I learned music in an era where I was shamed pretty heavily for not practicing eight hours a day. I really tried to live that lifestyle and spend the majority of my days in the practice room and my nights on stage. I’ll admit it; I did grow as a musician and found my footing as an artist. But the habits that I built were not a reflection of a healthy lifestyle and they certainly weren’t sustainable.

I’m older these days, and I’ve got a lot of responsibilities on my plate. I teach full time, I commute about two hours a day round trip, I have three children, I perform regularly, and I try to keep connected with folks through social media regularly. Practicing eight hours a day is not an option for me.

I’ll be honest – it was hard for me to come to terms with this. I went through a stage where I honestly believed that I just couldn’t be a musician if I couldn’t put in those long practice days. I was wrong on so many levels. I was a victim of a destructive mindset around practicing and I lost a lot of artistic time.

These days, I’ve found that I can still build my musicianship with limited practice time. Through this process, I’ve built some new habits that have been very successful for me. I’ve boiled these habits down to five important topics.

Set Specific, Clear, and Attainable Goals
You’ve got to know what you’re going to practice before you get started, and it’s worth some time to think about that in some detail. Your goals should push you to be a better player, but they should also be attainable. Your goals should align with a musical element that is important to your growth such as technique, applied theory, musicianship, improvisation, repertoire, or more. Your goals should be supported by specific materials that you can use as a springboard for learning. Your goals have got to represent tangible progress that you can see yourself making.

For example, I might say something like, I want to play like Jaco. On the one hand, Mr. Pastorious is an admirable role model and I’ve got a lot to learn from his playing. So that’s good. But more than that, this is a flawed goal; here’s why:
• That’s not an attainable goal. Jaco was Jaco and I’m me. I’m never going to be him.
• What does it even mean “to play like Jaco”? Do I want to capture his super funky feel? Do I want to play with the technical prowess that he displayed? Do I want to use his melodic language when I improvise? What about the whole harmonics thing? Do I want to do that? I need to decide which specific musical element of Jaco’s playing I want to learn.
• How am I going to learn about Jaco’s playing? Am I going to transcribe his lines? Is there a book that I can read from? Am I going to watch videos of him playing? I need to strategize my learning.
• Honestly, the whole idea of playing like Jaco is more than a little overwhelming. I can picture learning certain parts of his playing, but I just can’t see myself playing completely like Jaco.

This might be a better goal:
I want to learn more about the way that Jaco played funky sixteenth note lines. In order to understand his funk feel better, I’m going to learn his line on The Chicken. I’m going to work from a combination of a Jaco transcription book and the original recording. I want to integrate that sixteenth note feel into some funk fusion tunes that I play.

When you’ve got a goal like this, you know what you want, how you’re going to get it, and where it’s going to take you. That’s the kind of goal that you need.

Schedule Your Practice Time
Many of us know when we will get home from work. We know when we take the kids to their lessons, sports, or other activities. We know when we eat dinner, when we go to bed, and when we wake up. So why don’t we know when we practice?

While we may not write many things like getting home from work on the calendar, we know when they happen; so we know what time we have free. Are your free from 6:00 – 7:00 on Monday nights? Put it into your calendar as practice time. Is Tuesdays from 5:30 – 6:30 good? Put that on the calendar too.

These times have got to be definitive if we’re going to take our practice seriously. Actually write or type it onto a calendar. Then tell your family or roommates that you’ve claimed those hours as practice time. Be assertive about making sure that you’ve got private time with your instrument during those hours that you’ve claimed.

Clarify Your Priorities
We’ve all got our priorities in life. We make conscious choices about the areas of life where we dedicate our time. Some things are more important to us than others, and that’s fine. There’s no wrong choices, but we just need to realize that we make that choice. Then we need to live with the consequences of our decisions.

For example, my wife and children are my top priority; music is number two. My family knows that I’ll always choose them over music when it comes to the important things in life. They also know that I need music in my life to find balance. So they respect my practice time, gigs, recording projects, and the like; those things only get disrupted in serious circumstances.

So what are your priorities? Is music near the top of the list? If that’s the fact and you have limited time, you may have to choose practice over television, movies, video games, going out for coffee, or other activities. Is Netflix more important to you than music? That’s totally cool. Just realize that you’re making the choice to binge watch instead of practice and you might not advance as a musician.

Cover All Your Goals Using A Timer
Remember how we talked about setting goals at the beginning of this? Here’s where you’re going to apply those goals. Simply put, you’ve got to make sure that you move forward in each of those categories, every time that you practice. That’s easier said than done, and you might need to do some planning to make it happen.

Depending on the day, I have anywhere from one to two hours of practice time; for the purposes of clarity, let’s talk about using an hour. I’ll split that hour into four fifteen minute segments with defined topics. Here’s how today’s practice session went:
• I spent the first fifteen minutes doing three octave scales. I played through Lydian scales in all twelve keys as quarter notes. From there, I played through Mixolydian and Dorian scales in all twelve keys, this time using swung eighth notes. I had my metronome at 65 BPM so that I could focus on intonation and accuracy of shifting.
• I spent the second fifteen minutes played through two etudes from John Patitucci’s 60 melodic etudes book. I was able to increase the speed on the G Phrygian etude up to 100 beats per minute and I read the C Lydian etude at 70 BPM. I made note of fingerings that I needed to use in thumb position and thought about where I could apply them in other situations.
• I spent the third fifteen minute segment working on a transcription of a Ron Carter walking bass line. I spent much of the time focusing on one chorus, where Ron played some particularly tricky rhythmic figures. Once I was able to play through the chorus with accurate rhythms and a good feel, I tried those rhythmic figures under a couple of other chords.
• For the last fifteen minute portion, I worked on making progess with a transcription of Christian McBride’s melodic work on a song called McBride. I’ve recently started working on this one, so I’m still reading through the solo section; I spent much of my time working out fingerings for the solo section. I paid particular attention to Christian’s use of articulations and tried applying them to other melodic lines.

With each of these fifteen minute segments, I hit one of my practice goals. I fine tuned my intonation across the instrument. I worked on my playing in thumb position. I expanded my rhythmic and melodic language in jazz, both in walking and soloing situations. I had specific material to help me reach those goals. At the end of that hour, I felt like had taken a step forward as a bassist.

When I start each portion of my practice session, I always set a timer; in this case, each timer was set for 15 minutes. With any one of these topics, I could have easily spent more than fifteen minutes. In fact, if I didn’t have something to stop me, I probably could have played scales for an hour. If I had done that, I would have improved my intonation, but every other part of my playing would have remained stagnant. When the timer rings, I get a quick reminder to move to my next topic, making sure that I move forward in all areas. It takes some discipline, but it really helps you be a more rounded player.

Be Consistent
You’ll advance in leaps and bounds if you practice in an organized and efficient way every day. Even an hour a day is much better than sporadic eight hour practice days. Music is something that benefits from repetition and experience – you’ve got to do it every day. For a long time. Do that and you’ll grow.

This can be easier said than done. When we have long days at work or other challenges in our lives, sometimes it’s hard to pick up our instrument. You’ve got to create a mindset where you’re looking forward to practicing, enjoying the process, and feeling accomplished once you end your session. That’s a completely different topic, but an important one that we should probably discuss in the future. When you’ve got that mindset happening, consistency is actually pretty easy.

I’ve been following these habits for years now, and I’ve never felt better about my progress as a musician. Practice certainly needs to be tailored to individual needs, and my habits might not work for you. I think that they’re certainly a good launching point for conversation though. Let me know what you think about these ideas and tell me how you move forward with limited practice time!