5 Pieces Of Advice I’d Give To My Past Musical Self

I can’t be the only person who has ever thought about what it would be like to spend some time with my past self and more importantly, what I’d say! This pandemic has given me some time for reflection so I thought I’d share the five main pieces of advice I’d give to my past musical self.

Have more disciplined practice

I started playing the piano from a very young age. The young age came with a lack of maturity when it came to practicing my craft and unfortunately some of those habits were hard to kick for a long time. If I could see 16 year old Gary again I would force him to focus on technique and learning pieces outside of his comfort zone instead of constantly going back to comfortability of what he already knows!

Learn to sight read a lot sooner (from the start!)

Ask any of my musical friends and they’ll tell you that my sight reading and theory hasn’t always been the best. I’ve been blessed with the ability of a great musical ear and being able to pick up a song within a few minutes, young Gary decided that due to this, learning to read those funny dots on the page was a complete waste of time, oh how WRONG was he! Since being at university and teaching Piano myself, I’ve started to see the true value and importance of being able to understand and explain what it is you’re writing or playing!

Take your degree more seriously

When I first started my degree I was like a deer in headlights! I’d just finished my final date of the year with The Signatures and drove from Skegness to home and then to Colchester for my induction day. I spent the first year trying to get to grips with the new grading system and the new level of work expected of me and I’m not ashamed to admit I struggled, this struggle carried on somewhat into the second year until a lecturer I really respected sat me down and basically told me to wake up and get it together “you’re better than this Gary, this isn’t good enough, do better please.” That hit me HARD and from then on I went into my third year full steam ahead! if I could go back to 19 year old Gary I would tell him that story and tell him to forget the gigging and focus on his future! Thankfully I’ve turned it around now and am on track but it could have been a lot worse!

Spend more time winding down

Again, any of my close friends will tell you the amount of conversations they’ve had with me revolving around me taking a break and stopping doing crazy hours. I eventually listened to them when I ended up with shingles after a month long run of shows at The Edinburgh Fringe which involved flying back to London for 24 hours to play keys for a different band and then going back to the fringe and continuing the shows, NEVER AGAIN! If I saw younger Gary I would tell him that gigging so much that you run yourself into the ground is just not worth it, your physical and mental health needs to come first and there is nothing wrong with saying no and spending a few weekends a year in the beer garden with your mates!

Don’t be afraid of not being good enough

This is something I still struggle with to this day but I have become better at managing it. I used to be intimidated by musicians that were better than me and it used to make me feel worthless but now I simply admire it. To the younger Gary I would say to be patient and continue to work hard on your weaker areas, don’t be afraid of asking for help and that most importantly you will improve musically and educationally as you mature and these improvements will be noticed by other people way before you notice them! You will never ever be done with learning and growing, rather than running from it, embrace it and magic will happen!

I hope this honest list will help those that read it learn to improve themselves and recognise the importance of self-reflection!