5 Reasons WHY You Don't Make Progress with Your Instrument | How to make significant PROGRESS

Welcome back to Kubistra Music. My Name is Yakub Saputra and today I want to help you. Especially if you feel like you haven’t made progress in your instrument recently. You could be a beginner and feel like making no progress, but can also be a professional musician, and feel like you’ve been doing the same thing over and over again. And it can be frustrating and demoralizing. But today I hope you can start making significant progress, as soon as this blog ends.

So, these are the 5 reasons why you don’t make any progress with your instrument.

Today, I’m not going to talk about the technicality of practicing and all that. But, I'm going to deep dive into the practicing mistakes in the future video. Today I’m gonna talk about a broader perspective of why you don’t make any progress. These 5 reasons are in fact not only limited to playing a musical instrument, or music per se. But they can also hinder you in any activities that you hope to make progress from. It could be progress in your health, progress in your school, or even progress in your finances.

Alright, let’s go to reason number 1.

1. NO GOAL

The first reason why you don’t make any progress is because you practice without a clear goal. You have heard of this, thousands of times. Yet it is still the one biggest reason why people don’t make any progress in their instruments.

I know, you might say, “No Yakub! I know my goal! My goal is to be the best musician ever!” Well, that’s A goal, but it’s not a clear one! I would say though that it’s more like aspiration or a dream. But that’s not a goal just yet!

Practicing music without a goal is like getting into a car and driving around without a destination. It could be fun, I actually do it sometimes! But I do it when I want to relax and just to drive around. But no matter how far I go, I will end up where I started. Which is back to my garage. For sure, I get to relax while driving around, alright. But certainly, I wasted my time and my gas too. If my goal is to relax, well, I did it! But again, it comes at the cost of my valuable time and my gas money.

So, it’s the same with practicing an instrument. If you don’t have a clear goal of what you are practicing for, you are basically just “PLAYING” music. Which is very fun and that’s why we love music so much! But you cannot expect PROGRESS when your goal is to only have fun! Let me make this clear. Touching your instrument for hours does not mean you are practicing. And therefore don’t expect any progress from it.

This is where many people get confused. They think they are “practicing” for 2 hours while in reality they only “play” music for the last two hours. Those are two different things. Like “driving around”, the goal of just “PLAYING” is to relax and to have fun. But the goal of “Practicing” is to make progress.

Do you see the difference now?

But to make progress, your practicing ALSO needs a specific goal. The goal is to be able to do something at the end of the session, that you cannot do at the beginning of the session. That’s actually the simple definition of progress.

Let’s say, in the beginning, you cannot do “A”

And in the end, you can do “A”

In the beginning, you can only stare at Kubistra Music's “lick of the week” score. Hoping that one day you can play it. And at the end of the practicing session, you can do the Lick No.12 at 240bpm!

[Click on the icon to get a free PDF of the Lick of the Week Collection by Kubistra Music!]

That is what progress simply means.

So, in other words, for you to show progress, you need to “Practice with a Clear Goal.”

That brings us to goal setting. I want to introduce my fellow musicians to a SMART Goal.

A goal setting practice that global companies have used to make their companies successful.

So what exactly is the SMART Goal?

SMART stands for

Specific.

Measurable.

Achievable.

Realistic.

Timely.

Specific: Your goal has to be as specific as possible for it to have a chance of being accomplished. The more specific you are about your goal, the more you understand what it will take to accomplish it. It’s the moment when your “wishful thinking” starts to turn into a clear visible Goal!

Measurable: There has to be a way for you to know whether or not you have reached your goal. By how much? How many? How often? Unless you have a clear indicator, you wouldn’t know how much longer you would have to go.

Achievable: Do you currently have the ability to achieve your goal? Or do you NOW have the access to acquire that ability? But to know if your goal is achievable, you first need to have a specific and measurable goal, to begin with.

Relevant: Your goal needs to be relevant to your long-term goal. If your long-term goal is to be the best Country Singer you can be, learning all the Kubistra Music Lick of the Week in all twelve keys might not be a relevant Goal.

But if you wanna be a great jazz musician or a great composer with a great jazz perspective, mastering and analyzing the Kubistra Music Lick of The Week is indeed the SMART Goal.

Timely: Your goal has to have a deadline. Because a deadline will give you the motivation and will also help you to prioritize your everyday task.

Because if you have a very short deadline, that means you have to clear up your schedule to be able to achieve your goal. But if you know that you will have a lot of things going on already, a longer deadline will still help you to keep your eyes on the goal.

But the timeliness of your goal has to also obey the first four aspects of the SMART Goal.

Specific. Measurable. Achievable. And Relevant.

So a SMART Goal will be like this:

If you are a classical pianist:

I will increase my technique by learning 3 Chopin Etudes in one year by December 31st, 2021.

Or if you play jazz:

I will increase my jazz vocabulary by incorporating all the Kubistra Music Licks of The Week in 3 jazz standards by January 31st, 2021.

Or if you are a producer or a singer song-writer:

I will produce a 5 songs EP by collaborating with musicians that I respect by February 28th, 2021.

Those are examples of the SMART Goal.

This is why a goal to be “The Best Musician in the World’ is not a working goal. Because it’s not specific, not measurable, not achievable, seriously, who is the BEST Musician in the world right now? Exactly, hard to say! And it’s not relevant and it’s not Timely. By when will you supposedly be the BEST Musician of WHAT in the world? You see what I mean?

Well, if you wanna make progress, SET A SMART GOAL!

Now reason number two, why you don’t make any progress in your instrument.

2. NO PLAN

You don’t make any progress because you don’t have a plan! Even if you have a SMART Goal, you still won’t make any progress, if you don’t take the time to lay out the PLAN to achieve it. You need a plan that gives you clear step-by-step actions. If you have a teacher or a mentor, usually these people are the one who lays out the plan for you. But if you go about it alone, you are the one who needs to make it for yourself.

Think of it like this. If you put a destination into your GPS, the GPS will then generate step-by-step directions for you to turn left, to turn right at a very specific time. That’s what a plan is. So, let’s go back to the example of finishing 3 Chopin in a year.

The right plan will be:

1. Dividing the 12 months into three periods. Four months for each etude for example.

2. And then devote, maybe, 1 hour a day and 4 days a week for that etude alone.

3. Aiming for 8 measures per week at 120bpm.

How about that?

These are just an example. Your plan has to reflect your SMART Goal! And has to be SMART as well. Meaning your plan has to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Because a Plan is essentially smaller goals to achieve a larger goal.

But, your plan has to also be flexible, especially if you are falling behind the schedule or something doesn’t really work out, as you move forward. When that happens, don’t change the Bigger GOAL just yet. But instead, tweak the smaller goals first, aka your plan, and see if you can still achieve your goal in time.

That’s Reason number two.

The third reason why you don’t make progress, is

3. NO MEASUREMENT

You don’t make progress because you don’t have a way to measure your progress or the lack thereof. Remember a SMART Goal has to be measurable. Because if you don’t measure it, how would you know if you have achieved it? Or how do you know how much closer you are to the goal?

Again, if you have a teacher or a mentor that you talk to on a regular basis, that person is the one that gives you not only a plan but also tells you how far you are in the progress. So even if you don’t measure your progress yourself, you still have that information given to you. You still somewhat know how much have you accomplished.

But if you don’t have a teacher or a mentor, the best way to measure yourself is to write it down. Write down your GOAL, your PLAN, and your progress indicators on a piece of paper.

Measure your plan. If your plan is to learn 8 measures a week at 120bpm, write it down every week. Which measure are you working on right now? Can you play them at 120 bpm yet?

If not, what do you need to do to be able to finish it in time?

If your goal is to produce 5 songs EP. Write down your weekly even your daily progress. How many songs do you finish writing today? What elements does this song need? When should I finish the vocal take? You need all this information in real-time, so you know how much closer you are to finish the EP.

So in a way, measuring your progress is like journaling. The difference is, journaling doesn’t need a plan but measuring does.

Now, let’s move to reason number 4, of why you don’t make any progress.

4. NO CONSISTENCY

No consistency could simply mean, you were going to do one thing, but before you achieve it, you just stop. No consistency could also mean, today you practice 8 hours, and for the next 4 days you go without practice. And you practice again for 30 minutes after that, and then no practice again for the next 2 days. And so on and so forth.

No consistency could also mean you say you gonna practice this, but every time it gets hard, you start doing something else. And when that gets hard, you switch again to something else. No Consistency means you are operating at RANDOM.

You know what?

“No consistency” is actually a direct result of having No Goal, No Plan, and No Measurement. Which are the first three reasons I mentioned earlier.

If you don’t have consistency in your practice, you will never be able to master anything. Because everything that matters takes time and effort. And this is a problem with us millennials and Gen X and Gen Z. We are addicted to instant gratification. We lack the ability to endure discomfort through a certain period of time.

Because when that happens, we can easily escape to social media and all that, to get an instant dose of gratification. And it starts to show in other things too. We like to chase the next shiny objects. When we know what it really takes to get this one shiny object, we back out. And chase the next shiny object. I see this a lot with my students and I see that too in my personality. I actually have been worked on this for almost ten years now, and I’m still working on it. And this is a biggie! Because it’s more of an emotional endurance that you have to build over time.

So how do you overcome this?

In order to overcome this and to start making progress, you need to start setting a Goal, a Plan, and to Measure it. And to Commit to stay with it until you achieve that Goal. That’s the only way you can stay consistent. And trust me! Consistency gets results!

That’s the thing! If you are consistent, and you measure your progress, the reward is more energy and more results. Because you see that you are actually making progress. It’s not only like you’re on a long never-ending road that leads to nowhere. When you realize that you start accomplishing one thing after the next. You can see that you get closer and closer to your goal. And nothing is more energizing than knowing that we’re about to win.

That brings us to the last reason why you don’t make any progress. Which is:

5. NO PROGRESS

Yeah, you don’t make any progress because you don’t see any progress. So that you just stop putting any effort altogether. Because, what’s the point right? This reason goes in tandem with all the other reasons. But it’s more of a feedback loop.

Because you don’t have any clear goals, you cannot make any plans. Because you don’t have any plans, you have nothing to measure. Even if you’re actually make a progress, you wouldn’t know. And because there is no plan to measure, you practice with no consistency or randomly. Hoping for a miracle to happen. And because you practice randomly, you get no result! You don’t make any progress. And because you see that you don’t make any progress, you stop making the effort. And possibly start chasing the next shiny thing. And all those things start to dwindle out of control.

Phew.

What I’m saying is: Progress begets more progress.

If you want to make a progress on a bigger thing, make a progress on a smaller thing. If you want to achieve your bigger goal, make an effort on those smaller achievable goals called “plans” and measure them consistently. Because as soon as you accomplished the first plan, you will immediately see that you make a progress. And it energizes you to keep going until you achieve your goal.

So those are the 5 reasons why you don’t make any progress, in your instrument or in any of your endeavors. If you wanna start making progress, start with defining your goal.

- Use the SMART Goal formula and continue to make a plan.

- Measure it, stay consistent with it, and make that progress.

I briefly mentioned earlier, that many of these reasons can easily be avoided by having a teacher or a mentor. Because they are gonna be the ones who provide you with the goal, the plan, the way to measure it, and they will keep you in check so you are more consistent and therefore making progress.

That said, I want to encourage you to get a mentor. They will help you tremendously to make significant progress. It could be somebody local, or it could be somebody that you can communicate virtually. Because it’s always good to have somebody to look over you from the outside. And to have somebody to share your struggle with and most importantly to keep you consistent with your goal.

If you need some help with Piano, Jazz Improvisation and Composition, and you want me to be your mentor, I’m more than happy to do so. Just send me a DM on my instagram at @SaputraYakub or send me an email at info@KubistraMusic.com.

And now, I want to hear from you. What do you think is your biggest reason for not making significant progress? Is it because you don’t have a clear and SMART Goal? Or Because of the inconsistency.

Tell me in the comment below.

Well, thank you guys for reading up to this point. See you on the other side.