The Fastest Way to Learn a Musical Instrument Guaranteed

In a fascinating article on why New Year’s resolutions usually fail, authors Dan and Chip Heath give pointers on how to turn resolutions into goals. What’s the difference between the two?  Goals get met.  Resolutions don’t. As a practicing musician, you have the power to meet your goals–if you take the right steps to make the [...]

In a recent post aimed at helping musicians achieve goals and learn how to practice more effectively, I wrote about the SMART Goal system. Today’s post focuses on the “T” in SMART. T is for Time. A goal without a time limit is just a dream.  You may have a desire to achieve something musically.  [...]

In a recent post aimed at helping musicians achieve goals and learn how to practice more effectively, I wrote about the SMART Goal system. Today’s post focuses on the “R” in SMART. R = Risky According to the SMART Goal system, you need to have an element of risk built into your plans.  Without risk, [...]

In a recent post aimed at helping musicians achieve goals and learn how to practice more effectively, I wrote about the SMART Goal system. Today’s post focuses on the “A” in SMART. A = Attainable. When goals are put in place, they must be attainable and realistic.  That doesn’t mean that a goal should be [...]

In a recent post aimed at helping musicians achieve goals and learn how to practice more effectively, I wrote about the SMART Goal system. Today’s post focuses on the “M” in SMART. M stands for Measurable. There needs to be some aspect of your musical goal that can be measured easily.  Without this measurement in [...]

In a recent post aimed at helping musicians achieve goals and learn how to practice more effectively, I wrote about the SMART Goal system. Today’s post focuses on the “S” in SMART. S stands for Specific. This is the most clear cut of the five properties of the SMART Goals system.  Essentially, each musical goal [...]

Setting and accomplishing goals are very important to practicing musicians.  However, few musicians use a system to help them with this process. A number of years ago my students were struggling with achieving their goals, and I was determined to help them solve their dilemma. I looked outside the music world to find a process [...]

To obtain your musical goals, it helps to have a very specific desire. There is probably something that’s drawing you to pursue music in the first place. If you can put this desire into words, you will be much closer to achieving your goal. Many musicians, especially beginners, are vague about their goals. Without having [...]