10 Things Every Serious Musician Must Do Daily
I wish I could take credit for this, but I can’t. However, the author is spot on!
Listen and study scores IMSLP.org, Youtube, Spotify, etc all of a composers output, different styles and instrumentation. Chopin, Etudes, Nocturnes, Sonatas and concertos Rachmaninoff’s choral music! It will change your perspective.
Sightread everyday!!!!! 20 minutes everyday and read straight through easy music everyday- Don’t stop or fix anything
Read about music, composers, music history. “After the Golden Age”
Go to concerts!!!!! Professional performances, not just piano music. Symphonies, choral music, etc.
Record yourself and critique! If you don’t do this, you really don’t have an idea of how we sound…. Ask yourself, Would I willingly listen to this player and if not, why?
Guard your practice time. Get a printed schedule of your time and show or highlight how you are protecting those hours. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Malcom Gladwell popularized the theory that you start getting good at something after you have put in 10,000 hours. 5 years of 40 hour work weeks
Scales and arpeggios - in every key? All keys should be equally easy to you.
Know the dominant chords in each key, for example, You should improvise and compose all the time. To not be able to do this is the equivalent of having English be your first language and yet not be able to do anything but recite what others have written out word for word. You would not consider yourself fluent! the way to get more fluent in the language of music is to improvise and compose.
Ask yourself what are your weaknesses, musically and then attack them everyday. Sight-reading, technical issues, etc.
Discuss music with other musicians. Help fuel each others interests and inspire each other!!!!
