The New Year celebrations are well and truly over and the grind has fully begun for the year of 2022. It’s been a crazy couple of years and we’re all knackered, so we’ve been thinking of how to make the most out of what seems to be a relatively normal year ahead of us. Now we’re not talking resolutions necessarily; they’re great but they’ve usually already ended by this point! We want to set out some musical aspirations that aren’t too tricky but will challenge us to become better musicians by the end of 2022.
Not only is it worth setting yourself goals for the purpose of developing yourself as a musician but it can be really helpful for when/ if things go a little bit dystopian again; it can be really beneficial for your mental health to have a goal to focus on if you are isolating or in the unlikely scenario of another lockdown.
So what should you set as an aspiration? Just how big a goal should you set?
Well we’ve got a couple of ideas that could help inspire you to make 2022 the best year for your musical development in a long time.
1. Develop Your Sight Reading
Now, this may seem a bit of a cop out of an entry because it’s probably on just about every list out there for musical development but here us out! Whilst it’s definitely beneficial to be able to read sheet music relatively quickly, developing your sight reading can also be more specific to you depending on what you need as a musician. For example, it’d be great practice as a piano player to do the standard practice of sight reading new pieces of music off the fly but as a guitarist it might be more beneficial to practice reading a chord sheet and identifying the key/s and what scale would work best to solo in. Or perhaps you’re a singer and it might be most beneficial for you to get used to reading charts with coda’s and repeat marks in so you’re more accustomed to the music you may be given as a session vocalist.
No matter what your instrument, developing your ability to read whatever kind of music will be in front of you is always a good idea!
2. Learn a New Technique!
Guitarists, bassists, violinists, pianists, vocalists etc. every musician has a new technique they could learn or master. It’s always incredibly useful to have a load of techniques up your sleeve, whether it’s to impress others or to add something different and spicy to a performance. Perhaps there are techniques that you need to learn to feel as though you can fully “play” an instrument such as finger-picking on guitar- something everyone sort of assumes that any guitarist can play. Likewise, bass players might feel they need to master slap in order to play along to their favourite Jaco Pastorius or Level 42 songs.
Why not set a goal of learning a song that features a new technique each month? Start with a song that only uses the technique briefly and work your way up to a song that relies almost entirely on said technique!
3. Master a New Genre
The best musicians are always the ones who have a good understanding of many genres so why not make one of your aspirations to master a new genre? There’s a lot of musicians out there who go through a big jazz phase and start getting very excited by old recordings of saxophone players you’ve never heard of but you could also throw yourself into funk or reggae or anything for that matter!
Our biggest challenge is for you to go as far out of your comfort zone as possible! Are you a big fan of metal? Then dive into the world of Swing and the old crooner. Passionate violinist with a love for Mahler? Then embrace the world of Drum and Bass. No matter what strange genre you choose to embrace there will be something useful for you to learn and take with you into the future of your musical journey.
4. Set Up A Home Recording Studio
It’s not the 70s anymore. You don’t need an SSL Mixing Desk with racks of 1176’s, pristine mic pre-amps, 50 microphones, and a huge live room to achieve a decent sounding recording. It’s also not the 90s/ early 00s so you don’t need to worry about crappy sound cards, dodgy software or rubbish mics. It’s 2022 and the quality of recording equipment, by and large, is the best it’s ever been so why not take advantage of it and build your own home studio in 2022.
You don’t need much, just an interface, a jack lead, an XLR cable, a laptop, a DAW (check out the free one “Reaper”, used by many metal producers out there), a microphone, and some headphones!
Not only will a home recording space allow you to create your own music, it can also double as a space to achieve all the previous aspirations! Having a home recording space can double as your practice space which makes all the difference when it comes to sticking to a new aspiration.
5. Write/ Record/ Produce Your Own EP!
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Get writing! This is such a good aspiration to take on as it will improve so many aspects of your musicianship in a creative, fun way. In writing some music you’re going to develop your ear, your understanding of harmony and chords, and how to link musical ideas. When you record your EP you’re going to be learning and developing skills in being a recording engineer, learning about mic placement, phase, how to set up a mic stand as well as your arranging skills!
The best thing about this as an aspiration is that you’ll have a physical final product that you can listen to and share with your friends; or perhaps you can even upload it to Spotify and begin your journey into superstardom!
Whatever goal you choose to pursue, stick to it! You can make 2022 the best year you’ve had so far and end it as a much better musician than you started.