When your standing at the forefront of anything…… Whether thats producing a record, mixing a show….going to work…feeding your kid….or running a garage sale if you have influence or are just part of the equation, it’s up to to make it happen.

As counter intuitive as it may seem these 4 truths have served me well as reminders of how to get things done in a great way. I get in trouble when I forget them. People that do these without thinking about them inspire me.

1. I don’t care what is going on…..It IS all your fault. Now shut up and fix whatever the problem is.
2. Take responsibility, for everything. All the time.
3. It isn’t all your success. Relentlessly give credit where it is due, even if you were a part of it. The credit isn’t yours. Ever.
4. Do not demand authority. (hint: you can’t, it can only be given). Besides if you’ve already done #1 and #2 and taken responsibility for whatever “it” is… than who needs to demand anything?

Go do great stuff.

Want a secret to internalizing your musical parts? Becoming a better musician overall?

Sing your parts. Yes I know your an instrumentalist.Even so, sing your parts.  Away from your instrument. Out-loud. Even if you can’t sing. Hint. I can’t sing.

It is one of the fastest ways to.

• Know if you know your material.
• Internalize it.
• Improve pitch.
• Improve timing.

Get a notebook and write down where you’d like to be as a musician in a year. Then write down the skills you would need to get there. if you don’t know ask someone who does. And then schedule it by day and duration. And then work on that. Think in steps. Start at the beginning. Don’t go on till you have the step mastered.

The pen is mightier than the sword, and if you fail to plan. You will fail. Here are a couple examples of sheets you could use to block what you are doing.

Click here for practice sheet.

Click here for musicians schedule.

The above link to a site called musicians way. Great site!

Success in any and all environments is directly related to your level of preparedness and what you think… your mind, or your “state of mind”.

You can’t get yourself ready:

• In front of people at an audition
• At a gig
• In a studio.

There are two ways to manage your environment.

1. Be ready: Remember thats you job as a musician. Internalize the music. So you don’t have to think about playing.

2. Visualize your environment. Your brains ability to recall information drops by 30-50% when you are in a different environment.  You should be able to visualize yourself playing the gig including hearing your parts in the space you are going to play with the people you play. Your mind doesn’t know the difference… so if you visualize you will already have done it. This alleviates the physical pressure you will face.

Let me make it easy on you. Doesn’t really matter. As long as it is in context of what you have determined is success for you and your situation.

Just pick something.

Here is a couple ideas to get your brain going.

Identify your interest.

• Do you want to have better timing?
• Do you want to understand chords better?
• Do you want to learn a new instrument?
• Do you want to solo more?

Find someone who knows what you want to know. Google, tutorial sites, private lessons.

Make it realistic.

Slow down and understand the concept. We will get to this later but sequence what your doing. Don’t learn to play poly-rhtyms if you can’t count in 4 yet.

Write it down in your schedule notebook. Follow the notebook. Until you have mastered the task.

Then.

Identify musical categories you comprehend and enjoy and expand on those.

Practicing is hard. It is. For a number of reasons.

One reason Is because we don’t schedule it.

Think about it. If your job didn’t require you to have some sort of schedule how difficult would it be to make it there everyday at the same time. I bet it would get tough.

Remember this all choice. In the heat of a day when your tired, bored, happy whatever there are a million reasons not to practice. So why not just schedule it.

Today pick a 10- 15 minute block on your calendar everyday and schedule your practice time. Do what works best for you, your life, your energy cycle and your family.

Then show up everyday for at least 28 days to start.

The medium. Can be the style of music or the instrument we use to express that style of music.
The human. You as the human must be able to actually play what your trying to express on what ever it is your expressing it on.
Knowing how your body works makes it possible to improve how your body works. Knowing how music works makes it possible to improve your expression of it.

Do you have a plan to learn more about yourself and a plan to learn more about music?

It’s funny how we are always looking for the quickest way to anywhere. As people we typically don’t like to save a little for a lifetime to be rich. We don’t like to make small eating and exercise changes to lose weight over the period of a couple years.

A lot of musicians/bands don’t practice regularly, daily etc.  Then they practice like crazy for hours right before the gig. Not wise.

A little bit of practice everyday. Even 20 minutes is far better than a 2- 3 hour marathon every week.

Why? Muscle memory. When you do a repetitive thing over and over it becomes muscle memory.

Just remember a little bit every day is the way.