I’ve told you that I am immensely lazy, and I hope you are beginning to believe it!  Take the holidays, for instance.  My favorite time of year – pretty much the same music year after year.  Once you learn it, you are good…f-o-r-e-v-e-r! (cue maniacal laughter).

Holiday music – easy-peasy.  Or is it?  Same thing with your regular repertoire, of course, but it’s at the holidays it becomes really clear.  There are still loads of things you can do wrong – here are just 10:

1. Don’t start practicing until right before you have to deliver.  After all, you’ve played it all before, so it won’t take too much time.  By assuring you don’t have enough time to practice everything you will be left feeling less confident – and who doesn’t like to perform feeling less than ready?  It also assures you don’t actually know the music cold – especially important because everyone you play for will definitely know the tunes, so you really have to deliver.
2. Don’t add any new tunes.  One sure way to keep it dry is to play the same stuff year after year after year after…  That way all the tunes can be stale and as boring to you as you can get them.  And that won’t show when you play – really.
3. Don’t keep up your “non-holiday” repertoire.  By the time the holidays are actually occurring, the people you’re playing for definitely won’t have been hearing holiday music since Halloween and they won’t be sick of the stuff.  And you won’t want to keep their interest by including a few non-holiday tunes, just to keep it fresh for them.
4. Play everything like you always have. One of the best things about leaving practicing until the last minute is that you also won’t have time to insert some new ideas and you really won’t be able to work on new arrangements…and that way everything can be boring!
5. Pick one holiday and stick with it.  After all, it’s not like people from varied traditions don’t all have holidays at the winter solstice time.  If you are in a widely diverse community or if you know you are likely to need music from different traditions – you wouldn’t want to be ready to serve everyone.
6. Spend all your practice time on tunes. After all, what else is there to practice?  Working on exercises and technique builders certainly won’t help you play or learn new music.
7. Don’t think ahead to next year.  It will be so much better to come out of the holiday season flat footed.  After all the hubbub of the season, you will not experience a motivational low or just the doldrums of the dead of winter, so failing to think ahead will definitely keep you from getting off to a good start in 2021.
8. Definitely play all one type of tune.  There are so few options at the holidays that you will definitely want to only play Christmas carols.  Or the old tried-and-true Christmas songs.  That way you and everyone you play for can be railroaded into boredom.
9. It’s just your family, it doesn’t have to be musical.  After all, they’ll have heard you practicing day after day –they won’t really need anything special from you.  So definitely just bang out the notes but don’t waste time on making it musical, just for them.
10. Don’t forget that gifts are all about stuff – so no one (family, friends) would want a gift you’re your gift…or would they?

I know there are many other ways to do it wrong – at the holidays or any time through the year.  Let me know in the comments what I forgot…and what I got wrong!