Work and Music: Establishing Balance

As a teenager, I loved getting home and spending the afternoon learning my favorite metal songs. As a music major, my entire day was usually dedicated to studying music, rehearsals, or practicing. After graduating, things sort of…dropped off. I can’t say that I was overtaken by hectic corporate or family schedules. But still, the realities of going to work, paying bills, and establishing professional stability took its toll on my musical life.

It took several years to even begin to practice regularly again. In the meantime, the only thing keeping me playing was occasional rehearsals for whatever band I was in. My weeks were filled with work and classwork, so by the time I got to band practice, I would have to rely only on prior experience while my chops gradually slipped away. Here’s what helped me to reinvigorate my musical practice and balance it with my professional life.

What didn’t work

The methods of the masses almost never work. That’s why the masses are unskilled. Their method is to wait for something to change before taking action; a method I adopted faithfully. When it came to practicing, I would wait until I had time. If I had time, I may have skipped that day because I “needed” time to rest. If I had energy, I would find something else I deemed more important. Or I would have waited for inspiration to strike before I picked up sticks. Or maybe I just didn’t feel like it. Whatever the case, there were many reasons not to practice that just weren’t going away. 

The important lesson I got from waiting so long was that change won’t happen unless I create it. Waiting for things to somehow get better simply closed every door of opportunity I could’ve walked through. It’s not that I wasn’t doing anything; I was busier than ever, going to work Monday through Friday, getting my Masters degree, playing some gigs, and establishing my relationships. But, I was choosing my path through not choosing, and allowing other parties to choose for me.

Choose

At this point, I was burnt out: unsatisfied, unhealthy, and unhappy. I realized things needed to change. Along with a great deal of personal work, I decided that I would consciously put energy and effort towards my musical practice, which had always brought me such satisfaction. I purposefully chose to include this aspect in my life.

The reason I talk about it in these terms is that playing music is not just a hobby, but a lifestyle choice. If you choose to pursue music, it’s helpful to consider this decision the same way as changing your diet or beginning a meditation routine. It requires a conscious decision to follow through on each day. When it becomes assimilated into your lifestyle, you begin to experience the many benefits it has.

If this is what you want, it requires decisive action to make reality, just like any other aspect of your life. This requires practical, conscious steps towards the desired situation; so what are those steps?

Plan it

Just like I’ve had to schedule my workout routine, I’ve had to schedule my practice times. It’s important to create a space for this in your day, based on what works for you and your life. Are you willing to practice an hour every day, or is it more realistic to do 20 minutes a day? Can you practice for 30 minutes in the morning and squeeze in a quick 10 minutes during your lunch break? There really isn’t a “right answer” for this, only what works best for your life. Again, the key is choosing it.

If this leads you to a conundrum where you want to practice but you’re simply too busy, then maybe that’s exactly the problem; you might just be too busy. We all are given the same amount of time in a day, so the adage “I need more time” just doesn’t help. We oftentimes need to subtract before we add. This may be the time to decide what you really want or don’t want in your life, beginning with things that create idle time (ahem, scrolling). Again, you must choose it.

As important as when to practice is what to practice.. Once you have a definite goal to aim at, your progress will skyrocket. This could mean getting a method book to work through, listing specific songs you want to learn, or hiring a teacher to help guide you. I spent plenty of time wandering through old materials without aim and feeling very little satisfaction about my practicing. It was only when I had a direction that I began making real progress again, and a big part of that was working with Alex Cohen, who unlocked things in my playing I never would have achieved on my own. For that, I’m so grateful!

Stick to it

We resist change. It’s a fact of our psychology. Knowing this, you can expect resistance to establishing a new habit like practicing. If you commit to this, you can expect a series of emotions, thoughts, and sudden obligations to get in the way of practicing. It may surprise you how strong of a reaction you’ll have to doing this new thing, so be prepared for some discomfort along the way.

Once you get past that, you will be so glad for your decision! The magic is on the other side of discomfort, so dive headlong, fearlessly into it!

Final Thoughts

Here’s the punchline: there is no right answer for how to balance your work and musical practice. We have infinite variations of personalities and life situations, so it just isn’t useful to prescribe one way to do this. The one commonality for all of us is that we have to choose it, whatever it is. If we make conscious decisions about the role music plays in our life, then we can make conscious decisions about how much energy we give to it. Some will do it professionally, others will do it as a hobby. Whatever that looks like for you is the right answer. I would simply encourage you to choose that for yourself, not let circumstances choose for you.

I hope this gives you clarity about how to balance music with your life; I love you all, and thank you for reading!

Leave a comment telling me what you are interested in musically; I would love to hear your feedback!

Happy drumming!