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

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.

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 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. 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 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, 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.