How To Practice The Trumpet For One Hour, Every Day

Hey fellow trumpet-folk,

Everybody knows that you actually have to practice to get better at the trumpet. But, if you’re not already in the habit of practicing every day, it can be a tough thing to start. Therefore, this article outlines an easy, solid plan that basically guarantees you’ll be able to do it.

Now, the reason this is on my mind lately is because a fellow musician and I have recently taken our friendship to the next level by becoming ‘accountabilibuddies’. Working together as a team, we have finally overcome our lazy, slacker-like tendencies.

This is something we’ve talked about doing for years. We even tried a few times and failed spectacularly. However, this time we found the magic-bullet and it stuck.

The Beginning Of A Beautiful Friendship

To give you a little backstory, Morgan and I are both musicians. We used to play together a bunch in LA and do some work on the road together. One night, while walking up a hill in Snowmass Village, CO – sucking air like a bunch of Hoover vacuums, mind you – we discovered a mutual desire…

We both desperately wanted to become financially independent zillionaires by educating musicians online (hehehe)! And since that moment we have been the best of friends.

That evening started lengthy talks on how we’d build our musical empires. We watched videos online. We brainstormed. We got real fired-up and jumped around the room hollering. But the thing is, we also spent countless hours, days and months doing a whole hell of a lot of nothing.

But then, a few months back, something changed. And since the beginning of October 2019 we have both worked on our businesses every single day*. I will now share our ultimate success plan.

* Technically, ‘Big M, little organ’ missed four days. I hope he reads this and feels that shame.

BTB and Morgan Jones performing at the Emmy Awards

The Plan That Finally Worked

After a few years being total slackers, we finally figured this accountabilibuddy thing out using these three guidelines:

1. In the beginning, we committed to just 20 minutes per day. This was something doable for each of us even when we were super busy.
2. We created a shared ‘note’ on our smartphones to write a brief description of the work we accomplished each day.
3. And, if we failed to work for 20 minutes, we had to pay the other person $5.

Now, that five bucks might not seem like a lot of money, but it was enough to do the trick. After Morgan had to shell out twenty bucks for being a lazy sack-of-you-know-what, he’s been crushing it ever since.

I’m proud of you, Morgan.

As for myself, I’m the kind of cheap-ass that is definitely not paying anyone $5 just because I’m feeling lazy. Lincoln’s face was enough to get my butt in gear even on my most woeful day.

Thanks, Abe.

Further Progress (And More Cash)

After just over one month of daily work we were both so jazzed that we upped the ante to one hour per day with a penalty of $10. So far, neither of us has failed to put in the time*.

*Technically, Morgan missed another day. I hope he reads this and feels that burn.

Hawaiian bromance. Aloha!

If You Are Having Trouble Committing To Practicing The Trumpet Daily:

Find a like-minded accountabilibuddy and put some cash on the line. Work together to find a time commitment you can both stick to every day. I don’t know how Morgan manages his time, but I usually work my hour in 10-20 minute chunks throughout the day. Trumpet playing works great broken down into chunks of 5-10 minutes. 

Now Get Out There And Find Yourself An Accountabilibuddy!

I wish you a great, productive and restorative year. Best of luck finding yourself an accountabilibuddy. If it helps, and you have trouble finding someone to take your money, I’m easy to find on PayPal. 😉

And Leave a Comment Below!

Happy new year, everyone. Thank you for supporting BTB over the years and stick around for what’s to come. I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

-James

PS – Morgan Jones is a cool dude, a Juilliard-trained jazz saxophonist and an incredible jazz and classical pianist. Check him out at: http://www.morganjones.com/