Since forming The Small Change Diaries I have increasingly become more aware about the importance of practice. Yes, I always understood this intellectually, but from playing in a band its blindingly obvious that if you want to improve as a musician, singer or songwriter, you need to dedicate ongoing time to skill development. I make a point of having instruments to hand on stands so I can pick them up at any time. I’m far more likely to pick up and play an instrument if its to hand rather than if its in a case. Sometimes just a few minutes playing can inspire a new melody or a riff, so I always like to have an instrument at arm’s length.
As well as individual practice it’s really useful to play with other artists if you want to really develop skills. With The Small Change Diaries Jessica Bowie and I meet every week for a couple of hours to work on and practice material. This is out longstanding formalized work time and we’ve been doing this for two and a half years. This investment in time has helped us really develop The Small Change Diaries sound. The full band meet every few weeks usually for 2 – 3 hours to work on arrangements. If we have upcoming gigs and especially overseas festivals like The Lagoa Guitar Festival in Portugal, we’ll meet more often.
As well as these practice sessions I have had specific vocal lessons as well as meeting up with other music teachers including Martin Simpson and Phil Doleman. All of this a significant investment of time and money, but 100% worth it. I’m fortunate in that my other work allows me to fund band activities and not have to sweat about generating income solely from music.
Ongoing and regular practice also means being prepared to step out of comfort zones and that’s usually when IMO we all really develop skills. There can be moments of both immense frustration as well as great inspiration. The key is to keep at it and always hang around artists with great skills maintaining a consistent and regular routine, come rain or shine.
the small change diaries