I spend my evenings and weekends reading and writing, listening and practicing.
Much to my dismay, none of these activities seem to be giving me chiseled abs. So I’ve taken up running and strength training again. Nothing terribly intense; just push-ups, crunches, and pull-ups to add a bit of muscle, as well as throwing about of some different weighted slam balls that utilize many of the muscles I wish to train, all in one exercise
I’ve noticed that learning the skills of songwriting shares a lot in common with taking on a workout routine:
- Careful form is necessary to make progress
- An effective workout or a practice routine must be challenging
- Workouts and practice both require consistent efforts over time
- Songwriting can be approached as a “circuit” workout
In this session we’ll talk about why exercise routines make a handy analogy for designing an effective practice routine.
Careful form is necessary to make progress
During a typical workout, you might do pushups to work your arms and chest, crunches to work your abs, pull-ups to work your back muscles, and lunges to work your leg muscles. Each exercise is designed to put one specific muscle group to work while the other muscles throughout your body rest.
Likewise, practice is all about isolating one particular skill or concept at a time. Athletes must use perfect form during exercise to avoid injury and strengthen the desired muscles and skills. As songwriters, during the “Crawl” and “Walk” stages of practice we must be very careful to use perfect form to get our desired results, too. And focusing on one specific skill at a time ensures that each one gets the attention it deserves.
To be effective, a workout or a practice routine must be difficult
If a workout routine doesn’t leave an athlete sweaty and tired, it probably didn’t do them much good. Likewise, if your practice session doesn’t challenge you, you’re probably not learning much.
When we play an instrument, sing, or write songs, we tend to rely on the skills we already have. We stick to what we’re well-versed in, to avoid the risk of making mistakes and bad choices.
Practice, though, is about working on something you find difficult in a deliberate, structured way. Rising to that challenge requires a lot of focus and effort. You certainly do “feel the burn” while straining to understand and perform something difficult, right?
When something feels difficult, our natural impulse is to quit. When we practice, we’re choosing to accept a little short-term discomfort in exchange for better skills. Nothing comes for free, and if you want to stand out among songwriters, you can’t just stick to what’s comfortable – you’ll have to push yourself and attempt difficult things.
Both require small, consistent efforts over time
It doesn’t take long to exhaust a muscle group. Three sets of pushups is enough to exhaust a beginning weightlifter’s arms and chest. So that’s why you should ease into the arm and chest workout of your choice because the last thing you’ll want to do is exhaust yourself before you’ve even started. You won’t be able to achieve your workout goals this way. Likewise, as a songwriter, you can take on tough challenges by working in small but consistent “bites.”
Nobody expects to do one push-up and suddenly sprout muscles – the key is repetition over time. Practice activities are the same way. The daily gains are small, but they become dramatic over time.
Studying a chapter from a songwriting book just one time, or practicing something for a single session, is almost never enough. Plan to repeat the same lessons several times over several days or weeks. Repetition over time is the best way to plant something firmly in your long-term memory. The same can be said for exercise. Luckily, if you’re struggling to keep up with your workout routine, you can look at the top fitness apps on a site like Cell Phone Deal to find a better way of sticking to it.
I find myself avoiding both
One unfortunate similarity between physical exercise and songwriting practice is that I find myself making excuses not to do either one. I can come up with lots of compelling reasons why I’d rather not put on my shorts and lace my sneakers to go for a run, and why I’d better just “do it tomorrow instead”. This is a trick my mind has played on me countless times, and I make an effort not to fall for it anymore. Putting things off until “tomorrow” quickly becomes a habit. The truth is that there will never be an ideal time for these positive but challenging activities – learn to recognize when you’re making excuses for yourself, and start today.
In the next session, we’ll create a structured “songwriting workout” that spells out your practice activities in specific detail so that, during your next session, you can sit down and get right to work.