Transforming A Disaster Into A Music Conservatory Acceptance (ask me how I know)

What if the key to auditioning was not just about perfecting your performance, but also about creating a positive environment? In this episode, I share my personal story of a nerve-wracking audition that took a turn for the better with the implementation of two simple yet powerful techniques.

Step into my shoes as I recount the journey of my audition for the prestigious Peabody Institute of Music. I'll share how I transformed my apprehension into confidence, not by blocking out my competition, but rather appreciating and complimenting them. And also utilising the power of a contagious smile that not only eased my nerves but created a ripple effect of positivity that set the stage for a successful audition.

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Transcript

My Peabody Institute of Music Audition

Your host, Eleanor 0:00

It was Monday , the 20th of February , and my Peabody Institute audition was at 12.30 . And I was feeling pretty good . I hadn't stressed that much that morning or the night before and I was feeling confident . I got my oboe out , I warmed up and I stood outside that audition room and that's when I heard her , the girl before me . Oh my gosh , she was so much better than I was Her tone , her sound , her intonation , her articulation , absolutely everything . And all of a sudden I felt my confidence right , that confidence that I was building up the night before , building up that morning . All of a sudden I felt it slipping away , my heartbeat got faster and I noticed all the little things in my music that could possibly go wrong , which made me feel even more stressed , because I knew that I needed that confidence to do the best that I possibly could .

Intro

Your host, Eleanor 1:04

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 . So I was feeling pretty stressed outside of that room and I decided to try two things that came into my mind that moment . I don't know why they just popped into my mind , but they did and so I decided to try them out , and now I'm going to share them with you , because they worked . It led me to crush my audition and get into Peabody . So let me tell you all about it .

Your host, Eleanor 2:14

Number one: I

Listening without comparison

Your host, Eleanor 2:16

listened to her playing . Now , if I'm going to be totally honest , before I listened to her playing , I actually tried to not listen to her playing . I tried to block it out , but science tells me that that didn't work , because my ears work and I was standing outside of the room and so I heard her very much , very loud and very clear . So I gave up on trying not to listen to her and I did the absolute opposite I completely listened to her . But now here's the important thing I refused to compare her to me . So let me give you an example .

Your host, Eleanor 3:02

When I first heard her and all of my confidence went away , I was saying in my head things like oh my gosh , her intonation is so good . I could never do that . Oh my gosh , her articulation , the speed of her articulation , is so amazing . That is a big weakness of mine that I have been trying to build up and she is so much better at it than me . Do you hear all of the comparison ? Okay , basically I did the same thing , except take away that comparison .

Your host, Eleanor 3:36

So I listened to her playing . I completely appreciated her playing , the work she put in , I enjoyed the music that she was making , but I made sure I absolutely refused to compare her to me . So instead I said things like oh my gosh , her articulation is so good , she must have worked so hard for that . Or oh wow , her intonation is amazing . That's so inspiring . Or , oh my gosh , that passage that she did was absolutely phenomenal . Or I want to try and play this piece that she is playing because it sounds so much fun .

Your host, Eleanor 4:23

Do you hear any comparison in that ? No , do you hear appreciation for her and her work ? 100% , and that's what I did , right , that's what I focused on , which , in turn , actually , I think it set the standard in my brain and it made me play better in my audition . I realized this a little while after . I didn't realize this in the moment , but when I was thinking about what I did right and how I figured this out and how I just listened to her , and then how I played and how happy I was with my performance , I realized that I probably because I was listening to her and thinking about all the good things that she was doing , my mind kind of set the standard and that , in turn , helped me play better , which is insane , right ? It is absolutely crazy that that happened , but I think it did .

Getting rid of jealousy through kindness

Your host, Eleanor 5:33

Number two we have something that just came into my mind in the moment , right , and that was complimenting her on the way out . So I was thinking to myself , right when I was losing all that confidence , when I first heard her and all of the confidence and all of the mental prep that I had done just left .

Your host, Eleanor 5:57

When that happened , I was feeling insecure , a little jealous , I'm not going to lie . I was feeling a little jealous of how good she was playing . I was definitely feeling insecure and I thought to myself , in that tiny moment when she was almost ready to leave , I thought to myself a jealous and insecure person would not genuinely compliment the person that they are jealous of or insecure because of they would not compliment them , they would not genuinely compliment them . So I thought , well , that is exactly what I'm going to do . So when she left the room right when she left the audition room and I was walking into the audition room , there were about two seconds where our paths crossed and I turned to her with a huge smile and I said to her oh my gosh , that was amazing . You played absolutely phenomenally and it was so cool , or whatever . I said to her , it was a compliment and she smiled back at me . She said thank you . And because she smiled back at me now , this bit I didn't plan , but this is what happened because of it , because she smiled back at me that made my smile even bigger and even more genuinely happy , so that when I walked into that audition room , I had a genuine smile on which and I didn't plan this , but this was so cool that it happened it made the judges smile genuinely and it set the tone for the whole audition . I walked in there looking confident , looking calm , looking collected and looking genuinely excited to share my music with the judges . That was insane , right , I did not plan that at all , but the fact that I complimented her , she smiled at me . I smiled because of that . I then the judges smiled because they saw my smile . It just set a really good tone for the audition and it made the audition go really well .

Your host, Eleanor 8:25

So then , after that , I did my audition . They asked their questions , I played my pieces and of course , it wasn't a perfect audition , because us , as musicians , we will never , ever , have a performance where we say that was the best ever . I could not top that . No , we always come out of performances , come out of auditions , come out of wherever we play or whatever . We will always say something like you know , I could improve this , I could improve that , even though it is so good , we could say that was amazing , but I could always improve right . So of course , it wasn't the best like playing that I will ever do in my whole life . Obviously , there were things that I could improve , because that happens with every single audition , every single performance . But it was really good . It was really good , I was really happy with how I played .

Your host, Eleanor 9:26

I felt good , I felt confident and I think it was because of these two simple steps that I took , because , if you think about it , if I hadn't taken these steps and I had just sat outside the audition room listening to this girl , listening to how good she was , and then , when I came in , feeling so insecure , feeling a little jealous and also feeling worried because I am following her . Right , if you follow someone who is way better than you , it can sometimes in turn make you seem a little worse . You know what I mean . So I was nervous about that . If I hadn't taken these steps which had just come into my mind I did not plan the thinking about this , but it just happened and I did these steps if I hadn't done those steps the audition would have gone so differently . But since I had done these steps , I completely regained that confidence and I crushed that audition .

Your host, Eleanor 10:27

So

Recap

Your host, Eleanor 10:28

let me quickly recap . Number one I listened to her playing . But here's the important part I refused to compare her to me . Okay , I said things like she sounded so good , her articulation was good , her intonation was amazing , all of these things . I never mentioned me . I just recognized the amazing things that she was doing .

Your host, Eleanor 10:53

Number two I complimented her on the way out . It was a genuine compliment . It was a genuine , happy compliment . So that that insecurity , that jealousy that I might have been feeling since I figured that a jealous , insecure person would not compliment someone that they are jealous of and actually mean it completely genuinely . That's what I did , so I complimented her on the way out and that in turn , created a contagious smile which set the whole tone for the audition . Okay , so those are my two steps and that is the story of my Peabody Institute of Music audition ,

Outro

Your host, Eleanor 11:37

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 .