Stuck in a Musical Rut? TakeLessons Shows How to Break Free

Online, January 9, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Leave it to Coachella to put together such a diverse, mind-blowing line-up - headliners for this year's annual music festival are the Black Keys, Radiohead, and Snoop Dogg, with other acts including The Shins, Feist, Florence + the Machine, and At the Drive-In.

Anyone who has attended a music festival of this magnitude knows the indescribable feeling of being surrounded by thousands of other music fans. And besides seeing the top performers in the music world, checking out the up-and-comers is a great way to expand one's tastes, also. No matter what level - professional, beginner, or just a fan - sometimes discovering new acts is all it takes to break out of a musical rut.

TakeLessons (http://takelessons.com), the nation's fastest growing music lessons provider, took the opportunity to share a list of helpful tips on the TakeLessons blog for getting out of that dreaded musical rut - most not as pricey as a $285 Coachella ticket.

The following is an excerpt from the blog post:

"1. Compose. The best way to make yourself feel productive is to produce! Make yourself some deadlines and create musical ideas often, whether they're 2-measure licks or 2-hour symphonies.
2. Start a journal or blog. Even if you're working on some mundane finger exercise, you'll probably have some thoughts about it. Keeping a practice journal is a great way to track your progress and keep your current goals visible in the future.
3. Learn more songs. If you're worried that your abilities aren't improving, forget about it for a while and spend some time expanding your repertoire. Keep a list of all the songs you know, and add all the easy ones you can.
4. Practice in a new setting. Move to a different room. Go outside. Take your instrument on a trip.
5. Listen to something different. Try an internet music service like Last.fm or Spotify, click through the genres until you find some sub-sub-genre you've never heard of, and just listen for a few hours.
6. For guitarists, switch to lefty/righty. Some of the guitar's greatest masters unlocked their music by flipping a right-handed guitar over to be played left-handed. It's awkward, but you might discover something new.
7. Take a break. If you've been practicing constantly, try stopping for a while. You might come back like a slingshot.
8. Take up a new instrument. Simple enough!
9. Join a band. This is the best musical kick in the pants you can ever give yourself. You must uphold a commitment not only to your audience to perform well, but also to your bandmates to prepare for rehearsals and behave like a professional musician.
10. Go to a jam session. There is less commitment involved, but it gets you in front of listeners and meeting other musicians. "

By sharing the list with blog readers, TakeLessons hopes to continue engaging current students and help with any musical goals they may have. Readers are invited to share their thoughts by commenting on the blog, where they can also read tips for writing rap lyrics, and comments are also welcomed on Facebook (http://facebook.com/takelessons).