Reading Notes

2 Minute Read | Laptop or Tablet Recommended

Topics and Themes

Mastery defined; Continual engagement; Being realistic with time investments.

Affiliate Note

When you make a purchase through links found on this site, we may earn commissions from Amazon, Perfect Circuit, and other retailers.

Mastery is continual engagement with your craft.

That’s it.

Mastery is not some exhaulted place you get to. It’s not some destination you arrive at. And, it’s not enlightenment, nirvana, or satori.

It’s just continual engagement. Usually, it’s engagement with something you can’t even fully grasp or comprehend (music, for me). There’s always a beautiful sense of mystery in true mastery.

Mastery is a daily dedication to engage, follow up, come back to, and reengage with your craft every day.

It’s like that saying: “How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time.”

It’s almost too simple, right? But it works, and it’s compassionate to ourselves, too.

Thinking about mastery as a process, rather than a product, has vast implications for learning anything.

For example, I wanted to study orchestration on a super deep level. So, I got a copy of Daphnis et Chloé by Maurice Ravel and studied it for three years. My only job was to continually return to the score and study. I focused on revisiting, on sitting down, on opening the pages. Once I was there, it felt easier to just move forward with my work. Eventually, I finished analyzing the entire score. I learned a great deal. I applied everything I learned to the score for Finding Solace (If you want to hang with me at the premiere, you can grab a ticket here. Scroll down to Finding Solace, and I’ll see you on August 8th, 2025.)

My point: I cared more about continual engagement than completion. I ate that damned whale, one bite at a time.

If something is important enough, I will come back to it every single day, even if I don’t feel like it. I'll do a minimum of work and then walk away.

Mastery Doesn’t Require Hours and Hours of Time Every Day

Mastery doesn’t require an excessive amount of time each day. All it needs is a modest investment to reconnect. I never worry about the amount of time I invest each day, but I prioritize returning to the work. I prioritize the process.

For example, when I practice composing, I have a bare minimum task I do each day: I compose two notes. That’s it. I always have time and energy for two notes. It’s easy. I consistently come back and reengage. On other days, I have more energy to compose. I end up writing an entire page of music. I love those days! But no matter what, I always return the next day.

Mastery is continual engagement with your craft. That’s it.

I expect that whatever I continually return to will become intimately familiar to me over time. My “mastery” of the skill might appear remarkable to anyone who doesn’t see how I got there. They might think I spent far more hours learning it than I actually did. They might think I’m superhuman.

I’m not.

I’m just willing to eat whales one bite at a time.

Facebook0 Twitter LinkedIn0 Reddit Tumblr 0 Likes

Reading Notes

4 Minute Read | Laptop or Tablet Recommended

Topics and Themes

Shifting to manageable, focused routines; Finding a bare minimum routine that works; Showing up.

My First Epic Fail as a Teacher

When I first began teaching, I told the same thing to every student:

“You must practice an hour a day to learn guitar.”

I remember the look on people’s faces… nearly expressionless, stone cold, and with a hint of fatigue. My guess is they were sizing up whether or not they wanted to learn from me.

I have wised-up.

I realized most people have little interest in practicing for an hour each day. They love to play, of course. But practice? Good, hard, deliberate practice? For an hour?

Nope.

People who came to learn guitar from me led full lives. They had families that deserved their attention. They had careers that occupied many hours of their weekdays. They wanted to learn guitar because they knew how awesome it would feel to play it, not because they wanted to become professional musicians.

Perhaps guilting people into practicing an hour a day wasn’t such a smart idea. I began saying this instead:

“If you want the most bang for your buck, practice [insert specific practice suggestion here] for five minutes each day until our next meeting.”

And the crazy thing? It worked. Why?

1. Students could easily carve out five minutes.

2. Students had a clear understanding of what to practice.

The Bare Minimum Routine

Recommending five minutes of practice to my students is an example of a bare minimum routine. A bare minimum routine is a manageable task that we can accomplish every single day regardless of our time, mood, or energy level. The bare minimum routine encourages us to go deep whenever we have the inspiration to stay at that task and play with it for longer. It also forgives us when we just don’t have the time.

Long before I had a catchy name for it, I recognized the importance of daily habits. I loved making investments in my skills. I found my skills grew fastest when I showed up every day to work on them. This included skills like orchestration, synthesizers, score study, and many others. The more I showed up to learn about these subjects, the easier composing became for me. It also became more fun. I felt better, stronger, and more directed.

The Struggle with Rigid Expectations

The problem occurred if I dramatically stated, “I will study orchestration/synths/films for an hour a day, no matter what.”

Inevitably, I had days when I really hated doing this. Like, I really fucking hated every damned second of some of those hours.

Setting aside an hour each day for a single task felt rigid, cumbersome, and frustrating especially on days when I had little time to spare. It didn't matter that I was studying something I loved. I was crushing the energy for learning.

At the same time, I didn’t want to skip practicing altogether. I genuinely cared about improving my musical skills. I struggled to find a reasonable balance.

Now that I have established bare minimum routines, everything has improved so much for the better. I can relax a little bit more.

For example, here’s my bare minimum for composing and piano for each day:

Two notes, each.

I write two notes on a page. I play two notes on the piano. That’s it. That’s my bare minimum routine. No matter what, I always show up and I always do that.

With the task completed, I was left open to write more music or play more piano, if I felt inspired.

On some days, I’d compose an entire page worth of notes. I’d end up playing piano for an hour straight, coming up with ideas that kinda blew my mind. There were moments when I could hardly tear myself away.

What happened on the other days when I wasn't so into it? I showed up and I did just two notes. I completed the bare minimum, and I walked away.

That’s the magic of the bare minimum routine. We select simple yet powerful tasks that we can easily accomplish, knowing they will benefit us in the long run. These tasks get completed quickly on days we don't have a lot of time, and they leave room for inspiration to take root on the days that we can stretch out a bit.

Embracing Daily Engagement

I love my creative routines now, even more. I value that I can make progress with a simple, daily engagement. In my opinion, that’s the very definition of mastery.

No matter what, I show up every day. That’s the point of a bare minimum routine.

You just show up.

Facebook0 Twitter LinkedIn0 Reddit Tumblr 0 Likes