This is especially true for me right now in my musical journey, and lately I've been thinking about it as three distinct parts.
The first is songwriting — reading about the craft, actually writing songs, going to songwriter circles and jams, and taking in feedback and suggestions from other writers I trust.
The second is guitar playing — improving technique, learning music theory, understanding how songs are actually put together, and putting in the drill work it takes to build real muscle memory.
The third is vocals, and this is the one I'm still getting comfortable admitting. I was never really a singer growing up. I didn't start singing in any serious way until I moved to Santa Fe, so there's a lot of room to grow here, and I'm trying to be honest with myself about that.
So how do I work on it? Vocal exercises — learning to actually hit the right notes at the right time, on key.
Here's the funny part, though: it's not just about doing the exercises regularly, it's about finding the right place to do them. Sitting in my office at home doing vocal warmups has not really worked for me. Nobody particularly wants to hear it — it's repetitive and honestly kind of monotonous — and it takes a level of focus that's hard to find sitting still at a desk.
What I've landed on is my car. Where we live, everything is about 20 minutes away — a bike ride, the grocery store, getting gas, my guitar lesson. Turns out 20 minutes is close to the perfect amount of time to get through a full set of vocal exercises. I can sing them with total abandon, nobody's around to be annoyed by it, and by the time I park, I've actually gotten the work in.
So one of the more unexpected pieces of my practice routine these days: getting in the car and singing my heart out. 🎶🚗