What Is Practice?

What does it actually mean to practice?

In this episode, Adam and Theresa break down one of the most misunderstood parts of being a musician. They explore the difference between just playing and practicing with intention, what effective practice actually looks like, and how small, focused sessions can lead to real progress.

You’ll also hear a real practice breakdown, a few inspirational stories, and a simple challenge you can start using right away.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Daily Musician Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in to the second episode of the Daily Musician. Last time we talked about fostering a Kaizen mindset as a musician, which involved several discussions about practice, but we really only scratched the surface of what practice should look like.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Yeah, and it's definitely incredibly important for all musicians to have a healthy definition and relationship with practice. So we've decided to dedicate this episode to exploring the approach of practicing no matter what skill level you're at with your instrument.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

My name's Adam. I'm one of your hosts. I'm the owner of Learn Music in Cornelius, and I'm also a musician myself. I'm a guitar player and I love what I get to do for a living, and music is my favorite thing in the whole entire world. And I'm super excited about this topic because it's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

My name's Teresa, the studio administrator here at Learn Music. I joined about five months ago and having a blast over here. So, but my background is also in piano. I have gotten a bachelor's and master's in piano performance, so I'm happy to talk about a lot of practice that I've done in the past.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Awesome. Well, Grace, who writes the scripts for these podcasts, wanted us to share a funny story about practice, specifically about our journey. And I don't have a particularly funny story, but I guess the funny thing is just that I didn't know how to practice for a really long time. I was telling Teresa before the podcast, you know, I loved music when I was a kid. And so I got my first guitar when I was 11, and I just rushed into learning songs that I like to play. One of my favorite bands was MXPX. I loved bands like Blink 182 and kind of all that pop punk stuff. So I just spent a lot of time learning to play songs, and that was great when I was first getting started. But into my as I got kind of into my adult years and later on in my journey, I realized, you know, when I wasn't pursuing a particular song or trying to learn to play a particular song, I didn't really know what to practice or how to practice. And so this is something that I've really had to be intentional about and practice. I tell my students now all the time, you have to practice practice. You know, practice doesn't just happen. And so I'm really excited that we that we get to share about practice today. But yeah, my funny story is I didn't know how to practice for like the first 15 years I played.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yeah, no, that's totally fair. I think it definitely is something that needs to be talked about more often because a lot of people, especially kids growing up, you know, I see it here too. They just like, I don't know where to where to start. And it's, you know, I have to take a break for a second. I'm like, actually, I don't know if I can immediately be like, okay, this is how you do it, because you go back and there's so much complexity to practicing. And for me, I started when I was young at five. I mean, I I did go through method books and things like that. So I had that kind of structure, but it wasn't, it was always up and down. You know, sometimes you just don't want to practice, you know, you're busy with school as a kid, and you have other things you're interested in as well. So I really had to stick with it, and I have my parents to thank for that as well that they encouraged me to keep practicing. But then when you go into your bachelor's and your master's for practicing, that's when you really like, you know, your personal drive comes in there. And all the way to my master's, I would practice like six hours a day, you know. It was but it also, you know, looking back, it's not always the best to just practice hours and hours on end because we want to make sure we have a structured goal as well. So it's been a long journey, a lot of learning with practice. So yeah, I'm really excited to talk about that today.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that. If you ask 10 musicians to define the word practice, you'll likely get several different answers. So I'm gonna share what I think a solid definition of practice is. But before I do that, Teresa, how would you define practice?

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, I really had to think about this one. And I think when it simply comes down to it, I would say it's just dedicating time to improve your instrument and like practice well, yeah, practicing. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I mean it's just literally when I think about practice, I would say you sit down to play your instrument and to dedicate that time to Yeah, get better. Yeah. So it's it's not an easy definition, but that's what I think about when I think about practice.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

And there's probably more than one definition. Sure. At different times in your journey, practice might be different things.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

So absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

But the definition that we use at Learn Music, we have this really cool thing called the Kai Zen Club, where, like I said earlier, we really believe that you have to practice practice. And so we give a definition for the Kai Zen Club, and it's practice is time set aside for structured, focused work towards your goals. There's a difference between structured and unstructured practice. Casually noodling on your instrument is fun and necessary, but real progress comes from being intentional and diving into work that may not be fun. So I think that's a solid definition.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Very solid.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

If I was gonna like super simplify it, I would just say, my phone keeps stinging, and I try I tried to turn it off before the podcast, but I don't know where it is. So we're just gonna have to roll with it, guys. So if I was gonna simplify it and do like the Adam paraphrase, I would just say there's a difference between playing and practicing. Both are important, yeah, but generally practice is measurable. For sure. I think that when you when you s stand up at the end of your practice session, you should be a little, even if it's just the tiniest bit better than you were when you sat down. So I think that for me, like that's always the question that I ask. Like if I can say, well, you know, I I'm more fluid with this particular scale shape, or you know, these eight bars that I focused on. I can even though it's rough, I can play it without looking at my sheet music than generally I I know I've I've practiced because it's measurable. So that's a good way to think about it. We don't thank you very much. I appreciate that, Teresa. So we don't want to just give a definition of practice, but we want to talk about how we can be more intentional with our practice sessions. So we're gonna give you a series of just tips that we think are good for making the most out of your practice when you do sit down to practice. So I think the first thing is you've got to set goals. So something that we talk about a lot, there's a verse in the Bible, it uh is in the book of Proverbs, and it says, where there's no vision, the people perish. And that's a framework that I use for practice, and it's a framework that I use really just for my life is you know, if you don't know where you're headed, you're definitely not gonna get there. And so I think it's important that you have some sort of goal or some sort of destination for your practice. So for me, I can just give a personal example. Like I'm working through a particular curriculum, it's like a fretboard fluency curriculum this year, and my goal is to know the caged system inside and out. And so I have a structured curriculum that I'm working through, and so I'm able, I'm able to know what to practice because it's pretty cut and dry. And so I have that goal and I want to finish the curriculum by a certain date. So that's been really helpful for me is every day when I sit down, at least for part of my practice, I know I'm gonna be running scales in a particular uh shape on the neck, or I'm gonna be working on extended chords in a particular shape on the neck. So that's really helpful. So, and I think if you don't have a particular curriculum that you're working through necessarily, you most people have an idea of where they want to get as musicians. And so one of the first conversations I have with students when I start lessons with them is like, all right, what do you want to do with music? Like when you close your eyes, do you picture yourself just kind of, you know, like hanging out at your house by yourself, just kind of playing for fun? Right. Like it's just kind of a hobby, or do you picture yourself like in a metal band, like, you know, breathing fire and just shredding on the neck of the guitar? You know, if that like you're gonna you're gonna have two different goals for each of those things. For I I think knowing what you want to do as a musician is is really helpful, and then working backwards from there. So another thing that we talk about again in music and in life, and that's what I love about music is so much of what you learn applies to just life too, is begin with the end in mind. So if you're like, hey, I love metal music and I want to, you know, tour in a metal band one day, well, there's probably some things that you're gonna need to work on. You're gonna need to know scales, you're gonna need to have speed, you're gonna need to have great technique, and so you can make a smart goal from there. And if you don't know what a smart goal is, it stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. We'll probably break that down more in another episode. But all that to say, have a goal, know what you want to accomplish, and create a plan for getting there, and that'll help you and that'll help inform how you need to practice.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely want to dive a little bit more into what you just said, making a plan, because that's going to lead us to achieving our goals, right? So when you sit down to practice, I typically think about what am I going to focus on, what's most important, how much time do I have, which piece will I practice, and which one will I prioritize? Because I think that's very important to see what is really important to you and what will be the most beneficial for you to practice in the moment that day. And I think part of what's important about that as well, what you gotta remember is that self-assessment is super important. So also, how am I feeling? How much can I take? So let's say it's the end of the day, you've had, you know, a long day at work or something like that. Maybe you're hungry, you're tired, you know, it's like the it's not cooking in your favor, you know. Yeah. So maybe, you know, I would probably not work on a super technical Mozart sonata, you know, but maybe just like something I can kind of like bathe in, you know, some Chopin music where I just kind of, you know, the the tire at the end of the day kind of fits the vibe. So that is what is going to be best for me in the moment, and when I can, you know, get up at the end of the session and be like, okay, now I've maybe dedicated some more emotion to the piece, and that is where I got better. But then at on the other end, you know, let's say you're feeling real good. You're having a super good start to your day, maybe you exercise, whatever, the weather weather is great. Maybe I will sit down to practice that Mozart. You know, it's really technical oftentimes, faster, you know, more detailed finger work. Or like, you know, a bar talk, something more intense where you really, you know, have a lot of energy you need to put onto the piano. So that can be helpful to use that energy you have for that day, making the plan accordingly to how you feel. So kind of also gauging on how can I be the most productive that day. So I have energy today, maybe I do some more of the energetic stuff. If I don't have a lot of energy, maybe I just, you know, focus on this one piece, maybe I even just practice for half an hour, you know?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah, that's really good. And I actually want to I had a thought when you were saying that, and this is kind of a shameless plug, but I think sometimes you're you're just not gonna know what to practice. And so that's the one of the reasons why it's really important to have a guide, to have a teacher. You know, I think a good music teacher sees things that the student doesn't see and can prescribe accordingly. So I still take lessons and my teacher is really good at I think he's really good at looking at how I'm doing, looking at what I'm doing, assessing any gaps that I have, and then giving me the practice exercise that's gonna give me the most bang for my buck. And so, you know, that's why we do what we do at Learn Music. There's a lot of great ways to learn music for free. Like it's never, there's never been a better time to learn to play an instrument because of YouTube and the internet and all that kind of stuff, but there's still something about having that in-person, one-on-one lesson with your teacher so that he can prescribe what you should practice. So, yeah. All right, cool. And then the next thing is adopt a Kaizen mindset. So progress over perfection. And we talked about this in the previous episode, so we're not gonna go too much into it, but you want practice to be sustainable. Sometimes we have a tendency as humans to try and transform our lives overnight. Right. And I know I'm guilty of that. You know, I think I said this in the Kaizen episode, but this typically happens towards the end of the year or the beginning of the year. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna lose a hundred pounds, I'm gonna exercise nine days a week, and you know, it just doesn't work out like that. So the first, the most important step is the first step, and then I think you have to consistently keep taking steps. There's gonna be times where you're able to practice a lot, and there's gonna be times where you're not sometimes just getting to your instrument and playing that scale or playing the the first 12 bars of whatever piece you're learning is a huge, huge victory. And so remember it's a marathon, it's not a sprint, and you don't you don't need to be perfect, you just need to be making progress, and so adopt a Kaizen mindset.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah, I think that's super important, absolutely. Also looking back and see if there's any patterns that you can improve on, or see what kind of patterns you know made things happen or not. So I think something that is very important and that isn't talked about enough often or recommended enough is practice journaling. So really reflecting on your practice sessions, you know, what went well and what didn't. And I actually have a couple of examples if you don't mind me sharing. So in my master's thesis, I, you know, did this and I wrote down a couple examples of yeah, practice reflections. So this is kind of a diary of January 2021. So this is the first one. So this week I was still at home for winter break. At home, I was able to practice in a space that was relaxing for me. I felt comfortable and supported. It's important to note that I was also feeling well mentally. I was more energized and I was able to focus better. I had my first lesson in the new year on the 7th of January after I got back, and it went a lot better than I expected. I did not expect it because overall I had less practice time because, you know, I was at home for winter break. I concluded that since practicing was sparse, I had to focus clearly on what was really needed to be done during that practice session. I always set a goal and I had a concrete plan. To my surprise, I realized that less practice might have even been more effective for me that week. So that's a positive one, right? And this is now two weeks later. This week the nationwide curfew was uh introduced due to COVID-19. So, you know, throwback, not fun. And this unfortunately forced me to rethink my daily routine because my school now closed three hours earlier. It was difficult to structure my day because I had another elective this week as well. I needed to re-energize before going back to my practice. However, this didn't give me much time as there was less opening hours at the school. Consequently, I didn't have a good practice week. My lesson went okay. It wasn't bad. However, I agreed that I should have been able to work on a lot more. I felt defeated because the curfew interfered with my productivity and after I had such a good mindset a couple weeks prior. Um, it did teach me, however, that it is very important for me to establish daily routines to keep up a steady progress. So both of those kind of, you know, at the end I mentioned. For the first one, I realized that less practice might have been more effective. And that's kind of what I you know said earlier is to maybe it would have been okay if I can just have that little bit of time to be productive, and that was helpful for me. And in the second journal entry that I shared, it was I noted that it was important for me to realize that routines were important for me. So that kind of, you know, I'm going to practice after breakfast or whatever, or I'm going to practice after dinner, but then that curfew interfered with that. So that was a little bit of a tough time there, as we probably all remember. But those are just some examples of how I can look back on my practice and see what kind of things made it work or didn't work. And I think that's really helpful for me now to look back on it even five years later, which is crazy already five years past.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah, I know that is so crazy. Yeah, I think having in the moment we're not always able to recognize those patterns. And so journaling I'm super important. There's a book called String Theories, and it's by Adam Levy and Ethan Sherman, and I've started digging into it a little bit this year, but they talk about that in the book. There's a good section on just the importance of journaling and how to. And it's a really good book. I really recommend it for anyone who is interested in that. So, and they're guitar players, but I think it would apply to any musician. So all right, cool. And that was really good. Thanks, Teresa. And then Teresa's already hit on this a little bit, but I'm gonna kind of wrap up this portion of the podcast with this last point, which is know yourself and your limits. So, like Teresa said, sometimes it's not helpful to force it. If you're super tired or hungry, you know, it's much much less likely that you'll retain progress. So forcing practice can lead to frustration, which can just kind of hurt you overall. So I was singing when I was listening to Teresa talk about that, I wear a whoop, and I was thinking about like even today, I was gonna exercise, but my recovery wasn't as good because whoop measures your recovery. And so, like, so I'm like, you know, my body and my whoop were just kind of telling me, like, hey Adam, you need a little bit of rest. Maybe today's not a good day to push hard. And so, like, what's your musical recovery, you know, like, or what's I guess it wouldn't just be your musical recovery, but holistically, like, you know, where are you at? Like, I like how you talk about checking in with yourself, and it's like, you know, is today a good day to like, you know, bar talk it up, like you said, like is today a good day to like really go hard, or today do I just like do I just need to need to play? Right. Yeah, that too. Yeah, totally. And so I think that like checking in with yourself, you know, kind of your mind, your body, your emotions, and just seeing like where am I at and how hard should I push today is really important. And I do want to be clear, there's gonna be days where you don't want to push that you just need to. But if you don't have like a deadline coming up or something like that, or a performance coming up, like, you know, like music is supposed to be fun and it's supposed to be life-giving, and so don't don't burn yourself out. But additionally, too, one thing that I've learned with my practice is sometimes walking away allows my brain to organize everything that it just learned. And I there's like a scientific name, term, thing for it. I can't remember what it is, but you know, basically like our minds have to integrate information, and when we're not playing, it'll our minds do that in the background. I've dreamt dreamt about triads before, you know, and like scales and stuff like that, and that's my brain's way of working that stuff out. So knowing to walk away is sometimes not practicing is the best practice. So cool. So we're just gonna share some quick stories about some students and how like maybe we've just seen their musical journeys change in a meaningful way when they got better at practice. So I was thinking about this, and I actually have two sons that take lessons at Learn Music, so their names are Reed and Elias. At the time of this podcast, Reed is 10 and Elias is eight. And so Elias is a drummer and Reed's a guitar player, and they've they've loved music, you know, they've grown up at Learn Music, so they've always had an appreciation for music, and they started playing when they were young. It was kind of like a no pressure thing. We just sort of put them in lessons and didn't really expect much. But even though their dad and mom were the owners of Learn Music, you know, they they had to practice practice, and it's not something that But it's not something that they did naturally, so we would have to stay on them in the beginning for practice. But then they joined they joined a Legends band. And so for those of you that don't know, Legends is our rock band program at Learn Music. And then all of a sudden they had this team that was dependent on them each week. They're actually in a couple different bands. But we got we helped, and they started doing the Kaizen Club, Shameless Plug, and we they began to get uh begun to get in a really good groove with practice. And what I saw happen as as a parent in that moment is that when they started practicing a lot, so they now my my kids probably practice about five to six hours a week, which I feel like is great for their age. When they when they started practicing a lot, they started experiencing momentum in their playing. And they're like, oh my gosh, I can do this hard thing, you know, I can I can play this solo on this Weezer tune that I learned, or I can play this drum fill on this Foo Fighter song. And when they, it was kind of like a self-perpetuating cycle at that point because just like how a runner gets runners high, it's like they got this musician's high. They're playing with their band. Reed's learning the solo from Say It Ain't So. He's been practicing, the moment comes in practice and he crushes it, he's so pumped, you know? And so I think that's one thing, that's one success that I've seen with my own kids, and I've seen that with other students as well, is just that like in the beginning, when your fingers hurt and you don't know a song yet, it can be hard to be motivated to practice. But once you start experiencing those wins because you've been practicing, it's kind of addicting at that point. And you know, I'm giving the example of my two boys, but I've seen that with a ton of other students too. So for those of you that are listening to the podcast that are maybe new to playing music or or you're maybe discouraged about your instrument, I want you to keep that in mind. Just remember that as you continue to practice, you will grow. And as you grow, you're gonna experience these moments that are gonna give you the energy you need to get to the next place in your musical journey.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Yeah. No, that's really great. And I think part of that is also, and though we talk about this at Learn Music too, is we need to learn with the music that we love. So, you know, like for Rita and Elias, they love the band. Yeah. And that's their motivator to become better. I also, another story on my end, I had a student who came to me kind of, you know, a little bit defeated. She was with, she was working out of a method book with her previous teacher, and I just noticed like she was not enjoying it. She could play, and like whenever I gave her something new, she could sight read it pretty well. Like I knew she was pretty good. And eventually I was like, Are you enjoying this? Like, do you think that there might be something else that you might also be interested in? Because they had been working on this method work method book for a while. And she was like, Yeah, actually, maybe we can do a little bit more popular music or Disney music, you know, maybe something else. I was like, Yeah, totally, let's do it. So the next lesson I brought some examples, you know, I don't remember what it was exactly, but examples of songs that she requested, and we kind of worked through them. And she like her practice became just like so much better. Yeah. And even the mom came up to me, she was like, I have not heard her make progress like this with piano. And they were just super excited. And even though I was studying in the Netherlands, they took online lessons with me. Oh wow, because they just wanted to stick with me because I had like supported them so much to you know get her to make so much progress.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

So that was really motivating for me also to learn that it's important to find what's really uh what you need and what the student needs and supporting them that way. So yeah, her practice became better by just knowing what she liked or didn't like and then having a person support her that way.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Yeah, that's so good. And I think when I was listening to you talk, I was reminded of two things. The first is at learn music, one thing that we say a lot is is we build a custom curriculum for each student. So we teach them the things they need to know by incorporating music that they love. And when I think about me and you, even, you and I kind of represent two different spectrums of how you can learn to play an instrument. You know, you started playing at a really young age, you had structure in your lessons. I grew up, I got a guitar and I kind of taught myself. And I think what I've learned is ideally you have kind of a fusion of those two approaches, right? Where you're learning the things that every musician needs to know. You're learning technique, you're learning theory, you're learning how to read. But the cool thing, and we joke around and we say this a lot, I think Jeremy said it in another podcast, but it doesn't matter if you're playing a Beethoven song or a Black Sabbath song, like a G chord's a G chord, it's got a G, a B, and a D in it. And so for those of you who maybe are picking up your instrument for the f for the first time, or maybe you're coming back to music, I would say try to find a teacher who's gonna teach you the core musical skills that you need to know, but is willing to do it in a way that's relevant to you. That's super duper important. So all right, cool. So we're gonna just share a little bit of what each of our practice sessions look like so that you guys can maybe have something to model your practice session after. But I'll start and then Teresa will share hers. But right now, what my practice looks like, I'm actually in a year-long guitar intensive through a program called Sonora. And so I try to pick up my guitar every day, and there's a curriculum that I work through. So I try to do six modules in the curriculum each day, and then sometimes I'll jump right into that. If I have time, what I'll do before that is I love to just turn on like a drone track and I'll just play different scales. So like I'll turn on like C drone track and I'll just play the minor or sorry, the major scale up and down the neck for a little while, and then I might play the minor scale on the same key, and or maybe, and then I'll I'll play a mode, or and then I'll usually just take some time and improvise. So I'll start off with that, I'll do some curriculum, and then I typically have specific things that my teacher has kind of prescribed me to work on during the week. But I did want to share something that my instructor shared with me recently, and he talked to me about the four realms of practice. And so your practice routine doesn't need to look just like mine or just like Theresa's, but I think it could include each of these things. So, first, that we want there to be a technical component. So anything that is mostly mechanical and that does not require a huge amount of thought is technical. So for guitar players, that's just like finger exercises, you know, like one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, going up and down the strings or one, three, two, four, one, three, two, four. You know, it could be a scale that you know really well where maybe you don't have to think about the scale and you can focus on things like speed. It could also be arpeggios, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that. And you typically you're doing that stuff with a metronome. And then theory-based, so anything you play or write down that requires you to think about or say the note names or the scale degrees out loud. So a lot of times for me that looks like I'm playing triads on different string sets and I'm working through the circle of fifths. So, um, and I go through all the keys. And so, but when I do it, I'm singing it one, three, five, one, two, three, three, five, one, and then three, four, five, five, one, three. And so I'm typically doing that, and then ear training, so anything you sing or sing along with, or anything that you learn by ear, and then just playing songs. So, you know, we we want there to be a part of our practice where we're just jamming and having fun. And so, yeah, technical theory-based ear training and playing songs. I think a good practice routine can incorporate, should incorporate each of those things. So, thank you to my teacher, Trevor, for teaching me that.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yeah, that is a great structure. Wow. Yeah, it's good, huh? Yeah, it's very good. Had it like hits on everything.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

No, that's super great. I think I sometimes would like to have a teacher too too as well. To kind of, like we said earlier, guide a little bit and just, you know, the teacher's always helpful. Totally. So that's really great that they've taught you like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Yeah, right now my practice is a little bit more of what I just kind of feel like, you know, like I just said, I don't have a teacher. So it's yeah, it's a little bit less structured, I would say, but and it's kind of just what I feel like. So I'll sit down and I'll play, I'll start playing a song, see how it goes. I often work with a metronome like a lot. Super dial it down. So Zen. Yeah, I love it. Super No, over time I've you know, it's a love hate relationship in the beginning, but now it's like it's helped me so much, keeps me grounded, you know. But yeah, and then I do like what you said too, like you kind of just play. So I'll go back to some pieces that I've played before and remind myself of like what I can do because you kind of forget about it sometimes when you're learning a new song, you're like, I don't know, I need to learn this rhythm. So yeah, so that's that's kind of what I'm doing right now.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Awesome. Well, we're gonna start wrapping this up. So there's a lot of thought and theory about practice out there, and the truth is it's really it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. So different structures and tips are going to work for different people. It's a good idea to structure your practice sessions in a variety of ways until you find something that works for you.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Mm-hmm. Also, know what works for you in the sense of a long-term goal. So it might shift over time as well. So don't be so rigid that the sessions become frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Yeah. So what are some of your key takeaways from today, Teresa?

SPEAKER_01 32:15

I think I really just love the fact that you touched on your practice session. I think I really liked that. So to have all of those things incorporated in one, because I think it can be also hard to remember, you know, I have have to go back to theory and scales, because you know, that's sometimes in the not-so-fun part. Yeah, for sure. Because that's um, you know, not songs. So I think that was really helpful for me to hear, and I like all of the things that we talked about, how goals are very important because otherwise we don't know what we're working towards.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Yeah. So for sure. Yeah, I think some of my takeaways are I just think I love that we're being intentional about talking about practice. I think it's something that we need to talk about more. Like I said, you got to practice, practice. But also when it comes to like my health, I think about I check in with myself a lot, but I don't do that with music. And so I liked hearing you talk about that, like kind of determining what you're gonna do based on where you're at, I think is really important. And you know, I think that that it musical burnout is a very real thing, and totally I think when you're checking in with yourself like that, you can you can avoid that. So that was really good. All right, so before we wrap up, we want to leave you with something practical to try this week. So I want to first of all encourage everybody to practice. If you didn't get anything else from this podcast, the thing that I want you to get is practice is important. Yeah, go practice. But just have one clear goal for your week, all right? Or even for your practice session, and then have a simple plan and then have a quick reflection at the end. That's such a simple three-point practice formula that really will lead to huge growth. So have one clear goal, create a simple plan about how you're gonna achieve that goal, and then make a quick reflection at the end. And then I would add one more thing. Do the same thing next time, but adjust accordingly based on the reflection you had at the end of your previous practice session. Thanks everyone for listening today. We appreciate you listening to the Daily Musician Podcast where we help musicians think, work, and grow like musicians. We have some future episodes coming up where we're talking about balancing music with life. If you enjoyed it, make sure to leave us a review, subscribe, and share this with another musician. So thank you so much for joining us as we help musicians become better musicians one conversation at a time.