Your host, Eleanor:
When I tell non-musicians that I practice for two or three hours every single day, they are often surprised and they also say that that sounds so boring. How could I possibly do that? I respond and say that it’s not boring and I actually enjoy it. But, to be honest, sometimes I just don’t want to practice, and I am sure that you have felt this way as well. You can ask any musician of any level or any instrument, and they will all tell you that they have had their boring practice sessions.
Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. I’m your host, Eleanor, and after countless practice sessions, a ton of broken reads and seven different music school acceptances in three different countries, I have learned a thing or two about savoring your practicing, becoming your best practice companion and actively working towards your musical goals, and I want to share this with you because I want you to become your best musical self. Are you with me on this? Let’s get started
Now, don’t get me wrong. We all love our instruments and our practice sessions are mostly really exciting and really interesting, and if they’re not, we work towards getting them exciting and interesting. But for those practice sessions which never seem to end and seem so stale, I have three innovative ways to shake up that practice session and make it fresh and exciting again. So if you’re someone who practices an instrument, you’re in the right place. Let’s get into it.
Number one we got changing that atmosphere. Now this might seem really simple, but I’m going to tell you it is so effective If you are practicing in the same spot every single time and it is starting to feel boring and stagnant, shake it up a bit. Maybe it’s a different spot in your room or maybe it’s a completely different room. I remember one time I was so distracted in my practice session I kept staring out in space and not getting anything done. That’s something that I find myself doing a lot. I just stare out in space with my thoughts and then I look back at my music and five minutes has passed and I do not remember what I was thinking about. That is not helpful, and that was what was happening in this practice session, and so I was like I got to do something. So I tried something new. I ditched the chair, raised that stand and practiced on my feet. Now you are probably saying, “Eleanor, that is such a small difference.” I know it’s such a small difference and I was so surprised at what a big difference in terms of my focus, how big that difference was. My practice all of a sudden felt new and fresh and I felt a rush of excitement. To be honest, I was so surprised at what I was thinking. I’m not sure why, but changing that environment completely scaled and got my practice session at a better place than it was before. I totally recommend this.
Step Number two we got listening to recordings of professionals on your instrument. Now you might be saying to me, “Eleanor, I don’t want to do that, I already practice. Why do I need to listen to recordings?” Well, let me tell you, you have to listen to recordings because it really, really, really helps your practicing. If you listened to my podcast episode where I talked about my disastrous audition situation and how I turned it into a university acceptance, you will hear me talk about the fact that the girl that I was listening to, she was so much better than I was, and because I actually just listened to her before the practice or before the audition, I my auditioning, my pieces were way better than they were if I hadn’t listened to her. Now, of course, she’s not a professional oboist. She was just someone who was before me in the auditioning and was better than I was. But it’s the same principle, right? When you listen to recordings, you’re playing all of a sudden gets better, or at least your standards for your playing gets better, and you know how you want to improve.
For instance, if I listen to a recording and it’s and I think to myself, oh my gosh, this person’s phrasing of this section of a piece that I am working on I love how they do that then all of a sudden I have something to practice, I have something to work towards and maybe I want to make that piece that I have been working on sound more like the professional recording that I like. See what I mean. So listening to professionals are so important. Now there are two ways to listen, and I will tell you a funny story about my grandfather.
So my grandfather is a drummer. He is a jazz drummer. I have been to so many jazz gigs in my life I cannot tell you how many I have been to to hear him play but when there was a better jazz drummer playing and he was listening, he would have this joke where he would turn to my dad and he would say well, they’re so good, I might as well just burn my drums. Now, this was a joke. Of course, he was not going to burn his drums, and I do not recommend anyone burn their instruments. Okay, please do not do that. But even though it was a joke, it creates an important example, right? If we listen to music and we’re like, oh well, I might as well go burn my drums or burn my instrument or not try, or whatever it is, that’s not necessarily the way to listen.
Even though he was joking, it is a really good example of what not to say and what not to think about. When you are listening to a professional recording, what you could do instead is be inspired. Instead of saying I don’t want to play anymore, or oh my gosh, there’s so much better than I am. Why am I even doing this? Or whatever you’re saying to yourself, how will you say, oh my gosh, I love this recording, I love how the professionals do this. Or I love how this specific professional oboist or whatever instrument it is, I love how they play this. I want to try it like that. Or I find it interesting their take on this melody or this. You know articulation or whatever passage it is. I want to try that. Being inspired, that is the key. Okay, it is so important, even if you don’t notice it first. Listening to people who are better than you at your instrument makes you more aware of your playing and pushes that sound and technique to be better, and it makes your practice session more interesting. It makes it more interesting because you have something to work towards. You have a recording in your ear that you want to sound like, and it makes it more fun because you have a challenge. Okay, you have heard someone play professionally and you’re like, oh my gosh, I want to try that, and that makes the practice session more exciting. Okay, it’s crazy, I know, just listening to recordings that can help so much. So listen, listen, listen to those recordings and be inspired by them.
Number three we got being objective. Now let me tell you what I mean by that, because that’s very vague. What I mean by that is planning out your practice. This is a big one and this is what I do before every session. I plan out what I want to do and I highly recommend it. Okay, write down what your goals are. Write down what you want to practice. Okay, this is so important. If you listen to my podcast episode about being overwhelmed in your practice session. You heard me talk about planning your practice with little goals. Right, small goals. Planning your practice this is a similar idea. Okay, in fact, it’s basically the same idea Planning out that practice. However long you want to work on something, what specifically you want to work in it, whatever it is, this helps your practicing because it no longer feels like, or it is no longer a just hour or hour and a half or however long it is, session of I don’t know what to do. It is no longer that, because when that happens and you just sit down with your instrument and music and you haven’t actually planned out what you want to do and you haven’t actually planned out how long you want to do it for all of a sudden you just have a ton of things to do in this practice session, but you’re not really sure what it is, and then you just start playing and then it doesn’t actually get better and then it just doesn’t work right. Being objective, planning out that practice I swear it takes like five minutes, not even that two minutes before your practice session, and it completely changes your practice session. Okay, just plan out what you want to do Now. Planning out is the first part of it. At the end you got to reflect okay, to make the next practice session better. These are just little reflection questions to think back about your practice so that the next time you go and the next time you practice you can look back and be like, okay, I want to do this differently. Or, oh, I really enjoy doing this like this, I’m going to do it like this or whatever it is. Now you might be thinking, “Eleanor, what do you mean? Like what reflection questions?” Well, if you do not want to do the work of sitting down and trying to find reflection questions, that would be good for practicing and then, you know, doing them a few times and maybe being like, oh, I don’t really like them. You know, whatever it is, if you do not want to do that work, you are in luck because, guess what? I have already done the work. Okay, in the show notes, there is a freebie specifically for you, which is just the reflection questions. Okay, these are the reflection questions that I used when I was this time last year applying for 12 schools in three different countries. I had to have effective practicing for that. So these are the reflection questions that I used and I have created a freebie. Get that. It is free, just for you. I have created it with those questions, okay, so download that freebie and start revolutionizing those practice sessions through reflecting.
So quickly. To recap, we have changing that atmosphere sitting, standing, going somewhere else in the room, going to a different room, right, whatever it is. Number two we got listening to recordings of professionals on your instruments. Make sure that you are listening to it positively, not necessarily comparing yourself, because comparison okay, get this. Comparison is not the way to go. It really isn’t. Comparison does not help you at all. Okay, it really doesn’t. So just listen to it without any comparison and be inspired. Right, allow yourself to be inspired, allow yourself to be excited by these professional recordings. And number three, we got being objective, planning out that practice and reflecting at the end.
And if you do not want to do that work, right. If you do not want to do the work of thinking what reflection questions should I do, I have a freebie for you. You literally just answer the questions, you fill it out. It is so easy. Okay, I have made it as easy as I can for you. So download that freebie and start reflecting. Okay, that will help your practicing and make it more exciting for the next time you go to pick up your instrument.
And that is it for today. Thank you so much for listening and hanging out with me today. I am so grateful. If you like what you heard and you don’t want to miss the next episodes, make sure that you hit that subscribe button, and I cannot wait to see you in the next episode. Bye.