Do you feel as though you don’t have any time for your saxophone?
Difficult isn’t it? You probably have a regular job, family or caring responsibilities, household chores, volunteering commitments, not to mention dealing with bills, emails, and all the other calls on our time every day.
Your saxophone sits in the corner, reproachfully, gathering dust, reminding you that another day has gone by when you haven’t picked it up. It’s frustrating.
It’s time to take time by the scruff of the neck and make some space for your saxophone! Here are our top tips.
Get the support of your friends and family
Tell them how important this is to you, and ask them to help you find time to practice. Agree on some protected time – maybe half an hour a couple of times a week while the kids are at sports practice, or a couple of hours on Sunday morning. Hopefully your family will enjoy feeling involved and seeing your progress.
Take a good look at how you spend your time
Make a chart, and over a week, note down what you do, hour by hour. This might seem a big task, but it’s important to get a picture of where all your time is going.
The Big Stuff
First of all, identify the time you spend on essential tasks, such as your regular job, or sleeping. Colour these sections of your chart in red.
The Essential Stuff
Next, look at the time you spend on other chores or tasks which need to be done but which are more flexible (for example, household chores, family responsibilities). Colour these in green. Could you do any of these tasks in a smarter way?
For example, could you share the school run with a friend or neighbour? That way, you both save time, and you have bought yourself a couple of hours a week to practice your saxophone.
Consider shopping online for your groceries – you can play your sax while you wait for the delivery!
The Rest
Now look at the time you have left on your chart. This will probably be your leisure time, when you catch up with family and friends, watch TV, and generally kick back. You will feel pretty protective of this time! Colour this time in blue.
So let’s look closely at how you spend it, so you can find some time to spend with your sax.
Burst that Soap Bubble
Would the world stop turning if you stopped watching that soap on TV? How much time would you save? It might be as much as two hours per week! Think of the progress you could make with your playing if you used this time to practice. Try it for a couple of weeks (you can always watch on catch up TV if you really can’t cope without it!)
Skip the Surfing
Give yourself a break from social media. Be honest – were you surprised by what your chart told you about how much time you spend looking at Facebook? Or is Twitter your thing? Either way, turn off wifi and data on your smartphone, and only switch on your computer to check emails and other essentials. See how much time you have available to you! It might only be a few minutes here and there, but it all adds up.
Early Riser
If all else fails, try setting your alarm half an hour earlier in the morning. This may not be the ideal time to practice (unless you have very understanding neighbours) but if you use this time to catch up on chores, get to work early, or go to the gym, you will have more time later in the day to practice.
Some people prefer to get their practice out of the way early, so they don’t spend the rest of the day feeling guilty! You might find it helpful to practice at the same time every day (after dinner, for example), or it may work better for you to be more flexible.
Set Yourself a Big Goal
In the writing world, there is an annual event called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. Aspiring writers commit to write a novel in a month – this might mean writing over 2000 words a day, every day! This is a big challenge, but at the end of the month, they will have written their first draft of that novel they’ve always wanted to write. Writers support each other through online forums, and the movement is now worldwide – some bestsellers have been written this way!
Try this approach with your saxophone. Set yourself a really big goal, and give yourself a month to achieve it. It could be to learn a really challenging solo all the way through, or even to get to grips with the saxophone from scratch! Tell your friends and family, and get their support. Decide how you are going to tackle it – how much practice are you going to do each day?
If you stick to your plan, by the end of the month you will have fixed the daily practice habit you need. Even if you don’t quite achieve your big goal, you will have taken a huge step towards being the player you want to be.
Finally….
Tomorrow the fluff will be back under the sofa, and the grass will have grown again. But time spent learning to play an instrument you love, is always time well spent.
Next Steps:
Download your free Saxophone Practice Planner and get started!
Download: Saxophone Practice Planner