Category: Blog

The three main things they will need to work on in order to read are:

1. The difference between a line and a space.
2. The location of a note on the staff tells what note to play.
3. Whether the note is colored in or has a stem tells what kind of note and how long to hold it. Worry about flags, beams and dots later.

Difference Between A Line and A Space:

Often kids seem to be reading notes and then you ask them to draw a specific note on the staff and they put on a note that is nowhere near the note you asked for. This is mostly because they are seeing the staff as a whole and not as made up of smaller things. They also may not fully grasp that where you put the note on the staff matters. They need to be trained to be able to see that the LOCATION of the lines or spaces makes them different. This is a tricky concept for them because all of the lines and spaces do look the same.

    LINES:

1. Ask how many lines make up the staff.
2. Draw a staff of their own or trace over one already drawn.
3. Ask which line is closest to the floor. This is the bottom. Have them trace over the bottom line.
4. Ask which line is closest to the ceiling. This is the top line. Trace the top line.
5. Try to find other lines by counting from bottom or top.

     SPACES:

1. Ask if they know what a space is. Explain that a space is the empty area between two other things.
2. Ask them for an example of a space. Give the example of the space from a missing tooth.
3. Show them a space in music is the empty area between lines.
4. Have them color in an area of a space.
5. Find spaces in different locations: top space, bottom space, stuck to the bottom line, etc.

LINE AND SPACE NOTES WITHOUT A STAFF:

1. Draw line and space notes WITHOUT a staff and quiz student between the two using the questions:

 Question 1. Does a line go through the middle of the note? (line note)

Question 2. Is a line touching the top or bottom of the note? (space note)

2. If understanding middle, top and bottom of the note is difficult, compare it to their bodies. Where is the top on yourself? (on top of your head)

Where is the very bottom of yourself?(your feet)

Where is the middle of your body? (your belly button)

3. Have them draw space notes and line notes. Draw the whole note first, then make it into a line or space note. Have them trace yours first if they find it difficult.

LINES AND SPACE NOTES ON THE STAFF:

1. Draw line and space notes WITH a staff and quiz student between the two using the questions:

 Question 1. Does a line go through the middle of the note? (line note)

   Question 2. Is a line touching the top or bottom of the note? (space note)

2. Have student draw line or space notes on staff. Use some jumbo staff paper. (http://bigtreble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/4-Jumbo-staff-treblemakers.pdf)The dexterity to draw notes a specific size and in the right location will be enough of a challenge right now without having to draw very small.

Location of a Note The Staff Tells What Note To Play:

Start with just Middle C, D & E. Don’t overwhelm with too many choices and just use whole notes to begin.

1. Draw a middle C and ask them to draw one next to yours. You can draw the ledger line for them.
2. Draw a D and then ask them to draw one next to yours. Make sure they understand that the top of the note needs to touch the bottom line of the staff.
3. Draw E and then have them draw one next to yours. It’s a good idea to start halfway in the space above the bottom line to make sure that half of the note ends up on each side of the line. You can put a dot to help them know how to start the first time.
4. Ask which of the notes they drew are line notes. Then show them that E is on the bottom line of the staff where middle C is floating free like a planet.
5. Ask which note is a space note. (D)
6. Draw C, D or E and ask which one it is. Make sure they go through the steps of asking?

Is it a line (C or E) or a space (D)?

If it’s a line, is it floating free like a planet (middle C) or the bottom line of the staff (E)?

7. Once they’re reliably naming the note, you can draw different kinds of notes on C, D & E to make sure they understand that the line or space tells you what note to play. What kind of note tells how long to hold it.

Whether the note is colored in or has a stem tells what kind of note and how long to hold it.

I usually won’t add rhythm the first week with young students. If they can play through the entire 8 measure song by the next week fairly easily, I start working on the difference between whole, half and quarter note.

1. Draw a whole note.
2. Have them draw a whole note.
3. Add a stem to the whole note, making it a half note.
4. Have them make their whole note into a half note.
5. Color in the half note to make a quarter note.
6. Have them color theirs in.
7. Draw all three on the board. Ask about the differences between the notes.
8. Describe each note.
9. Whole note-not colored in, doesn’t have a stem.
10. Half note- has a stem, not colored in.
11. Quarter note- has a stem and is colored in.
12. Draw new notes and quiz between the three asking questions:
13. Does it have a stem?
14. Is it colored in.

Some other important factors to remember when working with young children:

1. Give enough repetition of concepts while working with them where they can retain it
2. Come at concepts from different directions.
3. Revisit information often in order to store information in long term memory. Daily is ideal.
4. Short practice sessions regularly yields better results than long sessions infrequently. When you wait too long between practices, the information has to be relearned every time because it is only being stored temporarily in working memory.
5. Stop when you notice fatigue. If you notice they do really well in the beginning of working but then start getting a lot of things wrong, stop. This usually means they are mentally fatigued.

With beginners, it’s important to understand the crucial information inside and out without overwhelming the student with information that they don’t need to know yet.

Music is extremely effective in transmitting emotion and affecting moods. There is an intangible communication that happens. I think part of it is that our bodies try to match the environments that we are in. The tempo (speed) affects our body rhythms (heart rate and breathing). Harmony and dissonance can effect whether we feel whether things are at peace or in conflict. There are many emotional cues that we take in through our senses with music that we may not be consciously aware of.

Then there are other ways that the music can affect us. Maybe people might relate to something personal in the story or lyric or the song? The most moving and universal songs are ones that lots of different people can see their own emotion or story in. It is normal to view the song through the lens of our own experience since that’s how we perceive the world.

I also think that music has a wonderful way of taking an emotional snap shot of what you were feeling when you listen to a particular song. There are songs that I remember from parts of my life that evoke my outlook and emotion at the time that I listened to them. I was listening to something recently that I loved in college and I had this emotional flashback of feeling like who I was at that time. I felt sad because I grieved a little for that person that was innocent and had a million possibilities before them.

There are sometimes songs that remind me of specific people. Maybe they introduced me to the song or they loved the song. So then the feelings I have are all tied up in how I feel about that person that it reminds me of.

Then there are moments when I feel like music evokes something so profound in me that I feel like crying. In those moments it’s not always logical to me why I’m so moved. It could be that it makes me have a realization or sense of understanding or sometimes it can just be that something is so beautiful that I get an emotional overload.

A few weeks ago one of my students brought in a song called ‘For Forever’ from ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. As she started playing and singing it, I literally was on the verge of tears. The lyric, melody and piano parts so perfectly capture the feeling that anyone who’s ever had a childhood best friend can relate to. Between the song itself and my student who did such a beautiful job expressing it I was really moved. Music is like that. Even though I’ve spent my life learning and trying to understand how it works, there is always going to be a part of it that is magical. Try to figure out why that song affected you so much. You’ll probably learn something about yourself.

Here is Kate playing and singing ‘For Forever’ from my Instagram Instagram post by Suzan Stroud • Jul 29, 2017 at 12:52am UTC It was too beautiful not to capture and share…).

Quite some time ago I had a conversation with a philosopher who asked me,

“How does it feel to do something that contributes nothing to society? Music doesn’t feed anyone, save lives or contribute to the survival of man.”

He was trying to spark a lively debate I’m sure, but it still felt pretty insulting. It was obvious through further conversation that he really did see music as frivolous. Music had always been the most important thing in my life. This experience made me determined to answer the question: “What is the purpose of music?” Why was it so important to me that my entire life centered around it? Since and even before that conversation, I have become aware of so many ways in which music has purpose in my life and that of my students. Parents seek practical reasons why music lessons are important as they are trying to make good decisions for their children with only so much time and money available. I find myself with so much to say on the subject that I sometimes don’t know where to start.

Healthy Emotional Outlet

Music is healthy way to be able express all emotions. People can vent emotions through the outlet of music that may otherwise come out in unhealthy actions that cause consequences or harm. Music is naturally therapeutic.

Connection

Music allows a level of communication that is deeper than words. The power to communicate with others meets a basic need to feel a connection with other and be understood.

Communication

In order to benefit from the interaction with others you need to learn not only to listen but also how to convey your ideas so that someone else understands what you’re saying. Having the ability to communicate your ideas and feelings to others is a valuable skill that can be applied throughout your life. In music we learn to do this by learning to speak through the language of music.

Teamwork

When you play with other people you learn to work together. There is a global sense of how integral everything is to each other and being a part of something that is larger than oneself. When you are a part of the whole, it matters to you what happens in the other parts. Parts need to blend, not compete in order for the outcome to be a success. Never is it so obvious the benefits of working as a team. When you do your part for the good of team and everyone else does too you can often achieve something greater than what you could on your own.

Discipline

Practice and lessons require a commitment that students have to find a way to make part of their regular routine. Discipline is also learned in overcoming obstacles and facing personal weaknesses.

Mood Shifting

Music can be a great way to shift your mood. It can help put you in the mood for an activity or change your outlook when you need it.

Life Lessons

Many life lessons play out through the process of learning to play an instrument. Lessons about ourselves, how to learn, and how to face personal strengths and weaknesses.

Balance

The same principles of balance in composition exist in many other forms of creation. Even if you are just playing a piece, not writing one, being aware of balance is still useful in interpreting it. Contrasting ideas are necessary to create balance and this is everywhere in music: louds to softs, highs to lows, fast to slow, silence to sound, etc.

Coordination

Fine motor skills and coordination are important skills that are learned while playing instruments that can easily transfer to other areas of life. I’ve seen great strides in students who initially didn’t have a lot of coordination and have even had students whose doctors recommended learning piano as part of their physical therapy. Playing an instrument builds physical dexterity that can be applied to anything and in necessary for all kinds of endeavors. Athletes, architects, carpenters and surgeons all require coordination skills.

Zen or Flow

The science of happiness uncovered being in a state of ‘flow’ as being an integral part of people being happy. Music naturally puts you into the state of flow since in order to play it, you must be a participant in the moment and not just an observer.

Music has been the constant positive force in my life since I was a small child. Some of my first memories are of music. Having music in my life has balanced me as a person and taught me so much about myself and about living. There have been points in my life where the only happiness I felt was in the midst of music. My logical brain couldn’t make sense of it but it was undeniable. No matter how hard I’ve struggled with surviving and making sense of things, I’ve never doubted the importance of music. I can’t believe that music is sitting here in plain sight and there are people who don’t think it’s important and aren’t aware of the power it has.

I think the purpose of music is to keep us keep us constantly in the experience of feeling and living our lives; not just going through the motions of survival. It is always there to nudge us back on track when we forget that we get to choose whether we enjoy the ride or not.

Instant gratification: With so many things in life you don’t get to see rewards, especially right away, but with music you work hard at something and you come away with a song.

The power of communication/ interaction with others: When you perform with others, you get to be heard but you also learn that in order to be heard you need to listen. Being in sync with others is satisfying. No one likes to feel as if they are all alone in what they think and feel. No matter how much we want to be unique and individual we do still need that connection with others. We need to feel like someone else understands us. In order to be understood, you need to know how to communicate.

Performing with others also teaches us to compromise. It can’t be ‘all you all the time’. If everyone in the group takes an ‘all me, all the time’ perspective, the music is a train wreck. This reflects life. We need to work together and consider the desires and needs of everyone. In jazz there is a thing called trading twos (or fours). It’s something that happens in soloing. Rather than one person taking a solo and improvising over an entire section, the performers take turns two (or four) measures at a time. In this everyone isn’t just randomly playing (or expressing) what they want or feel. They pass on themes and ideas to each other. It is everyone communicating and getting a chance to speak on a subject within a conversation. And then there is the main body of the song where what you play is a part of a whole. This is the common ground where you have to be thinking of the big picture; what’s going to be best for the song not just what’s the most satisfying for you.

One of the most amazing things that happens when you play music with the same person or people often is that you develop the ability to communicate nonverbally. I had a friend that I sang with all the way through junior high and high school. We sang as part of a larger choir but also in smaller groups and did a lot of duets together. We became so attuned to each other that we could stop and restart with each other perfectly in sync during practice without any word or signal. Singers who sing with others have to learn to be completely in sync. They need to pronounce words identically, match every syllable, start and stop together and even breathe together. Direct eye contact is often used by singers and musicians to communicate with each other. (often they’re hands or mouths are busy playing an instrument) Direct eye contact when held for more than a second or two is taboo in most other social situations. It is instinctively perceived as too intimate or a territorial challenge. Lovers hold direct eye contact and so do two people about to fight. Both are reading each other and communicating. Interacting musically is very intimate yet it doesn’t breach any boundaries that make it dangerous to us or upset societal roles and order, yet it does give us a deeper communication with each other that is healthy.

Develop our personal voice:  Our voices are the way that we communicate and are understood. They convey our perspective and we all have a basic need for this expression. A singer uses the sound of their voice to get others to pay attention to what they have to say. I believe that instruments arose out of this need to have a voice even if the singing voice that came with your body is not a beautiful instrument or you don’t know how to use it. Of course a voice doesn’t have to be beautiful in order for us to be compelled to listen. We all have a need to be heard and understood. When you start thinking of music in this way, the idea of musical sentences and phrases makes more sense. Even if you are playing a piano or another instrument where your fingers don’t need to breathe, they still need to put that slight lift or pause that is the breath and punctuation of language. Question and Answer also corresponds to this. When we speak to ask a question, our voices go up in pitch and the end of the question. When an answer is given, our voices go down in pitch at the end of the answer. Question and Answer is everywhere in western language and music. It reflects another one of our basic needs: to ask questions about our lives and the universe we live in, and to find answers. Hearing that played out over and over in music (even if we’re not aware of it’s significance) satisfies us because this is something we innately crave and recognize whether we are conscious of it or not.

Develop fine motor skills/coordination: Playing an instrument, particularly piano develops the fine motor skills and coordination in a way that is so much more detailed than most other things. It makes the coordination needed for learning other things in life come so much easier. Learning to control the movements of our bodies in such a detailed way opens up the possibilities of what we’re capable of. Developing the basic coordination to play an instrument is difficult enough but as you get more adept and advance in your playing, you need to learn even more fine motor coordination to be expressive. Controlling the weight of your hands to bring out dynamics (louds and softs), emphasize the natural flow of rhythm and connect notes are all things that allow you to shape the phrasing and be expressive.

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We all experience emotions that are not considered positive. We really can’t choose how to feel about something but we can choose what we do. That being said, doing the right thing doesn’t always alleviate the emotion. The selfish urge to put yourself first is part of our survival instinct. This is often at war with our need to be part of a society that is working, healthy, and attempts to have some fairness in it. There are things in our lives that happen to us that aren’t fair and that we can’t control or change. Keeping these feelings bottled up is not healthy for us. They make their way out one way or another even if it is just to make us unhappy. Music is a healthy way of expressing these emotions and coping with them without hurting others or ourselves.

Expressing our emotions is healing and also allows us to create a positive from a negative. Instead of acting on that emotion by destroying things, we can take something that may have been painful or ugly and create something from it. That in and of itself is actually giving us the power to change something in our world. The process of creating can also change how we feel or allow us to accept something. There are times such as when we grieve where we need to allow ourselves to feel something in order to let go and move on. Our emotions can be heightened and focused in music which allow us to pour it all out.

Music provides healthy escape:  You can step away from the stresses, responsibilities or frustrations of life and lose yourself in the process of learning or feeling in music. Both can be really refreshing.

Music helps us face personal strengths and weaknesses: Which things come easy and which things are a struggle relate directly to a person’s overall personality and their general strengths and weaknesses as a person. It’s unlikely that a person is going to be horrible at every aspect or amazing at every aspect. Even if you look at people that are considered musical geniuses you’re going to find this. That’s part of the journey: facing who you are and embracing your strengths and improving your weak areas.  Knowing your strengths also helps focus what you want to highlight. If you think of an example of music that is well-known for having great piano parts or amazing bass lines or great melodies and then examine another part of the arrangement and you will find that every aspect isn’t brilliant. The truth is that this wouldn’t work anyway. A listener can only focus on one thing at a time. It becomes too busy (chaos) and cluttered if everyone or every part is trying to be a soloist (the star). There are solo parts and supporting parts and all are essential for the whole. Think of your strengths and weakness in the same way. Your strengths are the soloists and your weaknesses play the supporting (accompanying) role. They are all part of the same package and as a whole add up to something. The same trait that makes you strong at one thing makes you weak at another. It defines your perspective and determines where your focus is. It is what gives you your unique voice.

Music is unique in that it can be a solitary pursuit and also a team pursuit. This integration is really healthy for us because we really can’t be just solitary or solely social in our lives. We need to manage both even if we are more natural at one than the other. The solitary pursuit really makes us confront who we are. There is no one else to blame when we can’t do something but ourselves. We must come to the conclusion that there is some limitation within ourselves that is preventing us from accomplishing what we are attempting. Finding out what that limitation is and addressing it has a ripple effect through the rest of our lives. Most of our limitations are either symptoms of our psychological limitations or purely psychological.

Musicality is the nuance and detail that make a performance sound like music giving it the emotion and style that can set a mood. It is the difference between expressing music and mechanical sounding notes and rhythms. Most listeners can hear the difference between a performance that is musical and one that is not even if they can’t articulate why they are different. Listen to the two examples below.

Why does one sound better than the other? They both have accurate notes and rhythms but one has details that bring it to life. The examples may seem extreme but if you were to just plug notes and rhythms into a computer software this is what you would get UNLESS you gave it instructions on dynamics and phrasing. These are the main tools that add expression and musicality.

Phrasing. 

Connect notes that are part of the same phrase. Most music has slurs already written in to show where the phrases are. If not, it is usually easy to figure out. There are often rests or held notes at the ends of phrases. If the song has lyrics, the musical phrases will go along with the phrases in the lyric. There are different phrasing choices that can be made but the general rule is not to lift in the middle of a musical idea. Phrasing is really like punctuation in speaking. Small pauses go between ideas for the listener just like commas and periods in sentences.

Lifting between phrases. This is like putting the punctuation between phrases or sentences. Make sure to lift your hands and foot at the same time if you’re using the pedal to get a clean break.

Example of phrases in Mary Had a Little Lamb

Phrase 1: Mary had a little lamb

Phrase 2: little lamb, little lamb

Phrase 3: Mary had a little lamb it’s fleece as white as snow

Dynamics.

Shape melodies with dynamics. A general rule is that when the notes go up, they get louder and when they go down they get softer. Weight of the hand and arm should be used to create dynamics, not finger muscle. Use more weight for louds and less weight for softs.

Don’t let any notes stick out or disappear. Dynamic shaping should mostly happen gradually over a string of notes. They should not be abrupt unless there’s a specific reason to for that effect.

Bring out the melody or other important ideas by making them louder. This can be a hard skill to develop. In general, the melody is usually in the right hand with supporting harmony in the left. In this case, make the right hand louder than the left. A great trick to learn how to do this is to play right hand at the volume wanted and touch the left hand notes without sounding them. Once this is possible, allow the left hand to sound the notes but keep the same light touch you had when they weren’t sounding. Right hand should end up sounding louder than the left.

As you’re learning to add musicality to your playing, it’s a great idea to listen to other performers as a reference. Look for recordings of a piece you’re working on and choose a performer or performance that you think is expressive.

1. Listen phrase by phrase and try to replicate what you hear. Listen for the kind of details mentioned above. Musicians learn new skills by imitating. Once you’ve spent some time doing this, you will start to have ideas of your own.

2. Listen for style. Does the music speed up or slow down or is strictly metrical. Does it swing? Are the dynamics extreme or subtle?

3. Record yourself and listen back. You may not be aware of details that could use tweaking until you listen as an observer.

Don’t lose touch with enjoying music as you play. Tap into the emotion it makes you feel or imagine what kind of scene it paints.

 

I often get asked how to start composting pop music from aspiring songwriters. The best place to start is by playing and singing pop music. I’m going to lay out some rough steps. This should help you not just end up with a random little snippet that isn’t complete and doesn’t fit into anything. Lots of people have ideas, but developing them into a full song is the real art and the hard part!

1. Use chord lyric sheets and label the song form (intro, verse, chorus etc.) for some of your favorite pop songs that you would like to write in the style of.
2. Decide what you want to write about. I find that most writers have to have a burning desire to communicate or be heard. It’s what drives them to write. If you don’t know what you want to write about you need to do a little soul searching. When I’m trying to help a student who doesn’t know where to start, I usually start with asking them, “What’s been on your mind lately? What have you been thinking about a lot or feeling?” If you can answer that question, you probably have a place to start.
3. Brainstorm everything thing you can about your idea or story. Allow yourself to go on wild tangents. Put it all out there on paper. It doesn’t have to sound beautiful or be coherent yet.
4. Sort through your brainstorm and decide what direction to take your idea. Try to pick out all of the ideas that can work and especially the unexpected little gems.
5. Do a Rhyme and Synonym Sheet. Come up with as many rhymes and synonyms for any words you can think of that relate to your idea or story. Yes, definitely use words from your brainstorm sheet. You can use rhymezone and Dictionary.com – The world’s favorite online dictionary! to help you find rhymes and synonyms.
6. Try to do a song map. This is simply mapping out the main sections you need to make a complete song work. (this is why you want to have been looking at other pop song structures!) I’d probably stat with the following structure: Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus. For each section you should jot down what needs to be said in that section. You can put it in prose or poetry later. For now just get down the idea. It should be a different idea that relates to your story or topic in each verse. The chorus should some how sum up the verse. The bridge should be a different idea that relates to everything else. It could be a realization etc. This is an important step that can help you not fall in love with an idea that you don’t have enough content for or make you flesh out an idea that is incomplete. You may have to add sections later to keep it flowing but you want a rough plan to start.
7. Start writing either your verse or your chorus. A lot of people come up with their chorus idea first. Use all your prep work to help you start crafting your lines. Make sure you set up a structure that you can repeat with different lyrics for your verse. Pay attention to how many syllables, the rhythm of the words and the rhyme structure.
8. Choose a three or four chord progression in a key you like. You can take some right from a song you like. (Chord progressions aren’t copyrightable. If they were no new music could happen! )
9. Play around with your chord progression and try to sing some of your lyric to it. I find that melodies already have a lot of suggestions in rhythm and pitch with our natural speech patterns. If you use them as a guide, you usually don’t end up with a melody that is awkward or horrible. You can start with your melody first, just be careful you don’t end up drifting back to the same chord for each line. If you do melody first, your melody note should be in your chord. Figure out all of the different chords that have your melody in them and try it out to see what you like best.
10. Once you get some sections done, start running it front to back. Try to get in listening mode. It’s always more interesting to do something yourself that to listen to someone else. This stage is about putting yourself in the listeners shoes. You want to make sure that you’ve created enough contrast in sections (especially verse and chorus) to keep the listeners attention. You also want it to have enough familiarity to be catchy and flow nicely from one idea to the next. Pay attention to how the whole thing unfolds. Notice areas that get boring. When you find those spots, change it up. Create some contrast.

One of the things that I like to do when I song write is treat all of the pieces as a puzzle. That means I keep rearranging pieces until I get the most interesting order and structure. I’ll even do this at the lyric writing stage. I try rearranging the order of the lines in my verse or my ideas to see what order is the most interesting or reveals the story in the best sequence. I do a lot of editing. I also like to give my ideas the overnight test. If I still think an idea is brilliant tomorrow, it’s probably pretty good. It’s easy to get excited about something in the moment when you’re in a completely subjective state. Try to look at it later like it is someone else’s idea so you can look at it more objectively. Also, try to only look at what’s on the page. It can be easy for us to imbue meaning into our work that no one else has access to. The whole goal is to transmit that meaning to someone else. Help them feel or see what you do.

I’ve learned a lot of things DIY where I didn’t have a class or structure that would keep me motivated artificially. Often times I need to learn things that I’m not DYING to learn in order to enable me to do other things I want or because I couldn’t afford to pay someone to do the thing I needed. I’ve learned everything from bookkeeping/ Quickbooks, indesign, Photoshop, knitting, sound engineering, water color, etc. I work for myself so being self-motivated is a crucial skill. Don’t let anyone discourage you with unhelpful suggestions such as “you have to want it bad enough.” Your logical brain clearly wants it. Now you’ve got to get the other side of your brain (the amygdala ) that only cares about gratification on board. Btw, I recommend M.J. Ryan’s Book, ‘This Year I Will” for further reading on this phenomenon.

The best way to motivate yourself to learn a new skill is:

1. Reframe the reason you want to learn the skill in a way that appeals to your basic instincts of pleasure and security. “This will be good for me.” Is not going to be enough to inspire you. You need a reason that this skill is going to give you something you want or feel good.

Example: Years ago, I knew that I really should learn some basic recording/engineering skills but it felt too overwhelming and not interesting enough so I kept putting off doing it. Finally, I realized that being able to record music whenever I felt inspired instead of when it was scheduled would feel amazing. I’ll never be a sound engineer for a living but once I got going I found I really loved the freedom and possibility it gave me to do the one thing I truly love, which is to be creative.

2. Make yourself accountable. Have a project you must complete using this skill or a place you have to show up regularly and work on it. Tell other people you’re doing it. Just knowing that other people will ask you about it will probably make you not want to have to admit you’ve done nothing.

3. Give yourself a project that you really want to do where you can use and practice this skill. Learning a skill and then using it to do something is an important part of learning. Having a project and a concrete use for your skill will also be more motivating.

4. Start with a small component. One of the biggest points of failure is feeling so overwhelmed that you don’t know where to start. Don’t worry if your first step is the wrong one. It’s better than taking no steps and will definitely lead you to finding out what you should do.

5. Schedule a regular time when you must drop everything else and work on it, preferably attached to another regular routine. Just putting in the time is an important part of being successful at learning something new and removing the decision to do it is crucial. It’s always easy to find a reason to keep putting it off if you have to make a choice every time whether you’re going to work on it or do something else.

6. Find a way to engage your interest. Your brain actually releases chemicals that help you focus and encode memories when your interest is engaged. For instance, I had to take a math credit for my degree but I don’t really enjoy math. I took an acoustics class to fill the requirement and aced it. I get to find out how sound works?!? Physics and Trig you have my attention!