How to find motivation to practice singing
We all are familiar with the romantic idea of inspiration. You magically get “inspired” and you can create easily and effortlessly. When it comes to practicing your instrument, it is the same. Sometimes we are inspired and motivated to take action and to practice and sometimes we don’t find the motivation to practice singing.
If you are like many, you might just abandon your practice and wait for you to feel inspired and motivated again. The problem is that this might take years! And if you are a singer you know that your instrument is your body. It takes regular and consistent practice to develop and strengthen it.
Is there any way to “create” the motivation you need? You want to be in control of your development as a musician instead of letting it be a magic motivation.
The thing is that motivation to practice is something quite weird. I teach lots of different people and it is often entertaining to hear the number of different excuses some of them find each week not to practice. “I didn’t have time” is often the go-to, however, you only need 5 minutes a day to do at least a bit of practice. 5 minutes a day is better than nothing! And often if you practice for 5 minutes then you want to keep going for a bit more.
Look, if you are serious about developing your instrument and getting good at it, you have to work on it. It doesn’t come for free. Otherwise, everybody would sing as well as Beyonce!
I do however have some students that practice regularly and they are often the ones that improve consistently.
So is it fate, or can we actually create motivation to practice singing?
Well, in my experience you can definitely create the motivation you need to be in control of your practice rather than leaving it to your momentary feelings to decide.
1- Create a “minimum practice” routine
I often see people with big goals, for example practicing 2 hours a day. The problem with this is that if you don’t feel motivated it will be really hard to maintain and almost every time, people give up their practice altogether.
It is better to think about what is the minimum practice that you can commit to per week. It can be something like practicing your warm-ups for ten minutes, three times a week. It is doable and you will see results. Or it can be singing your chosen song once a day.
Whatever it is, choose something small enough that you know you can commit to even if you feel like watching Netflix all day.
This way, in your worst days you will still do some practice. And usually, once you are done with your minimum practice you will want to practice more.
But if you don’t do any practice, it often becomes a downward spiral and then you feel less and less motivated to do it. If you reverse the spiral, it becomes much easier and enjoyable. You will also get results regularly which will in turn “motivate you” more.
2- Don’t focus on the results
Another reason why students don’t get the motivation to practice singing is that they don’t like how they sound, so they don’t want to practice. This is a problem because you will only like how you sound by working on your instrument for it. So if this is you, practice anyway and don’t focus on the end result. It is a bit like wanting to do handstands and get demotivated because you can’t do them the first day. The only way you will get better is if you keep on practicing anyway and you go through that stage in which they are still not as good as you want them to be.
3- Have a goal
A good way to get motivated if you find it hard is to have a goal with a deadline. This can be as small as singing a song comfortably in an open mic, an audition, recording a song, or even a singing exam with a very specific date.
Having a goal keeps you focused. That’s why I like to teach the Rockschool vocals syllabus to my Auckland kids and teenage students! They want to have a good mark so that keeps them motivated to do the work that it takes instead of leaving it to chance. I can guarantee that if you have a deadline coming on you will find the time and motivation to practice!
4- Learn to work with your emotions instead of being controlled by them
The reality is that our brains want us to be lazy. If we wait until our brains magically can’t wait to practice for 4 hours a day then we are screwed.
So what can we do about it? Well, a good idea to start with is to schedule your practice and observe the thoughts and feelings that come up when you are about to practice. You will probably skip your practice out of not wanting to feel something negative.
But what if you are willing to observe those thoughts and feelings and practice anyway?
I really don’t like running. But I want to do it because it is good for my health and because I feel good afterward. So after trying hard to motivate me to do it on my own with no success, I joined a parkrun event on Saturdays and I am committed to doing it. Every Saturday morning I feel all the thoughts and feelings coming up telling me that it is better if I stay home, but I get up and do it anyway, and then once I am running then it feels OK. Then after the run I feel happy that I did it and as a bonus, I am more motivated to have a productive day. Otherwise, I would probably be even more demotivated because of the guilt of not having done the run out of excuses.
Observe your thoughts and feelings and take them out of your practice. If you do this you will very probably feel better than you were feeling before practicing. And your motivation will become more natural.
In my experience, if you train yourself to practice no matter what, soon rather than later your body looks forward to the practice instead of seeing it as torture. It just becomes effortless and enjoyable.
I hope this was a bit helpful!
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I help people to develop their voice and singing from a holistic approach. I teach vocal lessons in person in Auckland, NZ, and online. Also stay tuned for my new online singing programs!❤️
My greatest passion has always been the voice, music and energy arts.
My personal and artistic journey has led me to understand that the voice and the body are fully connected, and that includes not only the physical body but also the mental, emotional and spiritual body.
Through holistic vocal training you not only learn to become a great singer while taking care of your voice, but you also improve your mental and physical wellbeing❤️
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