I wanted to share 3 quick tips for making singing goals in this new year. I know that this is a time of reflection where a lot of us are setting resolutions. For singing, the most important thing that we can do is set little manageable goals for ourselves.

Tip #1 – Break your singing goals up into bite-sized pieces.

My first tip is to break your goals up into bite sized pieces. For example, if you have a big goal of recording an EP or an album this year, I would highly recommend breaking it into how many songs are you going to work on each month or even each week. So if you’re trying to record 12 songs by August, that’s easy to do the math on that, right? Because you’re going to be having to record two to three songs a week and whether you’re trying to be done on this first or August 30th. But making sure that you don’t wait until July to record all of your songs. Really working on those songs each month is going to build up to this bigger goal of recording the entire album.

A lot of times we go, we write down a really big goal. That’s not super feasible to just complete by itself. You have to break that goal into smaller steps.

Tip #2 – Make sure you have a time deadline on your singing goals.

For example, if you are trying to find a new voice teacher, you could say “By the end of February, I’m going to have taken/try lessons with a couple of teachers and chosen a new voice teacher by the end of February.” That gives you a really easy timeline to stick with. You won’t be there on the last day of February, not even having a trial lesson. So time is really important.

Put an end date on it. This isn’t to make yourself feel bad about not accomplishing it if you can’t meet your deadline, but you’re much more likely to move into action. If you have set a deadline for yourself to try to meet, and then you actually try to meet that deadline with the resources that you have possible.

Tip #3 – Make your goals trackable.

If you’re trying to have a goal that you want to sing better, that’s not a great goal, right? Because it’s pretty hard to track. You’re probably getting better, but it’s very difficult to say like, “Oh yes, by this day, I’m definitely going to be singing better”. If you make a goal that is trackable, you can say “I would like to be able to sing this new song that I’m working on by the middle of the month” –  that is a trackable goal!

You can’t just say like, “I want to sound better” or “I am going to feel more confident”. We need to be able to track the goals to see if we are meeting them or not. One really great goal is “I am going to practice four times a week for 30 minutes”. Okay. That’s trackable. It is time-based. We’re not setting a deadline but we are saying, this is how long I’m going to practice for. We’re saying each week we’re going to do this, right? So that is a really good goal for some of you that are struggling with practicing. Don’t make a crazy goal. Just make your goal to practice four times a week for 30 minutes. It’s really that simple. That is an amazing goal.

Another goal that you could have for this year is investing a certain amount in your singing. So for me, I set aside a certain amount every month for voice lessons or for coachings that helped propel me forward in my singing career. I know that I’m setting aside that amount of money that has to be spent on my voice teacher, my coach, trying out other voice teachers, sending in auditions and stuff like that. I know that I’m going to stick with it and I’m going to keep myself accountable that way.

Another goal might be that you want to send in a certain amount of audition tapes this year or recordings. So one year my goal was to submit at least 50 applications for programs and for performances – and that was tough! The better way to even make that huge of a goal is to say, I’m going to submit 10 applications or auditions every month or 8 a month, or however many that add up to the full amount, because otherwise you’re going to get to the fall.

Those are just a couple of examples of goals that would be really great for you to make this year. But of course, I want you to make your own singing goals. So what are one or more of your singing goals for 2021? I can’t wait to hear them and I’ll be sharing my goals with you as well.