5 Tips to Be a Better Musician

WARNING:

If you already know everything there is to know about music, do not watch this video.

Hey, I’m Kevin, Creative Director at Resonate Music School & Studio and I’m gonna share with YOU, 5 helpful ways to be a better musician!

Practice is obviously a key part to improving as a musician.
The length and frequency of your practices is super important and both are probably for a lot less time than you think!
Practicing each day for 15-30 minutes is much more effective than practicing for 2 hours once a week.
Your brain needs time to digest the information and develop the fine motor skills required for your instrument.
Not only will you learn your material faster, short practice sessions will be much easier on your voice if you’re a singer or on your hands if you play piano, guitar or drums.
15 minutes of 100% focus on practicing is much better than mindlessly practicing for hours.
As you become more proficient at your instrument you’ll be able to practice for longer but start small and go from there.
One of the most important things when it comes to practicing is to establish a routine.
To help you reach your full potential, make practicing a habit and you’ll be surprised just how quickly you improve and how it becomes a natural part of your everyday life.
Even for the busiest of us out there, a bit of time with your instrument can be just the break you need.

2. Take Opportunities to Perform

Performing is a major key in advancing your musicianship and you should always be striving for that next performance.
You can start off performing single pieces for friends/family at home or of course in school recitals.
Once you’ve learned multiple songs, you can even begin performing sets in more coffee shop style shows.
Then of course performing with other musicians in duos or full bands is some of the most fun you can have with music.
I’ve been lucky enough to help create some amazing performance opportunities for students here at Resonate and I can confidently say some of the best moments in my life have been on a stage and I think nearly every player would say the same. Playing for a crowd, regardless of size, is an amazing experience and will help you immensely in your musical journey.
Performing has tons of benefits, it’ll help you build self confidence and as a bonus: it’s an awesome adrenalin rush!
Also, a performance opportunity gives you a goal to work towards and if you have a show coming up, you’ll naturally work even harder at practicing.

3. Record Yourself

Recording your playing and performing is a great way to see where you’re at and hear ways to improve.
Listening back to yourself almost always reveals something new you may not have caught in real time.
Not only that, keeping a history of recordings is a great way to track your progress and it also makes for a fun keep sake.
You’ll be amazed to hear your improvement as you compare your past and present recordings.
You can record your practices, lessons, performances, and more using even just a smartphone or tablet.
At Resonate, all students on our membership actually get free time in the recording studio here to work with a music engineer and producer.
Everyone should definitely explore recording in a studio at some point as it’s super beneficial and a lot of fun.

4. Always Keep Learning

When it comes to getting better as a musician, continuously learning is a must.
Taking the time to meet with a teacher who provides you a guided lesson plan on a regular basis is a great way to improve.
Teachers can share their years of expertise and knowledge with you directly, saving you the frustration of trying to learn on your own.
And to connect back to practicing, having lessons will help keep you accountable and your teacher can be a major help in building routines and goals that will best set you up for success.
Also, be open to exploring different genres, techniques, and teachers to become a more versatile musician!

Patience and Persistence

This may be the most important point of all.
You won’t become a rockstar over night and that’s ok because the process and journey are so rewarding.
If you can work on creating a practice routine that works for you, take lessons, and strive to perform whenever you can you will get a little better every day and that will add up quicker than you might realize.
As long as you are working on improving everyday, the small things will equal big results and you can be the musician you’ve always wanted to be.

That’s all for now but I hope that you were able to take something from these tips to help take your musicianship to the next level!

Do you have a particular tip that I didn’t mention here? If so, check out the YouTube video at the top of this post and let us know in the comments.