10 Tips That Make you a Better Musician
1. Know what to practice
A lot of time is wasted practicing things that you’ve either practiced already a million times or that you simply don’t need to practice. It’s easy to sit down and play the things you’re really good at because they make you sound good. If you want to improve though, it makes more sense to figure out your weaknesses and work on those. Another good idea is to practice difficult parts of some of your upcoming gigs. This will ensure that you practice relevant stuff.
2. Stop practicing
Yes, you’ve heard right. Stop practicing for a while. When you stop practicing for a while, you tend to “forget” those automatic licks we keep playing over and over again. Once you get back to practicing, you’ll have to work up new material which ads to your vocabulary and helps you develop your own sound.
3. Listen to what’s going on around you
Most music is played as a group. In order to be sensitive to the music around you so that you can respond to it, adjust your own playing to it, or be inspired by it, you have to ‘hear’ it. This can only happen if you shift your focus away from your own playing and make a conscious effort to listen to everyone else as you’re playing. I suggest you focus on a different instrument for a couple of bars as you’re playing with your band, ensemble or orchestra. Keep working at it until you can focus on two or more instruments at a time.
4. Put your ego aside – Accept criticism
Putting your ego aside will help you in more ways than one. For starters, musicians will enjoy working with you which is really important if you want repeat gigs. Letting go of your ego will let you accept criticism, even from musicians that you might consider less experienced. The latter may have learned a lesson that you haven’t yet learned. Also, rehearsal times can be cut dramatically if no egos get in the way of effective work.
5. Strive to be a complete musician
The more one knows about music, the more fun it is. And there is always something to learn about music. It would take you several lifetimes to get to know it all. There’s ear training, technique, sound, history, analysis, harmony, arranging, composition. . . The list is never ending. Knowledge gained in any area of music will make you a better musician.
6. Actively seek out challenges
Don’t be afraid to tackle the aspects of your playing you believe you can’t master. Setting the bar higher will accelerate your learning curve.
7. Don’t assume that your education taught you everything you need to know
In other words, don’t underestimate experience. What works in a classroom with your teacher present may be very different from what works on the bandstand when you’re on your own. When you encounter a difficulty, don’t reply: “Well, that’s what my teacher taught me” but rather “I’m not familiar with this, can you help me out”. Remember that even the most prestigious college degree won’t get you any gigs if you can’t play.
8. Pick your schools/teachers carefully
It’s hard for beginners to know where to look for the right teachers and/or schools, but it’s less difficult for musicians that are already moderately advanced. For the latter, I would suggest to identify exactly what it is that they would like to learn and ask around amongst your musician friends who would be best suited to teach you this very thing. Often, you’ll see that you won’t have to pay for a $40,000-a-year education, where you’ll learn a lot of things you may not be interested in, when you could go get private lessons with a top notch player for a fraction of the amount of money and time.
9. Set yourself challenges to combat monotony
A lot of gigs are very repetitive. While the show you’re playing may have been a challenge at first, it can quickly become easy and monotonous. This presents a big danger to let your performance slip. One way to combat this very problem would be to set yourself personal challenges. I used to set myself the challenge of adding one small musical variation to what was written on the page, provided it fit in perfectly and the music benefitted from it (This works only if the style of music allows for creative variations). Or I would particularly focus on rhythmic precision. You may pay particular attention to intonation or stylistics. There are many ways to set yourself challenges to keep you on your toes. Try it.
10. Enjoy your gigs.
You may ask how this could possibly make you a better musician? Well, if you enjoy your gigs, you may feel a lot more comfortable with the situation you’re in and hence you may be inclined to go the extra mile to play extra well, to prepare better, to do extra research or to help out other musicians (which will make your band sound better). Also, a musician that enjoys himself on stage will help get the music across to the audience, which will result in a more enjoyable experience for the listeners, whose feedback will eventually come back to you, which in return may lead to more gigs.
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