fake blood bass
Have you ever heard the old joke about the tourist in New York City who approaches a New Yorker and asks: “Pardon me, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” to which the New Yorker replies: “Practice.” Well it’s true. No matter how little or how much natural ability and talent you have, if you want to become a better musician, there is only one way to ensure that you will achieve your goal.
There are a million and one things that you could be doing right now and the fact that you are reading this article implies one of three things:
1. You are surfing the net and came here by accident.
Or
2. You are a musician and you want to ‘get good’.
I’m assuming it’s option 2, but 1 can read on as well, as this applies to achieving anything.
How Do You Get Good?
Like the friendly New Yorker said to our out-of-town friend: you practice. Becoming a better musician, or improving at anything, is merely a case of putting in the work. It is true to say that we all have different amounts of natural ability and talent. As each day moves forward we find that this applies to many areas in our lives. But regardless of how much natural ability any one of us may have, if you don’t work at it then all you’ll become is another person sitting around with wasted talent.
When it comes to achieving a goal, there is absolutely no substitute in this world for hard work: blood, sweat and tears. (Preferably fake blood when you are doing your best Gene Simmons impersonation!) If you believe any different, then you are simply making up an excuse.
Realizing that you can do anything that you put your mind to is the easy part. The next step you need to take is to set yourself some goals.
Goal Setting 101
When you define goals, it’s a good idea to state them at a high level and then break them down into smaller goals and then into tasks. Once you do that you can start moving towards the bigger picture.
In a way a it’s like saying you want to building a house. You need to break it down into smaller goals: laying the foundations, building the walls and putting up a roof. Each of these items can be broken down further into achievable tasks.
Building a house might seem like an impossible mission, but if you break it down and just focus on leveling out the ground ready to pour in some cement, you find that you are faced with things that you can do.
It’s the same with music. If you want to learn how to play guitar, then you need to break it down and understand that you need to learn to play chords, scales, rhythm and melody. With chords you need to learn Major, minor, 7th and extended chords.
Anyone can learn how to play a C Major chord, just as anyone can learn how to play a C Major scale. And it’s up to you if decide to put in the time to be able to play them well or not. It’s the choice you make right there, that is going to determine what kind of guitar player you will ultimately become.
Shut Up And Practice
Whether we like it or not, we all know that improvement at anything requires work. As there is no way around this fact, once you know what your goals are, you simply need to set aside some time to do the work required. The most important thing here is to make the commitment and follow through to completion, what you told yourself you would do.
If you commit to practicing just half an hour a day for one month on one element of your playing, you will realize within one or two weeks that you will be able to master anything that you are practicing. It may take one month or it may take a year, but the bottom line is, at some point, if you keep practicing you will achieve your goal.
Here a simple task for you to complete. Take some time out over the next day or so and think about what your goals are. It could be to do with music, school, work, sport or anything you do where you want to achieve. Define and set a goal for yourself. Work out all of the tasks involved that make up that goal. Commit some time each day in your calendar that will allow you to work on those tasks. And when it comes that time, sit down, shut up and practice.
About The Author:
Nick Cresswell is a musician, music teacher, author and webmaster of http://www.FreeJamTracks.com/. Free Jam Tracks provides guitarists, bassists and drummers with free, high quality jam tracks, articles and music instruction. Download your free tracks today: http://www.FreeJamTracks.com/.
(c) Copyright – Nick Cresswell. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Unkle – Restless (fake blood Remix)