Musical New Year’s Resolutions

By: Nicole Yeo

With 2020 coming to a close, many people are looking for New Year’s resolutions. For myself, as a musician, I always want to improve my musical ability, and that goal often bleeds into my New Year’s resolutions! So, here’s a list of New Year’s resolutions, or just musical goals, to think about when finding your resolution.

1. Create a practice schedule.

It can be very difficult to keep a consistent routine going, especially if you’re busy with school or work (or both!). One thing I found helpful last year was setting aside specific times on specific days to practice. I would block off those hours in my calendar, set notifications, and treat those times like a class or a meeting—preparing a few minutes early and making sure I had no distractions around me. Having such a consistent schedule was really helpful in the long run because it forced me to practice so I didn’t have to rush to complete a piece the day before a performance.

2. Find yourself as an artist.

As an avid viewer of vocal competition shows like The Voice, a recurring idea is that people should get to know themselves as an artist. For vocalists, for example, that means adding their own touch to covers, not directly copying the original artist’s version of the song, and showing their personality through their singing.

For both vocalists and instrumentalists, oftentimes performance is very important. Not only is it important to be able to play or sing a song well, but it’s also essential to entertain your audience. Imagine going to see a violinist, and for the entire performance, they stay in one position and their facial expression doesn’t change. Kind of boring, right? A performer’s stage presence can help inform the audience about the emotions in a piece.

For many musicians, shaping their identity as an artist is essential. Much of the music you hear on the radio became popular because it’s unique. Think about Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande, who are two incredibly popular performers. It’s very difficult to find others in the music industry who sound like them.

3. Explore new music.

Earlier this year, I attended a meeting with a music production student. When asked for advice for people who want to study music production, she said to listen to genres of music you’re not used to. New music can help with bad habits and when a creator is stuck in a rut. Nowadays, genres of music are often mixed together, so listening to new genres can help broaden a creator’s horizons and aid the creative process.

4. Don’t compare yourself to others.

Last but not least, it’s important to not compare yourself to others. Everyone experiences different circumstances and everyone learns at different paces.

If you’re not improving as much as you want to, then reflecting on yourself, your skills, and your experiences may help. But always keep in mind that you shouldn’t compare yourself with others! Everyone is unique.

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Hopefully, you’ve gained some ideas about music-related New Year’s resolutions you can pick up, or you’re starting to think about what goals you can set. Good luck, and have fun exploring!

References

Baur, Bernard. “How to Find Your Artistic Identity and Signature Sound.” Music Connection Magazine, 1 Apr. 2019, www.musicconnection.com/artistic-identity-signature-sound/.

Kaplan, Ilana. “23 Artists On Their Music Industry New Year's Resolutions - L'Officiel.” L'OFFICIEL USA, 1 Jan. 2018, www.lofficielusa.com/music/20-artists-on-their-music-industry-new-year-s-resolutions.

McGuire, Patrick. “3 Reasons Why You Should Write Music in a Different Genre.” LANDR Blog, 9 Nov. 2020, blog.landr.com/write-new-music-genres/.