How To Make The Most Of Your Isolation | tonebase Tips
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Isolation is a word that we know well as classical musicians.
Most of our lives involve at least some kind of self inflicted isolation due to the amount of hours we spend practicing, let alone the amount of time practicing really takes and the energy it leaves behind to spend socializing.
In these months, where the threat of COVID-19 means that social distancing and self isolation are becoming necessities leading to cancelled concerts, festivals and lessons, it is easy to panic.
But what if we could use this time to explore new possible angles on our careers, to take extra time to be savvy? Here are some ideas for how to use self isolation to your advantage this corona virus season.
1. Catch Up On Those Emails
If you are one of those people with thousands of emails cluttering up their inbox, take an afternoon to clear out the spam and flag the messages you need to respond to.
Now is also a good time to unsubscribe from mailing lists of companies that you only signed up to to get a 10% discount on your first purchase, and things that you aren’t interested in hearing from. In a job where being savvy with communication is key, having a clean inbox is like having a tidy desk.
2. Organize Your Work Space
It’s not just your inbox that needs a spring clean! Most of us accumulate stuff, a lot of stuff, sheet music, nail files, nail paper, strings, the list is endless.
When we practice it is easy for our minds to feel cluttered with the information we are taking in, needless to say a cluttered practice space will only overwhelm us further.
Take the time in the next weeks to clean up your practice area to the best of your ability, perhaps ordering some folders to organize those scores that are piling up in the corner. Organize your music by letter and by era to make your life easier!
3. Strategize Your Business Model
As artists, we can often find it difficult to pinpoint what exactly we are in terms of business, but now is a good time, however difficult it may be, to reflect on how appropriate our work model is in modern times.
Is the lock down proving that without concerts we do not have a career? Do we have savings? Can we afford this time off?
Sit down with a pen and paper and try to strategize your career into things that can still give revenue during down periods. After all, even though this shutdown is worldwide, there may be times in our lives where we will need to stop working for many months, perhaps during pregnancy or a burnout.
How can we create an economic buffer so that the next time something like this presents itself, we don’t fall off the ladder immediately.
4. Address Your Habits
It can be easy to fall into bad habits as a musician, a lot of travel leads our sleep habits in disarray, odd working hours can leave us eating unhealthy food and often at weird times.
While many of us have a full two weeks of isolation ahead of us, now could be a good time to look at which habits we can realistically change.
Without work pushing us into late night practice, could we look at morning and daytime practice and leave the evenings and nights instead for bedtime rituals and a good night’s sleep?
5. Maintenance
Welcome to two work-free weeks! Who can say when they are going to have that again…?
Time to catch up on sleep, drink water, eat enough, and maybe do some maintenance on your instrument. Now is a good time to polish your guitar, change the strings, clean the fretboard and check overall for issues.
Now is also a good time to plan ahead, what projects can you organize? What program do you need to prepare? Is now a good time to re-address your practice habits?
Situations like this are nightmares for the self employed, and panic is a normal reaction, but at the end of the day we must adhere to government regulations, for our own safety as much as that of the people around us who are at risk.
Hopefully you can use this time to your advantage, in reality we can all probably benefit in some way from the time off, if not for our pockets then at least for our mental health. Sending best wishes all around the world! Stay safe.
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About The Writer — Rosie Bennet
Born in London in 1996, Rosie started playing guitar at age seven. She received her early musical education at The Yehudi Menuhin School of Music and went on to study with Zoran Dukic (The Hague, NL), Johan Fostier (Tilburg, NL), Rene Izquierdo (Milwaukee, USA) and Raphaella Smits (Leuven, BE). She has performed in festivals all over Europe, including Open Guitar Festival in Křivoklát, Czech Republic, Glasgow’s Big Guitar Weekend, Scotland, Porziano Music Festival, Italy and the West Dean guitar Festival, UK. Highlights of her concert career include performances at Wigmore Hall, London, The North Wall, Oxford and concerts given on El Camino De Santiago.
