🎻 I read this book for work, and ended up finding a ton of fiddle practice parallels

Hi Reader,

Coming at you with another book recommendation this week! Last year around this time, I had just finished reading Peak by K. Anders Ericsson, which covers the process of deliberate practice and what it takes to master a skill (like playing Irish traditional music).

This year I've been tapping back into the resource that is my local library, and reading a few books that have been on my wishlist for a time. One of those is Deep Work by Cal Newport.

You can imagine my eyes did a double take when Newport quoted Ericsson, and even pulled in the concept of deliberate practice as a similar idea to deep work!

I highly recommend giving both books a read if you have a chance, but even more so I would encourage you to find ways to adopt what they teach into your practice routine (and notice what you're already doing and take a moment to celebrate yourself -- you're doing really important skill building here)!

Deep Work walks you through the benefits of carving out undistracted time in your day to focus on doing work that is hard and not easily completed on a surface level.

As a fiddler (or other musician), this could look like...

• Learning a new tune by ear
• Listening to a tune many times through, with a set goal of what understanding you want to take away from the experience. Are you working on identifying intervals? Studying a particular player's ornament choices? Listening for the guitar line and seeing how the chord choices add variety to each time through the tune?
• Honing a technical skill that is currently beyond you: playing a passage fast and clean, third finger rolls, using the pinky fourth finger and playing it in tune... insert your own hurdle here!
• Writing out a tune as you listen to a recording of it.
• Memorizing the lyrics to a song

The list can go on!

I finished reading Deep Work on Monday this past week, and immediately made some changes to my schedule to allow for this time on a daily basis. I'm only a few days in, and I know it will be harder to stick to this some days than others, but I already feel a shift for the better.

With a Friday gig that I'll be recovering from as you read this, here's an example of what my Deep Work implementation looked like this week:

Tuesday: Memorized the lyrics for a new song we're performing at the gig, and memorized an arrangement we're doing with our special guests. I also spent a couple hours at the library to get out of the home office for a bit and do my customer support work there, and I time blocked my entire day -- even the evening relax time.

The trick with time blocking is that it's not meant to be restrictive i.e. "I must get this email written by 2pm Thursday or my whole day will be off." Rather, it's for intentionality so I know where I'm directing my focus next...

From 1:15 - 2:00 I'm drafting this email. At 2 I have a lesson, then I have a 90 minute gap between lessons to run our setlist in full for the gig. After my last lesson ends at 4:30, I'm going to the gym for my strength training block.

Apart from showing up for my lessons, it's okay if this changes between now and then. I'll pivot and make sure I have time to finish this email before scheduling it to land in your inbox Sunday morning, run the full setlist before the show, and lift heavy things either today or tomorrow.

(It's later as I'm writing this, so I chose to stick to my workout schedule and daily practice, and now I'm finishing up this letter on Friday!)

In implementing more deep work time into my week, I changed a few habits. Before, I would leave my email inboxes open in a tab for most of my work day even though I'd still only be checking and responding during certain windows. Now I'm keeping them fully closed and only checking in for 10-30 minutes each afternoon, so that I prioritize important responses, and leave the rest to sort out for a longer window at the end of the week.

Bear and I also stayed out late on Wednesday catching up and playing tunes with some friends who had a show in town, so that had an effect on the daily energy on Thursday and Friday. But life happens, and with the Deep Work mentality, I was able to get all my big tasks done and defer the rest!

If your Deep Work this week includes popping into the Tune Library, I've just added Drops of Brandy to our slip jigs section, and there is a tutorial for Devanney's Goat + a bonus training in our flexibility section coming up next! More on that bonus next week!

As a reminder -- your Deep Work doesn't have to look like mine. But I hope in documenting more of the details of this experiment from the past week, you find some inspiration or motivation of what your week could look like with a bit more focused time!

Happy focusing!

~Hannah