Tips for practicing a musical instrument with ADHD

So I’m (somehow) a professional classical musician and managed to eke my way through a music honours degree a couple of years ago, but I’ve always been terrible at practicing, hence the ‘somehow’. Like the ‘once every two weeks maybe kind of terrible. Since being diagnosed with ADHD a couple of months ago, this all now makes sense, but I would love to be able to practice more effectively and regularly. Does anyone have any music specific advice? I see an adhd coach who is helpful but doesn’t have the specific knowledge or experience for this particular struggle.

nottooserious

Nearly the same as pewpew. Often the solution is to start without the pressure to practice long. Just start. And when you play, just keep playing. Very often I make a rest and forget to practice more because of chatting or YouTube for example. Then be gentle and keep going with practicing. And also I allow myself at bad days to practice some basic skills while watching a movie. ;) And last but not least: use your creativity and improvise or try to feel what you want to play just for fun. (Some solo pieces or playing with a play along or with recordings of big inspiring musicians….) And laster but not leaster;) Enjoy the feeling of being proud of yourself about small progresses. Playing some phrases easier, development of sound, or just that you had a flow moment of working intense

cjzoinks

I really like these suggestions! I also always watch stuff with subtitles on so I’ll at least be able to understand the tv still. I remember I used to do this when I did my maths homework and so often actually enjoyed doing maths homework the most (it’s the one I actually normally always did) A lot of my stuff to practice atm is choir stuff too, so I’ll definitely be able to sing along. Thanks for the advice!

pewpew

That’s such a good advice! Keeping it fun besides the chore of exercising technical stuff once in a while. Switching of the metronome and just playing something easy and enjoyable. I also remember my father often playing guitar while watching tv, like you said. Maybe I will give that a try.

pewpew

My wife told me I could try to lower the bar, like break it down into smaller steps, instead of trying to motivate myself to exercise for an hour. For example sitting down, taking my instrument. If that feels okay, just play for 5 minutes. If five minutes are okay, thinking about what I need to really do and add 10 min to do that. If that leaves me at 5-15 minutes every day, its a start. I sometimes forget this approach but will try it again from now on :-)

cjzoinks

I do like this - I’m a singer so I can’t do the taking out the instrument part but can definitely do the sitting down! I think I need to find some more stuff I just like doing for fun too

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