TakeLessons Shares Guide for Setting SMART Musical Goals

Online, January 1, 2012 (Newswire.com) - 2012 is here, and it's the perfect time to think ahead and write down resolutions and goals for the upcoming year.

TakeLessons (http://takelessons.com), the nation's fastest growing music lessons provider, took the opportunity to share a helpful blog post full of thought-starters and tips for setting S.M.A.R.T. goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. By establishing some concrete criteria for measuring each goal, TakeLessons explained that musicians will be able to better evaluate if they met that goal. For example, don't just say "Practice more." How many times per week? How long should each practice session be? Break each goal down into attainable chunks, get even more specific with the exact steps, and write down a realistic timeline for completing each step.

The following is an excerpt from the list of thought-starters that were posed to readers:

"- What do you want to get out of playing your instrument?
- If you could do anything you wanted with your instrument (and had the skills to pull it off), what would you do?
- What kind of places do you want to be performing at in 6 months? 3 years? 5 years?
- Do you want to travel around the world to perform? Or stay in your home town?
- To what specific places do you want to travel when you play?
- Do you want to perform your own original songs or cover songs written by other people?
- Do you want to be paid as a musician, or just do it for the enjoyment of playing?
- If you want to get paid to play, do you want to do this full-time or only part-time while you pursue something else?
- What size audiences do you want to be performing for in 6 months? 3 years? 5 years?
- What specific techniques do you want to be able to perform?
- By what date do you want to be able to perform them?
- What songs do you want to be able to play?
- What honors and awards do you want to receive?
- How do you want to share your skills and knowledge with younger, up-and-coming musicians?"

By sharing the tips with blog readers, TakeLessons hopes to continue engaging current students and help with any musical goals they may have. Readers are invited to share their thoughts by commenting on the TakeLessons blog, where they can also read tips for reflecting on the past year, and comments are also welcomed on Facebook (http://facebook.com/takelessons).