Yo-Yo MA, has many times described the first piece he learned at the age of four: Bach’s Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major. The primary theme of the story is that he accomplished this impressive thing by learning just one measure of the Prelude each day.
This is an idea that has been expressed by many brilliant and successful people in many different ways. Another example comes from Will Smith in his story of building a wall as a child. He describes the lesson of focusing on laying the one brick as perfectly as you can and not thinking about the wall; listen to his words here.
Whether it is a step, a stone, a brick or a measure the message is the same: big feats are accomplished by small, incremental and persistent actions.
It is a lesson, I must confess, that has taken me a long time to absorb and to put into practice. Both with Music and in life, I have had a tendency to lose the trees for the forest. I would get so overwhelmed by the big picture and I would try to learn or create everything all at once.
This would inevitably lead to burn out or out right defeat and self-flagellation. And I don’t think I am alone in this experience. We, as a collective, seem to have this idea that a person’s abilities to create or contribute on a significant scale is some innate gift that is bestowed at birth.
But these things are all skills, and they can be learned.
We can foster within ourselves the patience and discipline required to accomplish the big goals in our careers and in our lives. We can work at abandoning our ego and recognizing that we don’t have to do everything all at once. We can practice kindness toward ourselves as we face the challenges that come with any ambitious pursuit and we can learn to trust that we are headed in the right direction.
One practical way we can apply this thinking is by taking the time to define our goals and work backwards to find those small, achievable, steps that ad up to the big picture. If you are, for example, producing a song or album this could mean breaking down the key details of the production process spread across your available timeline. This is what I have been doing for a current project, and it broke down kind of like this:
- # of tracks
- # of elements per track (I.e. parts including doubles)
- Stages: sketching, composition, production, mix, master, engraving, artwork and release
- # of days till deadline(s)
- Minimum # of elements to complete per day
- # of work/rest days per week
(Note: If you like this progress tracker, I have a free pdf template available here.)
As you can see, this idea has had a significant impact on my life. It is because of this lesson, that in the last year or so I have been able to produce an album from zero to pre-release (Coming: September 1, 2024), start a business and more.
In fact, the name of my business was inspired by this very idea: One Measure Music. There I sell high-quality, original concert repertoire for music educators. It’s the early days but I’m building it up slow and steady, brick by brick, one measure at a time.
Be well and see you on the next one!