Many people start with high motivation and spirit for  practicing or learning  music. They attend lessons consistently, practice routinely without excuses. It is like an obsession, but with time it dies down, and they lose the morale to practice consistently. Fortunately, there are ways to keep yourself motivated to practice music without letting the fire die down. Practicing is an integral part of succeeding in any music career, whether creating music or playing instruments. Therefore it is necessary to learn early on how to keep yourself motivated for practising or learning music.

Set goals

First and foremost, set goals and focus on achieving them. Often, if you attend regular music lessons with a teacher, you probably have a goal to learn something, whether to play a particular musical instrument or produce vocals. On the other hand, if you practice music on your own, your goals may not be as clear. So, set some goals and have timelines to achieve them. For instance, if you are memorizing a specific piece, give yourself a timeline like a week or a month to achieve that. Set big picture goals and smaller goals for every practice lesson. When you decide to complete a session after attaining a certain goal, you will be motivated to practice more.

Have a practice routine/schedule

Everyone is not the same when following up on their goals. For instance, if you are a busy person, always on the go here and there, you may find yourself with no time to practice. But you can incorporate a practice schedule into your routine to keep yourself accountable. It may be easy to say you will practice during your free time, but what happens if you get caught up by other stuff or friends distract you. Creating a practice schedule makes it a priority, just like it would be a priority to attend a meeting or class.

Play for fun at times

Playing music for fun is the number one thing that sparks your motivation to keep learning and practicing. If you are taking lessons, do not be afraid to ask for new material from your teacher. Even if they want you to gain specific music skills, they want you to love music ultimately. Choose pieces that you are happy to learn and play them for fun. If you practice on your own, take some time off from a piece and learn something you really enjoy playing. Doing so builds your creativity and musical growth, which keeps you engaged and motivated.

Do not burn yourself out.

Practicing more makes perfect but do not work extremely hard that you burn yourself out.  Doing something repeatedly can make the practice stale, and it will begin to frustrate you, especially if you don’t seem to be getting it right. Ration yourself and play when you are focused. A short but focused practice session is way better than long practice sessions without focus.

Reward yourself

When you achieve a particular task, you deserve a reward. Always reward yourself with a good treat like something to it or drink at the end of a successful practice session. Keep track of your accomplishments, and do not forget that you are working too hard.

The last words

Instead of looking at how much you have to do, start and focus on accomplishing the smaller goals for that practice session.