Don’t forget to practice

In the past week I played three shows and three sessions, wrote six blog posts, four songs, redesigned a website, spent several hours trying to get my head around some basic CSS, spent more than healthy amount of hours on promotion… The list goes on. Still I managed to squeeze in time to practice my guitar playing. I’ve been playing guitar for 28 years now and I still want to get better at it.

The guitar is and has been a passion of mine as far back as I can member. Yes there were times when I did not have time to practice. For good seven years I was playing sessions six days a week, between four and six hours a day. I admit that during those years my practice was minimal… Now I am still playing a lot, but I draw the line at the point when I lose the desire to practice. I have guitar always beside me when I am working and several times a day I do 30 min practice sessions. But I also allow myself days when I play very little and once in a while complete days off.

With the modern music business being what it is, the artist ends up doing a lot more of the promotional work. And this can be very time consuming. But don’t forget why you got into the music in the first place. Don’t forget those days when you could not keep your hands off your guitar (or whatever instrument it is you play). All you wanted to do was play. It was that hunger and determination that made you a better player. So don’t forget to practice.

As a musician you should always try to improve. You should always find a way to get better. Yes it is great to look at some of your heroes for inspiration, but the only battle you have in your hands is to beat yourself. Every day try to be a little bit better than what you were the day before. Even if it is only a half an hour a day, try to get off that computer and just work on your playing. There is always room for improvement. Now I’m off to practice 🙂

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get two of his free songs go HERE and click Download