by Sean Stone-Ashe
It’s January! That means it’s time for everyone to look forward to the year ahead, and all of the possibilities it may hold. Whenever it’s time to make new year’s resolutions, I always feel particularly inspired to set some tangible and specific goals that I can accomplish in the year to come if I push myself and maintain consistent progress throughout the year.
In this blog, I have made some suggestions for new year’s resolutions that any music student would be doing well to accomplish. Some of these are goals I set for myself even today!
- Practice Every Day for One Month
Something I always preach to my students is achieving consistency in music practice. Successful musicians feel completely natural when they play their instruments, as if the instrument is merely an extension of themselves. This is achieved by interacting with the instrument as frequently as possible. When you play your instrument or sing every single day it makes you more connected to that instrument and makes it feel like a normal part of life.
Furthermore, we are much more consistent about practicing music when it’s something that occurs as a daily ritual. When you are in the habit of practicing all the time it becomes easier to choose to pick up your instrument and play for a bit rather than scroll on your phone or another time-wasting activity. Daily practice also feels more sustainable than marathon practice sessions that occur once or twice a week!
Also, when you practice every day, it becomes easier to remember your goals and the things you last discussed with your teacher. This makes practice more focused and purposeful.
For these reasons, daily practice is an essential part of the journey to musical excellence. Participating in a challenge to practice every day for a month can be a fun way to make daily practice the new standard. You can find a buddy to make a practice pact with, or perhaps your friend has a good habit they want to form that isn’t music related. You can make yourselves accountable to each other and experience success together!
- Create a Great Recording of Yourself
Creating a recording of yourself is one of the best ways to learn how you actually sound as a musician. When we are in the process of physically creating music on an instrument, it is challenging to dedicate the necessary mental effort to actually listen to how we sound. Therefore, it is always a great idea to record whole pieces or even excerpts as a tool to experience our own sound.
Beyond the pedagogical applications of making recordings, it is also an extremely nice feeling to have strong recordings of your playing. Whether you actually use music software to edit and make an extremely perfect recording or just run through your music while your phone is video recording, you should make an effort to create a recording you are proud of. In five years, when you are no longer working on the same music, it will be nostalgic to look back on your work. Your family will certainly appreciate the recording as well!
Take a day to sit down with your phone or other recording device and run through the piece you intend to record several times. It can be a little frustrating, but the result is well worth the effort!
- Choose and Learn an Ambitious Piece of Music
One of the many joys of music is identifying an aspirational piece of music, taking the time and effort to actually learn the piece, and then one day actually be able to perform it. This piece could take months to learn and even years to perfect, but I have personally always found great joy in pushing myself to be able to perform exceptional music.
This goal is best reached in consultation with your teacher. This is true because some music might be a bit too aspirational for you at your current ability level and practice habits. The last thing you want is to work extremely hard on a piece to feel like you aren’t getting anywhere.
However, you would be surprised how much you can achieve in music if you are willing to push yourself to be excellent!
- Compose a Piece of Music (Or Find Another New Way to Engage in Music)
If you have been doing music for some time, it can be engaging and fulfilling to find a new way to participate in music. For many people who start off by learning an instrument, actually composing a piece of music can be a rewarding and fun challenge. Maybe you will even be able to perform it yourself on your instrument!
Writing a piece of music can be daunting, and it is tough to know how to begin. However, there are many composition exercises designed for beginners to get their creative juices flowing while learning some valuable concepts about music composition.
If composition doesn’t sound enjoyable, maybe you can try a secondary instrument, learn to sing, or even just begin listening to a new genre of music. The possibilities are endless, but finding ways to keep music fresh can help satisfy our curiosity and bring new joy to our lives!
The start of a new year is an excellent time to take stock of your musical goals and plan ahead for an amazing year to come! I hope these suggestions have gotten your creative juices flowing and feeling ambitious for what you can accomplish in 2026!
