Have you ever told yourself you’d practice singing, or guitar later- only to feel too tired to follow through? You’re not alone. The secret to more effective practice might be a s simple as timing. In this post, we’ll explore how to align your musical practice with your peak, or ‘good’ energy, so you can improve faster, feel more creative, and maybe enjoy the process too.

Use Your ‘Good’ Energy Pursuing the Things You Love to do

So when is the best time to practice your singing or playing? Try to practice your singing or your instrument during your peak energy times during your day. Your ‘good’ energy. Yes this is a very simple concept, but it makes complete sense to me. That said, it’s not always easy to do- especially if you work a 9-5 job during the week.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to sing first thing in the morning. Or do much of anything too physical until I’ve been up for about an hour. I know you morning songbirds are out there! While I admire morning people, I am not one. I can sing comfortably around 10:00am, but anything earlier is a bit more of a challenge. Not that I can’t sing before 10:00am, I’m just talking about what feels most comfortable in the body. 

And that is what this is all about: working with your body and energy, not against it. Sure you could force a practice session befrore your day job, but it wouldn’t necessarily be productive.

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Real-World Examples from the Pros

I remember hearing a producer talk about a singer he was producing and saying how her voice opens up around 2PM. So he scheduled her vocal sessions around this time frame. Again, not always possible. But since she had the choice, starting her recording sessions around 2PM was great for her. 

I also started thinking more about this concept after watching a Chris Lord-Alge video where he was describing a typical mixing day for him. He said he has his assistant come to the studio before him to prep the session so he could come in and work during his good energy times of his day. He suggested not to waste your good energy prepping and editing a session and then have no energy or creativity left to do the ‘fun’ part of mixing…the actual mixing!

If you’re a producer and mixer, maybe you edit and prep your session the day before and then hit the ground running at your peak energy time the next day. 

When I went to Mix with the Masters and learned from Greg Wells, I remember him saying that he works an 8 hour day. And that’s it. He said something like, you’ll just end up spending time redoing things that you messed up if you work these really long 10-12 hour days like a lot of engineers do. 

That’s really good advice and we should all really hear it. It’s easy to think we’re the exception and can handle a 10 hour day in the studio. Or practice our singing for 2 hours straight without a break. We’re not the exception. Let’s try and take care of ourselves.

Know When You Have ‘Good’ Energy

I would define ‘good’ energy to be when I feel slightly energized to really focus on something. Not that deflated, tired feeling. We can definitley force ‘getting things done’, but if we have the luxury to build our day around our peak energy times and try to get our creative pursuits in during that time, It’s just more fun and easy.

I know we all don’t have that luxury, but how could you arrange your day to use some of your best energy towards your singing or playing? Of songwriting, or mixing? When do you feel:

-Most focused

-Most physically energized

-Most creative

Use those natural peaks to decide when to schedule your singing, playing, writing, or recording.

Here’s an article I came across talking a bit more in depth about energy cycles.

Increasing productivity using your energy cycle

Another prospective on the best time to learn:

https://amberstudent.com/blog/post/when-is-the-best-time-to-study

Scheduling Tips

Even if you work full-time, there are way to work around your energy:

• Use your lunch hour. Maybe eat something during your coffee break, then use your full lunch for practicing.

•Early riser? Try freewriting lyrics or brainstorming before work.

•Night owl? Schedule late-evening guitar or vocal work if that’s when you come alive.

•Weekend planner? Maybe schedule 2 practice sessions per day on the weekends when you have more time to work with? But space them out and allow yourself to rest in between and also schedule some other fun things to do so you don’t always feel like you’re working. Try to make the journey an easy walk rather than a race you have to accomplish.

I always found those feeling of pressure to accomplish certain things worked against me in the long run. Anyway, I digress…

Time Management

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In Conclusion

There are plenty of days I’ll tell myself I’m going to practice or record or write this evening, only to find myself feeling exhausted and then saying , “there is no way I can do anything musical right now”! Good intentions don’t mean anything if you don’t have the energy to actually do the things you intended to do. 

I’m talking to myself and all of my fellow creatives. Have you ever heard about an author who got up at 5:00am to write every day before their 9-5 job for years, before they became a huge literary success and no longer needed that day job?

I know people do what they have to do. I’m just saying try to be strategic. Get creative and try to work with your natural tendencies. 

I’m sure there are plenty of creatives who come alive after 9PM, or Midnight, whatever it is, it works for them. 

Also having a rough idea of what you’d like to accomplish during your practice session is a good idea as well. 

For instance:

10 minutes of Warm-ups

Start learning a new song. Just a section. For example just the first verse lyrics and melody.

Run the other song that you’ve been working on a few times

Record yourself performing it and then look over the video to see what you feel good about and make some notes about what you need to keep working on. 

Set some general time amounts for each task. I used to get stuck on one task during my practice sessions and literally wear myself out trying to achieve a result I was never going to achieve doing the same thing over and over again. 

I would have been much better off, moving on to something else. 

Take into account what task you want to complete and at what time. For instance for me, I might be able to do some free writing to look for songwriting ideas early in the morning, but not singing or recording. 

So maybe twice a week I could do some writing in the morning because I know my day is packed with other things and I’ll never get to it. So I could prioritize it first thing.

Time management is one of the things I need a lot of work on. I need to learn to schedule every part of my day. This is probably easy for many personality types, but It’s a challenge for me. But I’m going to work on it. I’ll probably never schedule EVERY part of my day, but I definitely improve my time management skills. 

What are some ways you could schedule your day to use your good energy on your musical pursuits? Leave us a comment and let us know. You might just inspire us to try them too! 

All the Best,

Amy

https://www.amyhailstone.com