Tick Tock Tick Tock – Four Steps to Holiday Preparation

It’s autumn.  The leaves are beginning to turn and temperatures are beginning to subside.  Days are shorter and nights are cooler.  All of which means that it will be winter soon. Or stated another way – the holidays are coming!

Although retailers start putting out holiday merchandise before Halloween, it's easy to scoff.  But don't fall into a false sense of having a lot of time.  Don’t let the holidays catch you not quite ready – start your preparation now!  I’d suggest breaking it into four steps:

• Make a Schedule – holidays are starting earlier each year with some Christmas events scheduled before Thanksgiving! (This is especially scary if you’re Canadian and Thanksgiving is in October).  Realistically, you have about a month and a half so scheduled your practice and learning to assure you get everything into your practice.
• Make a list of the tunes for gigs.  Within that list, identify those tunes you played last year and those that you’ve included because you’d like to learn them.
• Make a practice plan – using your schedule and your list, plan time to polish those tunes you already know and to learn those that you don’t.  Be realistic!
• Make a program of holiday and non-holiday music that you’ll be able to use and get comfortable with.  This is a good idea not only because it allows you to better leverage your regular repertoire but also because your listeners will enjoy the break from holiday tunes while you’re playing and it will help the old favorites seem less hackneyed both to you and to your audience.  It also helps keep your regular repertoire in your mind and hands.

By being organized you will be able to be comfortably prepared for the entire holiday season from November to January with minimal angst and stress.  Now you just need to book some holiday gigs and you’ll be ready to go!

Is it a Maybe?

So, here we are, about ¾ of the way through the year.  Everyone’s back to school and the holidays are fast approaching.  By now, hopefully, you’ve sorted out your yes’s and no’s.  The next question is do you have your maybe’s?

Perhaps the biggest maybe at this time of year is related to the goals you set for yourself.  So maybe it is a good time to review them.  How are you coming?  Do you need to tweak any? Do you know?

This is where that journal comes in handy – it’s a good time to review your notes to see if you are getting where you wanted to go.  If not, can you see what you need to work on?  Do you need to:

• Rededicate your practice time
• Actually practice
• Reprioritize your practice time
• Actively schedule elements of practice
• Review your goals to make sure they are realistic for your real life
• Examine your journal to have a better idea how it’s going so you can continue to meet your goals

Are you getting there?  Maybe part of the way?  Maybe isn’t bad at all – as long as you mean it!

Just Say No!

After at least a week of saying “Yes!” perhaps it’s also time to start saying “NO!”

No can be so negative but sometimes it’s the best answer to allow you to hang onto your sanity!  Or to make progress toward your goals.  I will always encourage you to stretch – to do things that are a little scary or uncomfortable.  This is because typically these things only l-o-o-k scary but are actually a lot of fun once you break through.

But some things are scary for good reason.  They are better avoided – a stretch piece that is a huge stretch, a stretch piece with an unreasonable or unrealistic deadline, something you just really do not want to do (or don’t agree with doing), something that will just add the straw that broke the camel’s back to your schedule. 

Here are some things it might be helpful to say “NO!” to:

• Weddings – if you don’t like to be stressed, don’t book weddings!  Only do them if you feel confident – otherwise they will chip away at your confidence and possibly your self-esteem.

• Short notice gigs – if you don’t have regular practice time in on your repertoire, you will not be ready at the drop of a hat.  So don’t do that to yourself.  Only book gigs for which you can be confidently and competently prepared.
• Music you’re not interested in – now, I’m not saying don’t experience new things but this music is also typically music you don’t know (so you won’t have tricks up your sleeve for dealing with not being rock solid on the tunes).  Or it's music you haven’t worked with (so you’re likely not solid and confident).  And this is often coupled with short notice and/or weddings!
• Only playing for the cat and the curtains – Get over yourself!  No one plays perfectly and you never will either.  The only way to get better at playing for people is to do it.  You know – to practice doing it by doing it.  The longer you put it off, the more you tell yourself you’ll do it later, the harder it will get.  So get out there.

Say no to anything that will require more preparation than you will be able to devote.  If you are only able to practice 30 minutes a day, don’t even think you’ll be able to take on a challenge and succeed (Carol of the Bells from scratch in 2 weeks? Ha, don’t even).  You will be stressed and unprepared and miserable. 

Practice saying No at the right times so you are ready to say Yes as appropriate.  And if you’re knocking yourself down (over these or anything else) - Definitely Just Say No!