In this article edition I'd like to address an issue that I think about all of the time, both personally and with the students I coach. From the title above, you can probably gather that this has a lot to do with your chance of success in music, whether that success be on a hobby or on a professional level.

As many can tell from what I do, I'm a highly goal-driven individual. I believe that this trait, combined with a willingness to do the hard work and a little dose of organization, can create a great formula for artistic growth. Of course, this still leaves the aspect of the "path" to deal with, because if you're not accurately focused on what will systematically get you from one point to another, you can still waste a great deal of precious time in the process. One of the most important elements in this is determining what constitutes a high priority goal to begin with, and as the subtitle of this article says, avoiding "low priority" goals.

Now, even if you are goal-driven by nature, I find that we have a tendency to get distracted from what we know we should be doing, yet rationalize our low priority efforts by getting a false sense of personal contentment with each accomplishment. This is something that I've battled with my entire career, although due to my prolific work ethic as well as documented achievements, most would never suspect this to be the case.

So, what is a high priority goal as opposed to a low priority goal? Ah, that's a very tough question, because it differs from player to player, and is highly dependent on what stage you're already at, and where you're trying to go with your music. With that in mind, the first order of business would be to do some serious thinking about your personal goals, perhaps establishing a customized things to do list, then further determining the order of priority.

Common sense should play a huge role in all of this, but unfortunately it often doesn't. Why? Well, I believe that it's human nature to procrastinate with regard to the things we know we should be focusing on, yet rely on that false sense of contentment I mentioned earlier to justify our actions. It's really easy to fall into this trap, because in reality you are still being productive (a good thing), but those high priority goals can just sit there seemingly forever (a bad thing). You can certainly see that I've been down this road before, eh? Many times, actually.

Okay, now let's talk about the path itself. What is it exactly that you need to do to become a better soloist, rhythm player, composer, arranger, and so on? This is very important, because there's so much confusion that exists on this subject, usually perpetuated by the opinions of teachers and players. So, even if you don't fall into the trap that I just spoke of, and you do remain focused on a high-priority goal, it can all still be a moot point if the approach isn't getting the job done. The proper path may indeed be debatable, but there is a secret that I can share with you. It's a simple one, but perfectly logical.

In a nutshell, learn from your mentors, and this time I'm not talking about a specific song, lick, solo, bass line, etc. Instead, very carefully study and observe the actions that great artists took to accomplish their goals, and then emulate them in the best way that you can. Sort of like transcribing, but in this case you're transcribing their path instead of their specific musical information. Make sense? It should. So in summary, maintain your focus on what counts most, improve the quality of your path, and avoid those low priority goals!