Music Goals for the New Year

At this time of year we often reflect on the previous year, evaluate and examine our personal accomplishments, productivity, progression, or, unfortunately, we often notice our ambitious attempts, postponed promises, inactivity, and personal digression.

Every year we commit to change, improve, learn more, accomplish more, earn/save more money, be better husbands, wives, parents, children, siblings, friends, neighbors, etc., through annual, semi-annual, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. The to do list goes on and on with our own personal promises and hopeful expectations of what we might do as the new year begins, and, if we don't have a step by step plan, goals are meaningless.

Life comes at us quickly. Often, if we aren't prepared or ready for it, life will pass by us and leave us behind. Those of us who have found ourselves stuck in a rut and wanting something more must ask who we are and discover what we personally need and want out of life. If we don't know who we are, what we personally need, or want from life, we will never obtain it.

When students ask me how to improve their piano playing, I ask them what they specifically want to accomplish. I ask them to tell me what their personal goal is as it pertains to playing the piano. Why do they want to play the piano in the first place? What do they hope to accomplish by studying music? What do they personally want to be able to do once they have developed the skill of playing an instrument? Are they planning on using this skill/talent as a career? Are they hoping to use their musical ability to become rich and famous? What is their objective with music?

Many students, at first, look at me and wonder why I ask them so many questions. To them, they think there should be a clear cut answer to how they can improve their piano playing. Maybe they are hoping for a one-liner that can magically change everything. Many students tell me they don't really think about what they want to do because it doesn't matter. "Why", they ask me, "would I want to worry about what I do with the piano in the future? I would rather focus on playing right now and let everything take care of itself." The only problem with that line of reasoning is nothing will take care of itself if left to itself. When the students respond with this kind of response I tell them in order to understand what they must do on a day to day basis right now, they must have a clearly defined idea of what they hope to and are going to accomplish. Once they know where they are going and what they want to do, they can break down the goal into managable "mini" goals.

Setting goals, no matter how big or small, will make us or break us. The saying, "Those who fail to plan, plan to fail", is very true. We may change the phrase a little by saying, "Those who plan to succeed, succeed because they have a plan".

Written by Jerald M. Simon
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