i even took a hard look at how i was learning and practicing. i was at least astute enough to know that whatever i had been doing to learn the instrument wasn't working so that needed to be retooled as well. i read a book on practice habits of musicians and one on time management, goal setting, and just being effective in general. side note: i wish i read that second one years ago. i absolutely had to learn how to learn.
setting goals is quite the effective tool when it comes to, well anything, but certainly learning an instrument. a few years ago i had started setting some long and short term goals for myself. the long term was 6 months to a year and the short term goals were a month. first i'd chose a broad long term goal. then at the beginning of the month i'd sit down and write out that month's goal[s]. from there i could break it down into weekly bits and even down to the day. effective.
i'd also write a bit about how i felt about the previous month's progress. did i stay on task? did i over/under achieve? did i abandon the goal altogether? it gave me a chance to take a measurement of where i wanted to go and where i had been. if i had drifted i could get pointed in the right direction or set a new destination if i wanted. sometimes where i thought i wanted to go wasn't where i ended up heading at all. you never know what you'll discover a long the way that may change your mind.
i just wrote out this upcoming month's goal and there's certainly a new direction i'm headed, but i was also pleased to see that i really stuck to the last month's goal. i wrote it down, i made a plan, and i chipped away at it everyday. sometimes only one bar a day but it adds up.
