Sing Play Survive

Well it’s Thursday, and here at Sing Play Survive, that means another list of things you BETTER do while you still can. I wouldn’t recommend doing them during juries week (except for number 9), but they’ll all be great fun after.

Got some of your own to add? Please let me know in the comments.

If this is your first time here, you can also read Part I of this series.

6. Have a lazy “marathon” weekend

This is a great thing to do on a long weekend or over a holiday. Grab some friends, stock up on your favorite food and beverages, and take an entire day (or two) to do something like: watch an entire season/series of a favorite TV show, watch a movie trilogy, listen to the complete Beatles discography, have a Monopoly tournament, beat Guitar Hero on expert, etc.

There are a couple of rules for this one: save it for a weekend with bad weather, give yourself a day after to be productive and recover before starting another week of classes, and balance your Karma by spending another entire day volunteering with all of your friends.

7. Learn to function without caffeine
I’ll bet that colleges (and especially music schools) create more caffeine addicts each year than 10,000 Red Bull salesmen do in a lifetime. Between a demanding schedule, chronic sleep deprivation, and easy, campuswide access to fresh-brewed coffee and ice-cold Mountain Dew, it’s no surprise. If you’re on the road to addiction, take a few days off from caffeine here and there. Curb the habit before it owns you for life.

8. Spend time in the library (for fun)

Obviously this isn’t too hard for most music students. In fact, you probably wish you could spend LESS time there. But right now, you have access to a HUGE collection of books, vinyl, CDs, and DVDs all tailored to your interests as a musician. In four short years (or less), that stash won’t be so accessible, your Naxos login won’t work, and you’ll start to wish that all the time you spent in the library wasn’t just for assignments.

9. Practice. A lot.
This definitely falls into the, “think life’s busy now?” category, but even if you DO have time to keep practicing after college, finding a good practice space might be a little tricky. Not too many landlords are cool with you playing in their apartments, renting a practice room is pricy, and I DOUBT you’ll be buying your own house right out of college. As much as practicing can suck right now, it will be worse later if you wish you had done more of it and can’t.

10. Geek it up (musically)
Want to discuss Neapolitan 6th chords over lunch? Do it while you still have friends who know that you’re not talking about ice cream. It seems nerdy, but you’ll never have as many listening ears as you do right now. Talk about geeky music stuff as much as you can, in case you end up with non-musician co-workers who only talk about last night’s TV shows or what kind of fertilizer they use on their lawn.