Establishing Daily Routines
Friday, December 16, 2022 by Billy Roberts | Vision
This past month, and especially this past week, I have put a lot of thought into what I want my daily and weekly routines for piano, horn and voice to look like in the coming year. It’s clear to me that I can’t put any one of these three instruments to rest and be fully happy with that decision. I’m grateful that piano and voice were my only musical pursuits during the decade away from horn when I met my wife. That certainly made it easier for me to enjoy starting a family and going back to school. However, now that I’ve been back into horn playing for nearly two years I’m at a point, again, where I can look beyond music and begin to understand the purpose behind the pursuit of beauty and things that bring meaning to our lives.
Music should never be your all-consuming passion; you were created for so much more than that. Instead, your pursuit of music should reflect and highlight what you value the most. If you are called to be a professional musician, there is nothing wrong with spending eight or more hours a day listening to recordings, working with other musicians, and of course perfecting your craft in the isolated space of a practice room. But for most of us, thirty to sixty minutes a day, five times a week is plenty of time to make progress on our instruments. For those of you who do go farther, always keep perspective and never make music at the expense of relationships that matter more. That said, it is ok to have one particular calling be the driver of most of your life decisions if you understand why you are called to it and how it serves others.
One of the best ways to maintain balance is by establishing daily routines tailored to your specific musical priorities. This enables you to make the most of the time that you spend with your instrument while protecting the time that you have allocated for the rest of life. If you are short on time, this routine may take up most of your practice time but should still allow space in the latter part of each session for you to simply enjoy making music. If you do not have a clear goal of what fundamentals you want to accomplish each day in practice, it will be difficult for you to manage your time, consistently work toward a solid technique, and have enough practice time left over to look at the music that you play day by day. It may take weeks or months to figure out how to best use your practice time, but once you do you will find freedom knowing that you can master your instrument without it mastering you.
