name is Manuel Diewald and I am a Sydney-based guitar teacher in West Pennant Hills with a B.Mus. (Hons)(First) in Music Pedagogy from The University of New South Wales (UNSW).
It can be quite difficult, especially during lockdown, to stay motivated and keep up the routine of learning our instrument/s though there are some ways to help keep you motivated.
My First Suggestion, if you do not already have one, is to create a schedule for your weekly practice routine. This can be very useful and helpful in keeping organised throughout the week to maintain a consistent practice routine. Beginning with a routine may be the trickiest part but once established, it will be a part of your life. You could set reminders on your phone for the first week that alert you to practice and once a routine is set you can turn them off. You could write your routine down in a diary, or on a piece of paper which is kept somewhere that you see every day, multiple times a day. If you find sticking to a routine tricky or have trouble keeping motivated to practice the number of hours you use to then reduce the number of hours you practice in one sitting and build back up to where you once were. Consistency is a much better approach. I have a blog called 'What are the Best Practice strategies for your Instrument?' which talks about a 15-minute rule that can be helpful if time-based motivation is an issue for you.
My second suggestion is to think about a long-term goal you would like to achieve on your instrument. For example, to be able to learn a specific technique or to learn a piece or song. Within that long-term goal, I suggest that you create many short-term goals. For example, In 2 weeks I want to be able to learn that technique slowly but fluently, or in 2 weeks I want to learn the introduction or the A section of a piece, or the verse. These short-term goals should be achievable and will help to feel small amounts of satisfaction and progression towards the long-term goal.
My third suggestion is to listen to your favourite artists or albums and if you are learning a piece, listen to many different artists play that piece to give you a wide range of ideas and interpretations of how that piece can be played. You can also watch videos of your favourite artists perform pieces or songs on YouTube. This can help to motivate us and encourage us to practice and stick to our routine.
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