Goal Setting
If you want to improve your bass playing you gotta practice, right?
Most bassists would answer this question with a yes.
But to practice efficiently you've got to know what to practice. And this is where goal setting comes in - if you take some time to work out what you are trying to achieve then you can work out a plan on how to actually achieve it. The alternative approach is to have a vague idea of what you're trying to achieve (..."yeah, I wanna get really good on the bass, man) and noodle about trying to get there. Believe me the time you spend working out your goals will be repaid many times over in how much of your time it actually saves in the long run!
S.M.A.R.T Goal Setting
S.M.A.R.T Goal Setting is a system. S.M.A.R.T is an acronym, each letter represents a step in the system that helps guide you with your goal setting.
S Make your goals Specific - this step simply means that your goals need to be concrete. A goal such as "I want to play like Geddy Lee" is vague and hard to realise. Instead phrase this goal like this: "I want to learn the bass lines from 50 Rush tunes, analyse the lines fully against the underlying chord structures to determine how Geddy Lee creates bass lines and implement these ideas in new songs/new chord structures."
M Make your goals Measurable - this step means that you must be able to answer whether or not you have achieved the goal with either a Yes or No answer. Either you have achieved the goal, or you haven't.
A Make your goals Achievable - this step means that your goals must be achievable. EG "I want to learn the bass line to YYZ by Rush" is a (difficult! but) achievable goal.
R Make your goals Relevant to you - this step helps you focus your goals. There's no point having a goal of - for example - learning how to play bebop solos if you actually want to be a rock bassist.
T Make
your goals Time bound - this step gives your goals
a realistic time frame to work towards.
Once you understand the S.M.A.R.T system spend some time thinking
about what you want to achieve on the bass. The bassist who wants
to play some tunes with his mates is gonna have different goals from
the bassist who wants to make a living playing the bass. Think about
what YOU want to achieve.
Start with the long term. Say 5 years? (If 5 years is too much, take it down to 2 years). Use the S.M.A.R.T system to make sure your long term goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.
Then visualize what skills you need to learn to make your long term goal possible. Write them down, these can form the basis of your short term and intermediate goals. If you're a bit unsure, check out the how to play bass in 50 songs page and you'll see that this is effectively what I have done for one of my students. His goal was to be able to play tunes like Hysteria by Muse with his mates and I developed a 50 lesson program for him that will take him to this level step by step and song by song.
TIP It's crucial to write your goals down. Put them into a word processor document and print them out in a big font in bold. You should have a sheet for your long term goals (ideally 5 years), your intermediate goals (say 18 months), your short term goals (3-6 months) and a sheet at the start of your practice folder for this week's goals.
The most common objection I hear is: "It seems like a lot of work - won't my goals change?"
Almost certainly. Not many people know that when an aeroplane flies from say London to New York that it's actually off course for something like 96 or 97% of the flight time - BUT the plane always lands in the right place because along the way the pilots make a series of corrections. Having S.M.A.R.T goals will enable you to navigate through the next few years and arrive at a destination you want to get to.
S.M.A.R.T Goal setting will enable you to focus your practice time so you use it efficiently. Please try it - you'll thank me in 6 months time.
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