keep this thing short. 10 minutes a day. Keep listening. Keep listening. No, but it's true. I mean, look, we're doing this every day. But I mean, if this is getting in the way of your practice, you know, press pause right now.

But you want to stay because we're going to give you some more ways. So don't go anywhere. That's right. No, but I mean, you know, there's a moderate amount of recreation, of watching or listening or participating in media. But that's the whole thing. If you're binge watching a show, why do you got to watch eight shows in a row? Yeah, just because it's going to play next. Oh, well, it made me do it because I kept going.

Watch for 30 minutes and then go practice for an hour. Those shows are going to still be there, you know. It's that kind of discipline that will actually kind of get you over the hump on some things on your instrument. Yeah. And the main thing is just don't go like binge one way or the other. Don't be like, I got to get up and practice all day. Or it's not like that. The whole thing is consistency and being thoughtful about it and then taking these different things in moderation and putting a priority on the practice, if that's what you want to do.

I think most of the things we're going to talk about on this episode are really about lifestyle choices, right? About including this in your lifestyle. And that brings us to number two. and this is one that I'm a firm believer in, and that is get up earlier. I saw a marked improvement in my playing when I was kind of in my mid-20s, and I realized that I was staying up really, really late,

and getting up really, really late, and then not having much time to work on the stuff, or not having the energy sometimes to work on the stuff. And I literally just shifted an hour from the time I went to bed to the time I woke up, and I used that extra hour to practice every day. And I mean, this changed my playing for sure. And I still do it.

I get up at 6 a.m. every day to like, you know, do a little exercise and to practice. And it's, you know, I don't know what I would do without it. It's great. Yeah. And I think, you know, one thing that's worked for me and I would recommend is find your sleep patterns so that you can really maximize that time in the morning if you are a morning person. And, you know, the more I've read about this and I think the more of the research is everybody to a certain degree is actually a morning person. You can kind of start to find, I mean, there's, some people are super, you know, creative or productive or analytical at certain times of the morning and that can be different for different people. But, you know, if you get yourself to the point where you understand your sleep cycles and you're getting up, no matter, you know, everyone kind of needs different amounts of sleep.

But if you're waking up at a time when you're not in that really deep sleep and you wake up in your creative or can really get a lot of work done, then it's nice to be able to get as quickly as possible to get some practice. in, you know, if it's maybe like an hour, you know, for me, I kind of need to do some other things, maybe some exercise, eating, thinking, reading. I love doing that first thing in the morning. But then once you start to get to that point where you know you kind of want to be at the instrument, then you time things out that you get there as quickly as possible. It can work nicely. That's right. Yeah. And the key to this, too, for me, at least, is to not sacrifice your sleep. You know, you might have to go to bed an hour early because you're not going to be able to function on four or five hours sleep as well as you can on six, seven, eight hours

Right. But I think the core of this is like don't use the excuse of the musician lifestyle. Like, well, I can't get up early because I'm out playing late and stuff. Yeah, but you're out playing late and then you're hanging for three more hours, drinking and partying. And then, you know, you can't get up early. And so you're already kind of going into that next day. Yeah, that's awesome. Next is, okay, this one is great. This is start your practice with the hard stuff.

So this is really a way, I think, to make, to actually, find time like we're talking about. So it's not just about taking something else out in your life. This is to actually add more efficiency and productivity within whatever amount of time you have. So this is especially good for days when you have just like one hour or 45 minutes to practice. So you really have a less of a margin of error for not using your time well. You know, we've all been there before when we kind of get in the practice room. We're getting in front of the instrument and we're sort of playing around or thinking of something. And then you look at the clock and 30 minutes go by and you haven't gotten anything.

accomplished. If you've got eight hours to practice, you can do that and kind of chill and like, let me just feel the vibe, dude. But, you know, most of us don't have that. So when you practice the hard things first, you're kind of making a nice commitment to yourself with some good discipline, but you're also just being so much more efficient because you're not doing that sort of warm up practice or working on things that you know that aren't really helping you much. You know, you're getting right to the hard stuff when you've got the energy, when you've got the focus. And so you know, yeah, it's still going to be hard. You're still going to have to work on it.

But then you can work on that for a while. And then when you need to kind of ease up, then kind of move to something a little easier, then you come back to the hard stuff, but you've already made a dent in it, at least. Yeah, all these things practice or working out. This is a game of balancing diminishing returns, right? So, you know, you're going to have to understand that you only have so much mental focus before it starts to get harder and harder and harder. And you've got to pay attention to yourself with that because it's like, you know,

for me, and I don't always time this, but I start to feel it. usually around about an hour or so of practicing, like I have to take a break. Now, sometimes I'll stay at the piano and play something, but I just need a mental break. If I'm really acutely focused, it can go up to like an hour and a half or so. But whatever it is, you should take some sort of break at that time because you're not going to get anything accomplished anyway. Yeah. Yeah, if you're just thinking about other things as your practice practicing, you're doing yourself no good. Yeah.

I mean, unless you can really focus, it's not worth it. So for my next one, for what is this, number one, two, three, number one. number four of our seven ways to find time to practice. This one has been an important game changer for me, and that is to find a practice space away from distraction. So I have two small children that are, you know, eight and six years old, and I have a tiny house. And I have a piano on my house. Well, no, you don't have a time. You know what they call a tiny house now. Oh, right now. Sorry, I don't have like a hips or tiny house. I just have a small-ish house. Small and big size. Not enough room for all of us at the same time, sometimes. But, you know,

I do have a piano at home, and I love my piano. but I also have a piano in a rehearsal space away from home. And that has been a huge thing for me because I can get away from the kids. I don't have to like hear anything or worry about waking anybody up or anything. I can come and I have my time. It's almost like going to the gym. Like it's my me time. Right.

No one's there to listen or to distract me and I can really get things done much faster than I can at home. I remember when my kids were younger, I used to practice a lot, you know, like late at night. like in the middle of the night. Sometimes I'd even go sleep for a while. I'd get up at like two in the morning and come downstairs. And we never had a big house. And but because they were hearing the piano when they were sleeping so much growing up, they got used to be able to sleep through it.

So no one would really wake up. And so I can still kind of do that now when I need to. And nobody, it just sort of works, you know. It becomes just kind of background noise. Like they don't even, they can dream right there. I play in that style anyway.

It's pretty background noises. Anyway, so it works out good. No, but you know what I mean? Sometimes like when I'm practicing, even if I'm practicing around like not my kids, but around other people or whatever,

you get self-conscious. You're working on things you don't sound good at. You should be working on things you don't sound good at. You don't want to think about like, I don't want this person to hear me do that. I feel bad that they're hearing me play this scale over and over and over. But you've got to do that, you know. So find a quiet spot that's away from distraction and secluded.

Well, and that brings us to our next one, number five, as it were. And that is actually to do a little bit of playing in front of people, but maybe in a situation where they're physically there, but they're not really listening to you. You're kind of in the background. So this is like, now for pianists and probably guitarists, this is the easiest solo piano gig, solo guitar gig,

but using it as an opportunity to practice. So on a day, you know, sometimes these gigs are long. I remember doing four or five hour gigs in New Orleans years ago when I was in my like mid-20s and stuff, these solo piano gigs where you're just playing and playing. And it's kind of easy to just zone out and play at sort of a C-plus level. because no one's really listening. As long as you don't play anything offensive,

you're just kind of, you know, you're like a crappy tapestry on the wall at that point, you know, as long as you don't fall off the wall or something. But what I started to realize was it was an opportunity to actually practice. Yeah, you can't do scales and things like that, but I would take, you know, certain tunes and try to play them in other keys. And if it was, you can't mess up too much because then they start to know, basically you just don't want to be noticed.

But you can kind of slow things down and slowly go through and take it. I mean, like all the things you are. This is when I first really learned how to do that through all 12 keys in like an hour. And I can't believe people haven't noticed that I'm playing the same song for an hour. And they couldn't, you know?

And certain really hard keys, I'd slow it way down. It'd be like a ballad. The easier keys, I'd play it fast, you know. But, I mean, I really learned a lot in those kind of situations. So a little bit of creativity in your thought process, you can get a lot done.

And then you're being paid to practice, you know. That's right. And one other time, and I just remembered about this, another way to get paid to practice is teach at an institution where, and this is going to remain nameless, I've taught at several different conservatories over the year, and there was one in particular where my students, they had about a 50% show up rate where they just wouldn't show up to their lessons.

I don't know if they were scared or whatever. I was like, fine, I'm being paid anyway. I'm just going to sit here and practice, you know, but I would always maximize that time. I would never like to sit there and look at Instagram. Well, this was 1977, too. I was going to say, no, it wasn't that long ago. Well, you know, you were talking about that all the things you are. and how it's like, no one's paying attention, but I bet there's a bartender in New Orleans

who hates your guts. Like, oh, that guy, that's a guy that just plays the same song over and over. It sounds a little different each time. I couldn't put my finger on it. There's so many musicians in New Orleans. Like, you know, there's probably like the whole waitstaffed. This was at like a tourist hotel. I mean, I was killing it, though, in every key. Don't worry. Oh, okay. That takes a store number six, and that is to create a routine, to add practicing to your daily routine. You know, you don't want to like be too precious about this stuff. We want to do this every day. We want to make sure to hit it every day.

And so, you know, like we're talking about waking up early or whatever you got to do, wherever it works for you, really, whatever you can do to practice is what's going to work. So if you can work this into a routine, like I wake up, I go for a run, I come home, I practice for 30 minutes, I go to work. Yeah. You know, that's could be your routine. Or I come home, I practice for 30 minutes, and then I eat dinner, whatever it is. I practice before bed.

If you can try to do it at the same time every day or the same time every week, you know, you can really kind of make a pattern for yourself that is harder to ditch. Yeah. I mean, and the more it can become as close as possible to something that is just, you know, stuck in your routine and mandatory to be there. I mean, I think about like sleeping and eating. Like everybody pretty much does that unless they're fasting. Yeah.

Every day, you know, practice as close as possible as you can get it in there so that it before the day gets scheduled for you or something that you just, this is a commitment to yourself. And there's going to be good days, it's going to be bad days, and there's going to be days when you can add to that time, but you've got that hour that you always do. Totally.

And then, so for number seven, we were kind of joking around about this because we feel our number one through six is so exemplary and comprehensive. Is it? Yeah, well, I feel strong about those six. So for number, but we always like to do seven.

That's right. So we're going to give you a little bonus one here. And that is creative use of time zones. And that would be traveling, I guess, west into another time zone every day, thus gaining an hour, always. So we're looking for ways to find time to practice. So if you travel to the west for a time zone, you're going to get an extra day. It's like daylight. Forget it.

I don't think you've thought this one all the way through, man. Well, you know what it was? I was a little upset because this has happened to be several times and it happened actually last month. In the spring, daylight savings time where we lose an hour. Spring forward, yeah. spring forward in Europe and in the United States, it's like two weeks apart or one week apart. I think it's one week apart. You lost it twice.

I lost it twice. And I still haven't gotten that back. So couldn't we do the opposite where you could gain it twice? And then you'd have that. You just never can travel back is the problem. I was really upset about that. The thing is, is you'd have to find a piano in every time zone all the way west. Yeah.

All the way around the world to really keep this going. And it doesn't even take into account that the minimal one hour. It's going to take the travel. that you're losing anyway. That's an ill-conceived plan, my man. Like I say, it's bonus. It's a free podcast. Don't forget that.

Anyway, if you do these things, I think that you'll find that you'll hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hear it.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. You can do that.

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