Musicians often come up to me after seminars and tell me they have trouble "disciplining themselves".

First of all, what does the word "discipline" mean?

In American culture, it probably means:

- To force oneself or another to do something against the will.

- To punish someone for their unacceptable actions.
However, one of the definitions in the dictionary is "to prepare by education" and "to study".

Another word that needs to be looked at is the word "play".

- An activity that's fun and brings pleasure to the participant.

- An activity that wants to be engaged in.

Frequently, someone will say: " I have no discipline and have trouble forcing myself to play!"

There are only two solutions:

1. Stop playing at once if it brings you so much discomfort.

2. Learn how to have fun with music so that you will want to play.

If you chose to continue:

- To play an instrument well, you need to make it enjoyable, so that you will practice a lot and prefer that activity over others that are less enjoyable.

- What can make practice frustrating, is when the material to be learned is too hard and there is no progress. Always choose things that are mildly challenging (reachable goals).

- Have many items to practice, so that every 5-20 minutes you can change what you are doing, so that you don't start to daydream.

- Practice three or more times a day and work on

something different each session.

- Give yourself permission to enjoy practicing.

- Everyone has different learning needs and attention spans. You need to learn what works best for you.

- Is your posture so bad that your body hurts when you practice? For more ideas see my book Power Practicing.

This picture was taken on the night I decided that the seven string guitar was not the best choice as the vehicle needed to present my musical vision.

After practicing it for 2 years, I realized that playing the 7 was diminishing my 6 string ability. (On the previous night's gig, I broke a string on my 6.  I didn't replace it and finished the gig with 5 strings and learned that 6 were enough.)  On the night pictured here the band kept playing during my "solo" and were the only ones that knew the direction I was going to take.  The audience thought that I had a mental breakdown, but in actuallity this was a completely sane act.  They came up to the stage and picked up the guitar pieces for souvenirs.  The guitar neck was hung on the wall at the Uptowner for a few weeks then mysteriously disappeared.  The feeling was wonderful.

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For more help on practicing better read the book:

"POWER PRACTICING" by Jack

Available on this site's shopping cart.

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