“Habit” is a term that we hear frequently during the month of January. Usually it accompanies the topic of resolutions and stopping or altering a negative behavior pattern. While breaking a bad habit is definitely a good thing to achieve, I encourage you to consider and undertake the creation of good habits.

In music many things can be boiled down to habit. The most basic habit, and arguably the most important, is the habit of practice. How long you should play and what that play should look like depends on your goals, your learning style, and what you happen to be studying at the time.

If you don’t have a good practice habit, I encourage you to make it your habit this month. Now, I’m not referring to what your teacher assigns you or the amount of time you play; these things are very important. But developing the habit of play, I would argue, is more important.

One of the ways to accomplish this is to make a daily appointment for the same time every day to sit down at the piano, pick up your instrument, or sing. At this point, don’t even set a goal for a certain number of minutes. Just play. Even if your actual time playing only lasts a few minutes, and even if you don’t get any work done on your assignments for the week, just play/sing. Have FUN.

Once the practice habit is set, and with guidance from your teacher, the rest of the musical pieces will begin to fall into place and your growth as a musician will accelerate.And, in the end, the habit of practicing that you develop will help you to reach your musical goals.