If you’ve ever wondered what you should be practicing, Juergen Reiter (a composer, bassist, producer from Germany), offers some advice over at the Music Think Tank.

His advice? Limit what you practice.

He says the advice young musicians are given to practice many styles of music to broaden their perspective is nothing more than bad advice. He claims that every successful musician he ever met had dedicated himself to one specific genre or style and by focusing narrowly on something they loved, they had not only mastered that style, but also increased their overall musicianship.

He’s not suggesting that once you have that one thing mastered, you stop learning. By no means! You just choose the next thing, but limit yourself to one thing at a time.

there are no limits to what you can learn if you limit yourself to one thing at a time!

Juergen says he has applied this idea to his own life with pleasing results.

I now practice less hours and less material but I accomplish faster results and greater musicianship than during all my years as a musician combined.

…

now I practice 2 hours a day including bass, voice and composing. since I started to set limitaions I manage to address all my life interests every day. (being a musician, composer, producer, running my label ORkAaN Music, my publishing, gigs, rehearsals, and most importantly family life.

If you’ve been experiencing frustration with your practice, or the results of your practice, it might be worth your time to read his entire post and give it a try.