The holidays are behind us, and a fresh year stretches out ahead—full of possibility for your playing. Whether you’re picking banjo, sawing fiddle, chopping mandolin, or holding down the rhythm on bass or guitar, the New Year offers a chance to set intentions and grow as a musician.
Setting resolutions helps you stay focused on specific goals and gives you a sense of purpose. The challenge? Actually sticking to them. Studies show only about 8% of people maintain their resolutions past the first couple weeks.
The good news: with the right approach and effective methods, you can build new habits and achieve long-term goals. This year is rich with opportunities to become a more skilled player and a more well-rounded musician.
Here are ten resolutions worth considering for 2026:
1. Set Meaningful, Achievable Goals
If you know where you want to go, it’s much easier to figure out how to get there. Think about what you genuinely want to achieve as a musician this year. Do you want to nail your backup playing? Get comfortable taking breaks? Learn to sing harmony while you play? Get specific.
Set concrete goals rather than vague aspirations. Instead of “get better at my instrument,” try “learn to play backup confidently through a standard jam set” or “master three new fiddle tunes in different keys.” When your goal is something you actually want—not just something you think you should want—you’re far more likely to stick with it.
Lay Down a Clear Path
Once you have your goal, determine what steps will get you there. For many players, structured lessons can accelerate progress significantly. Quality instruction helps you stay consistent through accountability, gives you a customized approach based on your current abilities, helps eliminate bad habits before they become ingrained, and introduces you to techniques and concepts you might never discover on your own.
ArtistWorks offers comprehensive curricula across all the core bluegrass instruments—banjo with Tony Trischka, mandolin with Mike Marshall, flatpick guitar with Bryan Sutton, upright bass with Missy Raines, fiddle with Darol Anger, dobro with Andy Hall, and bluegrass vocals with Michael Daves. Each course is taught by Grammy-winning or IBMA-recognized master musicians who have poured their entire knowledge into comprehensive video libraries.
Measure Your Progress
How will you know you’ve improved? Set benchmarks. After a month of focused practice, you might measure progress by sitting in at a local jam, performing a tune you couldn’t play before, or recording yourself and hearing the difference. Some goals might feel intimidating at first, but breaking them into smaller steps makes them achievable.
Want to take confident solos at a jam? Start by learning the melody to a standard tune. Then work on simple variations. Practice over backing tracks until it feels natural. Eventually, bring it to a slow jam and give it a try.
Track Your Time
Time management trips up most people. You wake up planning to practice, then realize at bedtime that it never happened. A practice schedule solves this. Be realistic about duration and timing—on busy days, even fifteen minutes counts. Set calendar reminders on your phone to help you commit.
2. Practice with a Metronome
A metronome is one of the most valuable tools any musician can own, and it’s especially critical in bluegrass where solid time is everything. Free metronome apps work perfectly fine if you’re on a budget.
Learning to play with a metronome can feel frustrating at first, but it will quickly make you a better player. The device functions like a mirror: if you notice timing issues while playing with it, those issues were always there—you just hadn’t noticed. That’s useful information.
Start slow and gradually increase tempo as the pattern becomes comfortable. If you can play a tune cleanly at 100 BPM this week, aim for 110 BPM next week. For backup playing, practice locking in your chop or your bass notes right on the beat until it becomes second nature.
Record Yourself
Recording your playing helps you hear yourself objectively and creates a catalog of your progress over time. Even a simple voice memo on your phone works. Listen back critically—you’ll catch things you never noticed while playing.
ArtistWorks takes this a step further with their Video Exchange platform. You can submit videos of your playing and receive personalized video feedback directly from your instructor. It’s like having a world-class teacher review your practice sessions and offer specific guidance on how to improve.
3. Keep a Practice Journal
A practice journal helps you track progress and spot patterns in your learning. You can see how long different skills take to develop, which helps you plan realistic schedules going forward.
Your journal doesn’t have to be a physical notebook—a notes app on your phone works fine. Daily entries might include the date and time, specific areas you practiced (and for how long), challenges you encountered and potential solutions, and new insights about your playing.
Bring your journal to every practice session. Having a place to capture ideas encourages active thinking about your progress rather than mindless repetition. Note which tunes are giving you trouble, what tempos you’re working at, and what breakthroughs you’ve had.
4. Create a Dedicated Practice Space
A dedicated practice space visualizes your commitment and encourages more frequent, productive sessions with fewer distractions. The space doesn’t need to be large—just enough room for the essentials.
Useful gear for your practice space includes a comfortable chair or stool at the right height for your instrument, a sturdy music stand, a way to play backing tracks or recordings, and your instrument on a stand where you can see it and grab it easily.
For acoustic instruments, pay attention to humidity—especially during winter. Dry air causes wood to shrink, warp, and crack. If you notice intonation problems or buzzing, consider adding a humidifier to your case or practice room.
5. Perform Something This Year
Stage fright is one of the most common obstacles for musicians. The only way through it is exposure—playing in front of people helps you gain confidence, even when you make mistakes. The more you perform, the more comfortable you’ll become.
Places to Start
Bluegrass jams are the traditional training ground. Find a slow jam or beginner-friendly session where you can ease in without pressure. Many communities have regular jams at music stores, churches, or community centers—search local bluegrass associations or Facebook groups to find them.
Open mic nights at coffee shops or bars offer another low-pressure environment. The atmosphere is relaxed, and people are typically eating or socializing rather than focusing intensely on your performance.
If you’re feeling ambitious, look into local festivals that have open stage times, or organize a living room picking session with friends. The key is to get your music in front of other ears—any ears—on a regular basis.
6. Learn Your Instrument’s Role in the Band
Bluegrass is ensemble music. Understanding your role in the band context—when to drive, when to lay back, when to fill, when to stay out of the way—is just as important as technical chops.
Spend time listening critically to classic recordings. Pay attention to what each instrument is doing during verses, choruses, and solos. Notice how the best players support the singer and the lead instrument without stepping on them.
If you play a lead instrument like banjo, mandolin, or fiddle, make sure you’re also solid on backup. If you play guitar or bass, focus on being rock-steady—the band depends on you. Courses like Bryan Sutton’s flatpick guitar lessons and Missy Raines’ bass lessons emphasize these ensemble skills alongside technique.
7. Learn to Play by Ear
Bluegrass has always been an aural tradition. The ability to hear a tune and figure it out on your instrument is invaluable—at jams, in sessions, and in your own musical development.
Start simple. Pick a tune you know well and try to find the melody on your instrument without looking at tab. Slow recordings down (apps like Amazing Slow Downer make this easy) and work through phrases one at a time. It’s painstaking at first, but your ear gets stronger with practice.
Work on identifying chord progressions too. Most bluegrass tunes use predictable patterns—once you can hear where the I, IV, and V chords fall, you can follow along with almost any standard tune.
ArtistWorks instructors like Michael Daves emphasize ear training as a core skill. His bluegrass vocals course includes extensive work on hearing harmony parts and developing the musical ear that lets you blend with other singers and players.
8. Learn a Tune in a New Style or from a Different Era
Becoming a well-rounded player means expanding beyond your comfort zone. This year, commit to exploring music you haven’t spent much time with.
If you mostly play driving Scruggs-style banjo, explore melodic or single-string techniques. If you’re a flatpicker who sticks to contest-style playing, dig into some Carter-style rhythm work. If you’ve focused on contemporary progressive bluegrass, go back and learn some Stanley Brothers or early Flatt & Scruggs arrangements note for note.
Cross-pollination makes you a more versatile and interesting player. Tony Trischka’s banjo curriculum covers everything from Earl Scruggs fundamentals to avant-garde techniques—because understanding the full range of what’s possible on your instrument opens up your own playing.
9. Take Care of Your Body
Playing music is a physical activity, and repetitive strain injuries are more common among musicians than many people realize. Taking care of your body now prevents problems later.
Pay attention to tension while you play. Are your shoulders creeping up? Is your fretting hand cramping? These are signs to stop, stretch, and reassess your posture and technique.
Warm up before playing—some gentle stretches for your hands, wrists, and shoulders make a difference. Take breaks during long practice sessions. If something hurts, don’t push through it.
Good technique isn’t just about sound—it’s about sustainability. Learning proper form from experienced teachers helps you avoid the bad habits that lead to injury down the road.
10. Find Your People
Music is social. Finding a community of like-minded players motivates you to improve, exposes you to new ideas, and makes the whole journey more enjoyable.
Join or Start a Band
Playing in a band is one of the fastest ways to improve. You learn to listen, to lock in with other players, to arrange tunes, and to perform under pressure. Even a casual picking group that meets weekly will push your playing forward.
If you can’t find an existing band, put one together. Post on local bluegrass forums, put up a flyer at the music store, or ask around at jams. You don’t need to be great—you just need to be committed to showing up and getting better together.
Get an Accountability Partner
An accountability partner provides support and helps you structure your time. Find a friend who’s also working on their playing. Share your goals, check in regularly, and encourage each other through the inevitable plateaus and frustrations.
The ArtistWorks community offers this kind of support too. Beyond the instructor feedback, you can browse the Video Exchange archives to see how other students are progressing, what challenges they’re facing, and how the instructors are helping them break through.
Strategies for Sticking to Your Resolutions
Setting goals is easy. Maintaining new activities long enough to form positive habits is the real challenge. Here’s what works:
Identify your goals and the activities that will get you there. The ultimate goal is to become a better musician. Determine the most realistic path based on your schedule and resources.
Be clear about how new activities fit into your life. If you want to sit in confidently at jams by summer, plan backward from there. What do you need to work on each month to get there?
Be specific about your goals and habits. “Practice more” isn’t a plan. “Practice backup playing for 20 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday evening” is a plan.
Eliminate habits that don’t serve your goals. When practice gets frustrating, scrolling through your phone is easier than pushing through. Leave distractions in another room. Replace unproductive habits with activities that move you forward.
Create commitment structures. Sign up for lessons in advance. Tell your jam buddies you’re working on a particular tune and you’ll have it ready by next month. Schedule practice sessions on your calendar like appointments.
Prepare for setbacks. Life happens. If you miss a day, don’t let it become a week. Have a backup plan—maybe a shorter practice routine for busy days, or a list of things you can work on with just ten minutes.
Make 2026 Your Year
The resolutions that stick are the ones connected to genuine desire. Choose goals that excite you, break them into achievable steps, and build systems that keep you accountable.
Bluegrass is a lifelong pursuit. There’s always another tune to learn, another technique to explore, another level to reach. That’s what makes it so rewarding.
If you can dream it, you can achieve it. Here’s to a year of growth, music, and becoming the player you want to be.
Ready to get started? Explore ArtistWorks and learn from Grammy-winning masters who are ready to guide your journey—with personalized video feedback on your playing, comprehensive lesson libraries, and a worldwide community of fellow bluegrass enthusiasts.