- go dancing!
- sing along
- work on your time when you walk
Go dancing
That’s right you internalize the beat while you dance. Pretty much all music can be associated to a dance. Folks still dance to reggae and salsa. Modern jazz and classical are danceable but most folks haven’t danced to them in awhile!
At times I’ve stressed about how many hours a day I practiced . Usually counting hours backfires for me and I don’t practice as much as I was before. But going dancing works on your time and feel for the music. Besides having fun, dancing lets the beat move into your muscle memory and subconsciousness.
Sing along
Feeling shy about your singing? You aren’t alone. Just don’t forget you just stopped at that red light with the windows rolled down! Seriously, give it a go and realize having a great voice with good intonation doesn’t happen overnight to almost anyone!
Singing along with the singer will help your voice and phrasing. Singing the different parts will help you learn the construction of the music, the feel of the music and the actual parts.
When I was a kid, I used to whistle along to some songs that we had back then. I think I stopped for awhile because I was critical of my voice. But recently, I’ve realized that developing my voice will really help me to develop my musicality.
Work on your time when you walk
I imagine drum beats while I walk. Since you walk around a lot in life, you can use it as good way to come up with beats. Besides the heartbeat, walking has to be the most obvious day-to-day rhythmic activity of humans. You can work on your time by keep a very steady walk. You can feel the different tempos by walking really fast or really slow. You can walk with different accents and in different time signatures. Also, I notice I generally walk with a triplet feel. I think most people do. You can walk to beats like the samba or make up beats for when you go jogging.
Anyways, between dancing, singing along to the radio or iPod and walking, you can probably get a couple extra hours of practicing in a day. It’s 21st century music multi-tasking. Haha!