I’m sure many of you can agree, musicians DO NOT have the best time management! In the past, when I was preparing for an upcoming gig, music practice was always a last minute affair at my bandmate's house. Frantically running around his tiny flat sweating and panicking the day before the show. Desperately scrawling through our song book looking for ideas, was — I hate to say it — an all but too common sight.
So I decided it was time to try to break this stressful cycle before all of my hair falls out. I had 2 weeks before the big day and with the help of the practice tracking feature in the new Core 2 I was hoping this was going to be the best show so far!
The initial hurdle which the Core 2 really enabled us to overcome was scheduling in time for music practice together. We get so caught up in our actual jobs that it's hard to find time to practice with multiple people. I also struggle with motivating myself, so forcing myself to practice three times a week was perfect.
Main benefits of the practice tracking feature:
The Core 2 gave friendly reminders on specific days that we pre-agreed upon, and we even got cool streaks when we reached our goals! I could also set specific tasks for that music practice session, like mastering the outro to a specific song. We were also able to review the hours spent practicing and pause it when we were procrastinating. The act of pausing it alone can keep you on the straight and narrow as you have to acknowledge the time procrastinating.
Don’t get me wrong, I think time daydreaming and procrastination are essential for creating new ideas. That sense of fun and play should always be factored in. But don't forget this was crunch time, and we didn't have eons before the gig. It reminded me of similar techniques athletes use on Strava, especially as we could share our music practice time and results on our socials.
The day of the gig:
So the big day came and went, and we didn't embarrass ourselves in front of everyone. And we didn't have to change passports and start a new life in the Arctic like last time. Just kidding, but the Core 2 really did help organize our time and motivate us. Side note, it's also an amazing stress reliever. Yes, we didn’t make all the allotted time slots, but hey — we’re human!
Just knowing you're well-practiced and relying on mostly muscle memory really allowed me to delve deeper into the emotions of the music I was trying to convey rather than worrying about where my fingers should go. Something I wasn't quite able to do other times.
