How To Get Better at Music: the Formula To Never Stop Improving

I never want to stop improving my songwriting, production, and overall musical skill. 

I’m sure you feel the same way. 

So let’s talk about how to get better at music.

In my experience as an active musician and by observing other successful artists, there’s a formula to continually get better:

Consistency → quantity → quality

If you can consistently make music, you’ll end up with a lot of it. 

And the more you do something, the better you’ll get at it. 

Which means you’ll be making high-quality music. 

But it all starts with consistency. It starts with just showing up every day. 

“Consistency is essential for success in any area,” says James Clear, habit expert and best-selling author. “There is no way to get around the fact that mastery requires a volume of work.”

Let’s talk about how you can be more consistent and what to do with all the music you’ll make…

How To Be a Consistent Musician

The quality of your music depends on whether or not you can be consistent. 

You have to show up in order to make music. It’s not going to create itself. 

Start with baby steps

You don’t have to make big, sweeping movements to have the music career you want. 

I know, it’s hard to move slowly. It’s easy to get impatient. 

But to be consistent, you have to take baby steps or you’ll burn out.

It’s the whole tortoise and the hare story. By sprinting, you’ll get tired and have to eventually stop. 

But if you just keep walking forward, you’ll last longer and eventually reach your goals. 

Use the 2-Minute Rule

Clear says the 2-Minute Rule can help you stop procrastinating. I’ve tried it and it works.

“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do,” he writes.

And you can scale down music-making to two minutes, easy. 

For example:

• Open your songwriting notebook (or create a new Evernote note) and write “V1” at the top of the page
• Open your DAW and launch a new project
• Play one chord progression on your instrument

It sounds weird, but the idea is to make the process as easy as possible. 

And oftentimes, you’ll end up doing music for more than two minutes. All you have to do is commit to one small, 2-minute task.

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Give yourself deadlines

If you’re like me, you work better when you have a deadline, whether it’s from someone else or yourself. 

If I give myself too much time to do something, I inevitably don’t prioritize it. (Parkinson’s Law in action).

So try limiting yourself. 

Finish writing that one song this month.

Finish recording your track by the end of the week. 

Learn that cover song by tomorrow. 

Deadlines can give you the kick in the pants you may need. They hold you accountable to stay consistent. 

Use your calendar

I use a calendar for literally everything.

I use it to plan out my workday, schedule time for music, and even add to-dos as events (like “Call the doctor” or “Do laundry”).

And I’ve noticed I’m much more productive and consistent than when I just used a to-do list. 

I recommend creating an event in your calendar (or write in your paper calendar) for any time you want to make music. 

It will hold you accountable, and you’ll do music more often. 

What To Do With the Quantity of Music You Make

Consistently making music will lead to a large amount of music. So what do you do with it all?

Don’t release all your music (or at least wait)

You don’t have to release everything you make.

Because a lot of what you make is probably not going to be that good, at least for a while.

I’ve released 100+ songs, and much of that music could’ve stayed on the shelf. 

I don’t regret releasing all of those songs, but now I’m much more conscious and intentional about what I release. 

On the other hand, you don’t want to never release music. 

As Josh Spector says, “A creation that’s ‘not quite ready’ and released, is better than one which is ‘almost perfect’ and not released.”

You have to find the balance between quantity and quality.

A rule I use is, if I think a song is still good a year after I write it, then I’ll record and release it.

Get feedback

Go to a musician friend and a non-musician friend and play the song for each of them. 

You could text or email it to them, but ideally, you’ll want to sit down together and hit play.

Why? 

Because when you play your song for someone else in person, you become more aware (read: more self-conscious) of all the things you need to fix or change.

So when you hear yourself apologizing or making excuses to the other person, that’s when you know you’ve found something in your song you need to adjust.

Give the public a taste to test the quality

Musicians do this on TikTok all the time. 

They’ll post a video of themselves playing a chorus they wrote. 

Then based on the reaction people have, they’ll finish writing and producing it. 

Just be careful – too many cooks in the kitchen can be overwhelming. 

Remember to stay true to what you want for the song and what makes you feel something. 

Learn from the process

The end goal is to learn from the process of creating music.

Because then you’ll start to make noticeably better music — music you’re more proud of.

And that will give you the motivation to keep making music on a regular basis.

Seeing your progress leads to more progress. 

How To Get Better at Music and Never Stop Improving 

So to recap, the way you continually get better is to continually make music. 

Focus on being consistent, not perfect. 

Do a little music today if that’s all you have time for. Don’t try to do all the things all at once. 

Don’t rush to release your music. 

Get feedback, then go back and keep working.

This is how you become a consistent musician. 

And by being consistent, you’ll make a lot of music.

And the more music you make, the better musician you’ll become.