How to Maintain Your Talents (and learn more things!)



Hello everyone. :)

While talking with a friend earlier this week, we discussed the need for intentionality and consistency ( definitions for these words: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/intentionality  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consistency )in order to gain and maintain talents and skills.

As a musician who greatly values playing the piano and reading written music, and who, for the past  eight years has been dealing with physical issues which make it hard for me to do these things (particularly playing the piano) often and for long durations, I have found that intentionality and consistency have greatly aided me in maintaining and expanding these musical gifts.

Below, I will summarize how I personally go about maintaining and expanding my musical gifts and other pursuits as well.

1.  I LOVE daily schedules with checkboxes! I like to make daily goals for myself. I have a notebook in which I write daily, numbered schedules with checkboxes.

2.  I don't need to do everything every day, but I do need to be making progress on my goals. I do lots of mental music practice (reading sheet music and "practicing" songs in my head; it really helps me) music theory (which is basically an in-depth study of how to read and write music) and I also mentally practice old piano recordings I've made.  I don't study everything every day, and sometimes, I don't review anything musical in a day, BUT I rotate musical topics so that I make sure that I am at least maintaining, and hopefully building upon, my musical skills on a regular basis. With God's help, I have found this method to be very effective.

3. Never stop learning. If I don't know how to do something and I want to learn how to do it, I google for answers, reach out to friends who might have some advice, watch YouTube videos etc. I have been able to fix glitches on computers on my own a couple of times by visiting online tech forums and trying out suggested solutions.

Recently, I joined an online forum called the "Make Music" forum. https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/topics It is for people who use various kinds of musical software. I am currently getting the hang of using the musical notation software, "Finale" and appreciate having the opportunity to dialogue with (talk with) other musicians who have been using the software.

I just want to say: tenacity, hard work and perseverance are valuable assets to anyone's life.



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I have A LOT to learn. I make many mistakes, but with Jesus's help, I will never stop learning. God made us all beings who need to learn and grow. The name of this blog is, "In Progress". This name describes my belief about how life should be lived. I hope and pray that all of our lives will continually be in progress; spiritually, mentally and physically. God wants us all to grow into the dignity and nobility He created us to have.

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Piano photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-piano-keys-1516903/ Photo by Karyme França from Pexels

 Sheet music photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/printed-musical-note-page-164821/

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Note: I have provided definitions for some words because I realize that some of my readers may have limited vocabularies. I want them to both be able to understand my articles and to learn some new words along the way. (I figured that many people with decent to excellent vocabularies might not know what music theory is)

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