I had a useful (and painful) revelation today while practicing. Specifically, the overwhelming majority of my “guitar practice” has little or no rational relationship to my goals as an artist.

Let me take a few steps back. During my most recent music lesson, Jay asked me to spend some time considering the “big picture” structure of my life as an artist. Specifically, Jay suggested I do quite a bit of thinking about what my ideal life as an artist would look like, and the core principles (“whys”) underlying that ideal artistic life. What follows would be selecting various projects, rooted in those principles, as real-world manifestations of the ideal life. Once that point is reached, I can decide what individual daily actions I can take to move those projects forward.

As to the first step, I’ve been working on articulating my artistic “first principles.” Even more fundamental than artistry or music, what I want most is to live my life in a way that adds as little as possible to the negativity and suffering in the world, while projecting positive energy outward. I believe that, toward that end, music is the area of my abilities with the greatest potential for success. My ideal artistic life would emphasize music performance in group settings. I feel most at home contributing to a group effort. I value diversity of experience, and would like the ability to perform in varied musical contexts. I’m also excited by the opportunity to improvise, and I enjoy creating landscapes for others to improvise over. My idealized musical life would not be complete without teaching, because there is no better way to improve the world than help others develop and utilize their gifts. And, of course, not too far from the top of the priorities list is generating sufficient music income to meet the financial needs of my family.

With that as a starting point, the next step is outlining my music projects. I play in a rock band most weekends. I do an acoustic guitar duo with my friend John, playing weeknights and the occasional weekend the band isn’t booked. A few months ago, I reconnected with my friend Ben, and we’ve been playing coffee houses as a classical guitar duo. And, I teach lessons at a music store. The new kid on the block is jazz guitar, and in coming weeks I’ll be planning how that might unfold.

As I see it, these projects are a good fit with my artistic first principles. So, the next question is, am I consistently engaged in daily actions that advance these projects? Upon reflection, I’d say I’ve really been falling short of the mark. Although I’ve been spending a lot of time with a guitar in my hands, that time has mostly not been directed towards my projects. For the most part, I’ve been doing a lot of etude-heavy solo classical guitar practice. Most days, I’ve been doing little or no work on my ensemble projects. For someone seeking an artistic life emphasizing varied ensemble performance, that is not practice time particularly well-spent.

I have another lesson with Jay today, and I’m looking forward to the process of building a better practice regime from the ground up!