Reading Notes
4 Minute Read | Laptop or Tablet Recommended
Topics and Themes
Shifting to manageable, focused routines; Finding a bare minimum routine that works; Showing up.
My First Epic Fail as a Teacher
When I first began teaching, I told the same thing to every student:
“You must practice an hour a day to learn guitar.”
I remember the look on people’s faces… nearly expressionless, stone cold, and with a hint of fatigue. My guess is they were sizing up whether or not they wanted to learn from me.
I have wised-up.
I realized most people have little interest in practicing for an hour each day. They love to play, of course. But practice? Good, hard, deliberate practice? For an hour?
Nope.
People who came to learn guitar from me led full lives. They had families that deserved their attention. They had careers that occupied many hours of their weekdays. They wanted to learn guitar because they knew how awesome it would feel to play it, not because they wanted to become professional musicians.
Perhaps guilting people into practicing an hour a day wasn’t such a smart idea. I began saying this instead:
“If you want the most bang for your buck, practice [insert specific practice suggestion here] for five minutes each day until our next meeting.”
And the crazy thing? It worked. Why?
Students could easily carve out five minutes.
Students had a clear understanding of what to practice.
The Bare Minimum Routine
Recommending five minutes of practice to my students is an example of a bare minimum routine. A bare minimum routine is a manageable task that we can accomplish every single day regardless of our time, mood, or energy level. The bare minimum routine encourages us to go deep whenever we have the inspiration to stay at that task and play with it for longer. It also forgives us when we just don’t have the time.
Long before I had a catchy name for it, I recognized the importance of daily habits. I loved making investments in my skills. I found my skills grew fastest when I showed up every day to work on them. This included skills like orchestration, synthesizers, score study, and many others. The more I showed up to learn about these subjects, the easier composing became for me. It also became more fun. I felt better, stronger, and more directed.
The Struggle with Rigid Expectations
The problem occurred if I dramatically stated, “I will study orchestration/synths/films for an hour a day, no matter what.”
Inevitably, I had days when I really hated doing this. Like, I really fucking hated every damned second of some of those hours.
Setting aside an hour each day for a single task felt rigid, cumbersome, and frustrating especially on days when I had little time to spare. It didn't matter that I was studying something I loved. I was crushing the energy for learning.
At the same time, I didn’t want to skip practicing altogether. I genuinely cared about improving my musical skills. I struggled to find a reasonable balance.
Now that I have established bare minimum routines, everything has improved so much for the better. I can relax a little bit more.
For example, here’s my bare minimum for composing and piano for each day:
Two notes, each.
I write two notes on a page. I play two notes on the piano. That’s it. That’s my bare minimum routine. No matter what, I always show up and I always do that.
With the task completed, I was left open to write more music or play more piano, if I felt inspired.
On some days, I’d compose an entire page worth of notes. I’d end up playing piano for an hour straight, coming up with ideas that kinda blew my mind. There were moments when I could hardly tear myself away.
What happened on the other days when I wasn't so into it? I showed up and I did just two notes. I completed the bare minimum, and I walked away.
That’s the magic of the bare minimum routine. We select simple yet powerful tasks that we can easily accomplish, knowing they will benefit us in the long run. These tasks get completed quickly on days we don't have a lot of time, and they leave room for inspiration to take root on the days that we can stretch out a bit.
Embracing Daily Engagement
I love my creative routines now, even more. I value that I can make progress with a simple, daily engagement. In my opinion, that’s the very definition of mastery.
No matter what, I show up every day. That’s the point of a bare minimum routine.
You just show up.