Raise your hand if you ever feel like you’re just spinning your wheels in the practice room and not getting anywhere. Or if there isn’t enough time to touch on all of the things you need (or want) to work on for upcoming gigs and your musical growth. Or if you’re a bit overwhelmed by having too many career goals. Or if you feel spread thin in your professional social media efforts.
My hand is raised over here for all of the above.
Enter our next mental model for musicians: The Pareto Principle, also commonly known as The 80/20 Rule. This phenomenon was first observed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in the late 19th century. He noticed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of its population. Over time, this idea expanded into a general principle: in many situations, 80% of outcomes come from 20% of efforts or inputs. Its applications are endless.
Maybe that 80/20 is sometimes actually 75/25. Maybe its 90/10 in some situations. Whatever the ratio, when applied to music or any area of life, it’s all about focusing on the smallest things that make the biggest differences.
Quick side note and shout out: I’m not the only musician to hype this approach. If you’re a drummer and dig this concept, I encourage you to check out Nate Smith, aptly-monikered The 80/20 Drummer. He has a wealth of resources to help drummers streamline their practice routines and achieve musical goals more efficiently. A man after my own heart…
In the Practice Room
Let’s take a look at a number of factors that might lead us to consider applying The 80/20 Rule in the time we allot for practice.
Technical Mastery: Exercises such as rudiments, scales, arpeggios, and other patterns can feel endless (and often are). Focusing on the few key exercises that address your biggest personal weaknesses can make for far faster improvement.
Plateauing in Skill Development: When your progress stagnates even when putting in plenty of practice time, it’s quite likely a sign that you’re spending too much time on less effective activities. As just above here, identifying the few areas that are holding you back (and focusing only on those) just might seriously jumpstart some growth.
Burnout or Fatigue: If those long, unfocused practice sessions without real progress are leading to exhaustion, this streamlining of your efforts––to focus on the most critical skills––can not only reduce burnout but can also make practicing enjoyable again!
Time Constraints: You’ve also got band rehearsals, gigs, teaching, and (hopefully) a personal life to squeeze into the week. Balancing all of these leaves limited time for improvement. Applying 80/20 helps focus your practice on the areas that will have most impact, achieving more in less time.
And if time constraints aren’t an issue for you and you have all the time in the world to practice, all the better (and the rest of us are envious). The 80/20 Rule can still be valuable to apply. In this case, it may not be a tool to simply help you work smarter rather than harder. It also allows you to work harder on smarter things. Jackpot!
Out of the Practice Room
The use of this concept doesn’t stop with technical skill building. It can be applied over and over again in so many areas of our careers. Here are a handful of examples.
Overwhelm from Too Many Goals: Juggling too many simultaneous goals (building a private lesson roster; booking a regional tour; writing a new album of songs; growing a fanbase for the band) can dilute progress in all of the areas and lead to utter exhaustion. But sometimes you have to have eggs in many different baskets at the same time, especially when many of us wear so many of the hats in our music careers. The 80/20 principle helps prioritize the 20% of your tasks that will bring the biggest results in each area.
Songwriting and Composing: Instead of endlessly tweaking every element of a composition––or getting stuck in Analysis Paralysis mode––focus on the 20% (melody, groove, and/or hook) that defines your song and makes it memorable. Then record, release, rinse, and repeat. Get your music out there!
Networking and Collaboration: Not all connections lead to opportunities. That, of course, is beyond okay… and relationships should never be considered transactional. But it is true that about 20% of your professional contacts will bring about 80% of the meaningful collaborations that can elevate your music career more effectively. Go forth and choose wisely.
Building an Audience: In promoting your music––or yourself as a player––not all social media platforms, strategies, or tactics yield the same results. We’ll discuss the vital differences between strategies and tactics for musicians in a future letter. For now, focus on the 20% of marketing efforts that bring 80% of your audience engagement. Perhaps that means focusing on only Instagram, if that’s where you see the most traction, and ditching the others for now. The goal here is to grow without [too much] wasted effort.
Gear and Equipment Choices: Many musicians spend a lot of time testing gear, tweaking settings, or shopping for new instruments. Some even fall into the trap of continually chasing new gear in hopes that the next snare drum or guitar will make them sound better. While a quality instrument emanating a quality sound can indeed be a game changer, spoiler alert: Nothing but practice and experience make you actually play better. And instruments aren’t cheap. Recognizing that 80% of your sound (and the work you do) might come from just 20% of your gear can save massive amounts of time and money.
A personal example in regards to those last two paragraphs: There is one friend/engineer/producer here in Portland who I consider in my 20% that regularly contributes greatly to my 80% of work (hi, Tim!). Pareto at work there. On top of that, I know that when I’m recording for him, he will nearly always want me to use one of two particular snare drums. We’ve chatted about this on numerous occasions and they just work for him. 20% of the ten snares I have in my studio right now, on at least 80% of his tracks? There’s that Pareto again!
Questions, Questions, Questions
Ultimately, only you can decide which of your efforts generate the outcomes you seek, and which do not. Only you can decide where time and energy are currently being wasted. To help make some of those decisions (and choose how you might apply The 80/20 Rule), I want to leave you with a list of questions to ask yourself.
Skip those that don’t apply to you. Edit/alter any as you see fit. Ruminate on those that speak to you. Move forward accordingly.
And come back to these questions from time to time. Your answers will probably (and should) be different each time you revisit them.
- What 20% of my practice time produces 80% of my improvement?
- What 20% of all possible techniques, styles, etc. are most useful on the gigs I play? (and the gigs I would like to be playing)
- What’s one recurring challenge or weakness that, if improved, would elevate my overall musicianship?
- How can I make my practice sessions more intentional and efficient?
- What 20% of my non-musical activities inspire the greatest amount of my songwriting? (or my most impactful or successful songs)
- What’s one non-musical habit I could adopt to free up more time for meaningful practice or creativity?
- Am I overcomplicating my arrangements or recordings instead of focusing on the core idea?
- How can I simplify my production process to finish projects more efficiently?
- Which 20% of my network is responsible for 80% of my gigs, collaborations, or opportunities?
- What parts of my music career (gigging, recording, teaching, etc.) are driving most of my income or opportunities?
- What parts of my music promotion (social media, email, in-person networking) bring the most audience growth or engagement or new gigs?
- Are there tasks I’m spending time on that I could automate, delegate, or altogether stop?
- Which areas of my playing or career bring me the most joy or fulfillment, and how can I prioritize those?
What’s one way you’ll apply The 80/20 Rule to your music this week? Comment below to share about it and let’s amplify your efforts together!
Happy music making–
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Comments
2 responses to “The 80/20 Rule for Musicians: Work Smarter, Not Harder”
I was taught that you can sing sitting down, but it is unadvisable to sit while warming up or doing exercises. You get better access and control of your diaphragm and pelvic floor while standing. Also, you’ll probably have to stand during performances. This is where I have time constraints. Standing. Standing in one spot is the bane of my existence. By the time I am done with those exercises, I need to rest and can’t stand for song practice. To address this I am going to assign exercises to specific days, then practice songs on the other days. It’s hard to accept that I can’t do it all, at least not in one day, but I think this will be helpful. (I emailed my response to last week’s post, but I’m not sure if it worked.)
Splitting those up sounds like a smart move for you! At least for now, until you’re able to work up to combining all of it in one go. I look forward to hearing how that goes for you. Thanks, Lisa!
(and I’ll go check for that other reply right now)