How to Stay Motivated After Graduation

It's very easy to become unmotivated after graduation, or even just over summer break while in school. Sometimes we don't have the luxury of being surrounded by music and musicians all the time to help motivate us into practicing or learning that piece you just haven't gotten around to. Below are a few ideas of mine to stay motivated.

1. Find Competitions/auditions to take, even if you don't necessarily want to win them. Entering is a good way to stay in shape and you might even find something new you enjoy!

2. Friendly competitions among your friends/colleagues. Find a piece or an etude to learn with a friend or group of people and have fun playing and learning from each other (there are even a few Facebook groups dedicated to learning etudes with friends online).

3. Duets with friends. Initially this improves your sight reading skills. Then meet again to go over the duet, this time after a little bit of practice.

4. Stay connected in the music world. It is much easier to find motivation to practice when you're surrounded by motivated people!

5.  Get new music, something you’ve always wanted to learn. During your schooling years, take note of the pieces you want to learn, but maybe don’t have the time to learn.  Even if it’s a piece you heard about in High School and now perhaps you’ve graduated with your Masters, it is still fun to learn that piece! Sight reading, even an easy piece, is an important part of keeping up with your music.

6. Find articles on what interest you (remember to look outside your instrument too as there are more than just flutists in the world!).

    A. Audition decisions (percussionist Rob Knopper):  http://www.robknopper.com/blog/2015/5/3/5-ways-to-decide-which-auditions-to-take

    B.  Look at blogs, like the one above, but also don’t forget that there are more websites than just blogs! Like this version of an online magazine/newspaper type website:  http://thefluteview.com/

    C.  Or if you are more into the repertoire than literature, find a website by a teacher (Canadian Flutist Jennifer Cluff): http://jennifercluff.blogspot.com/ (although she does have many wonderful literature articles, she also talks a great deal about what repertoire one should learn).

    D.  Find a site that gives advice for nearly every scenario:  http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/