3. Break it down into small, achievable steps.
Once you have identified your goals you can then determine WHAT you need to practice. If you’re unsure, ask your music teacher or a musician friend to help you get some ideas.
The next step is breaking that down into smaller chunks (building blocks), so that you have specific daily steps that you can take.
Say, for example, you want to be able to sight-read music…
Firstly you need to break that goal down into it’s separate components: understanding music theory and terminology, reading rhythms, reading melody, aural/ear training and technical proficiency.
Or perhaps you want to sing a particularly challenging song…
Again, you will need to break this down into the specific techniques, technical agility, pitching, timing and lyrical requirements of the song.
Once you have these separate components, they too need to be further broken down into small, sequential goals that are achievable within a short time-frame (eg: a week).
Just diving in and ‘having a go’ rarely cuts it. Not breaking your goals down into small enough steps can be the difference between achieving them or giving up altogether.
Take the time to set up the steps required and seek assistance if you’re unsure how to do this.