How to Make Time For YOU While Preparing For Auditions
Mar 05, 2024Episode 13
Eleanor
Imagine this: You are stuck, really bogged down, not making progress, or so you feel…you are just STUCK! The audition cycle can really feel like that. You are working so hard on all of your pieces, but you are feeling so tired. Sound familiar?
During an audition or audition season, the last thing on our minds is making time for us. And yet my friend, my fellow musician, it is EXACTLY THE THING WE NEED.
Being busy is part of the audition process, but what if we could make time for us throughout this process? That’s exactly what we are going to dive into today.
Imagine this: You are stuck, really bogged down, not making progress, or so you feel…you are just STUCK! The audition cycle can really feel like that. You are working so hard on all of your pieces, but you are feeling so tired. Sound familiar?
During an audition or audition season, the last thing on our minds is making time for us. And yet my friend, my fellow musician, it is EXACTLY THE THING WE NEED.
Being busy is part of the audition process, but what if we could make time for us throughout this process? That’s exactly what we are going to dive into today.
Episode 7: Embracing the Pause: 3 Crucial Lessons From My Musical Break -- Click here to Listen!
Want your personal audition playlist -- right in your inbox? Heck yeah! Click here to get it.
Speaker 1:
Quickly before we start. Do you have an audition coming up or you want to make sure that you are ready for it? But maybe you don't want to sort through a bunch of podcast episodes to find the ones about auditioning. Well, guess what? There is already an audition playlist just for you. These bite-sized episodes cover everything from preparing all the way to the secret to thriving in your audition. You don't want to miss it. And they are compact and ready to download for when you are on the go. So click the link in the show notes and get your audition playlist right in your inbox.
Speaker 1:
Now back to the show. Imagine this you are stuck, just really bogged down, not making progress, or so you feel. You are just stuck. The audition cycle can really feel like that. You are working so hard on all of your pieces, but you're just feeling really tired and stuck. Sound familiar During an audition or audition season.
Speaker 1:
The last thing on our minds is making time for us. And yet, my friend, my fellow musician, that is exactly what we need. Being busy is part of the audition process, but what if we can make time for us throughout it? That is exactly what we are going to dive into today. Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. I'm your host, eleanor, and after countless practice sessions, a ton of Bergenreads 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. Hey there, friend and welcome.
Speaker 1:
Going through any audition without resting is probably and definitely not a good idea. In our minds, we might think that it will lead to better auditioning, but, let's be honest, it actually doesn't. We are still human. We need rest. So in this episode, we are going to dive into three steps to make time for you during auditions. Step one understand that your body needs rest. This is crucial. If you do not understand or believe that your body needs rest, then how are you actively going to make time for you and rest? You need to believe that not only does your body need rest, but you deserve rest Because, let's be honest, you really do deserve rest. I have said this before and I will say this again until forever you are a human, first, and a musician second. So we all deserve rest. Now let's think about this.
Speaker 1:
There are different kinds of rest. For example, sleeping is an obvious form of rest. We do this all the time. If we are tired, we might take a nap. If we are tired and it's late enough, we might just go to bed, and that is an obvious one. But there are other ones that can really be beneficial, for instance, hobbies, security, holding your brain to get creative.
Speaker 1:
If you are stuck in a practice room all day just trying to get everything perfect, doing the same passage over and over and over again to make sure that it's perfect, doing practice rhythms, doing slow tempos, doing fast tempos, just to get everything perfect, then a great form of rest would be, for example, to get out a paint set and just paint and make mistakes, and don't care about those mistakes because they're fun. See the difference? Your brain needs a break from. Everything needs to be perfect too. I don't really care if it's perfect, it's just fun.
Speaker 1:
Another form of rest could be going for a walk. If you are stuck in the practice room all day just practicing over and over and over, then I'm guessing you're probably not walking around in that practice room. You are either sat down or stood up. So a great form of rest could literally be to just get your body moving. That is the opposite of just sitting and practicing, and that would be a great form of rest. Do you see where I'm going with this? The rest is kind of the opposite of what you've been doing all day. Another example could be hanging out with friends. If you are stuck in a practice room all day with absolutely no human connection, then maybe a great form of rest is to phone a friend and say hey, do you want to hang out? Or something like that. On the opposite side, you might actually need some alone time to kind of decompress. So it's really just what you need and you got to figure that out. So what type of rest do you need? Maybe put it on a sticky note, maybe do a little thinking about it, maybe even journal about it, like what type of rest do you need? Think about what do you do during the day and maybe create your rest to be the opposite of that. When we rest, we tend to feel guilty about it, and understanding why we are resting, why are we are doing this, can really help with that guilt.
Speaker 1:
When I had my wisdom teeth out in October. I obviously needed to rest. But when I started to feel better, I was like, okay, we should practice now. But I knew that I still needed to rest. That story is in episode seven, embracing the polls three crucial lessons I learned from a musical break, and one of those lessons was I needed to give myself grace. I needed to be like okay, you deserve to rest. You just had, you know, huge mouth surgery. You deserve to rest. So I highly recommend going and checking out that episode, especially if you, you know, are thinking about taking a musical break, or if you've just finished a musical break, or maybe if you're even in a musical break right now, or none of the above. Just go check out that episode. It was so much fun to make.
Speaker 1:
Number two setting your musical boundaries. We've all heard about boundaries maybe boundaries with other people, but have you considered setting boundaries with yourself? If not, you are in for a treat, because this is exactly what we are going to be talking about today. An example of this might be I'm going to practice my repertoire for the time that I have planned and at 7pm I am going to stop working altogether and do something that I enjoy. That is a boundary. That is a boundary with yourself, so that you don't end up practicing or working you know too much that day.
Speaker 1:
Another boundary could be when I am making time for me and resting. I will not think about practicing or auditions. This can be tough and this kind of goes back to what I was talking about with the guiltiness with episode 7. But if you feel like guilty about it, or maybe you're thinking about practicing while you're resting right, you're resting and your brain is like, well, we haven't practiced this piece yet, or we need to do this, or you haven't practiced this, or all of those feelings, if you have a phrase to kind of combat that, that can be super helpful. So let me give you a few examples. This is my moment. I am resting, I want peace, I deserve this.
Speaker 1:
These phrases I have used in multiple different parts of my life, including when I am feeling guilty about not practicing, especially with I deserve this and I want peace. They have been really powerful ones with me for practicing. I have so many memories of doing tons of different hobbies and every time a guilty thought popped into my head, I would repeat these words I deserve this, I deserve to rest, I just want peace. All of these words and that tiny act of just saying three or four words, write these tiny little phrases over and over, started to change how I looked at rest, because if I say every time I have a guilty thought I deserve to rest, then I start to believe it over time. Let's be honest, I still struggle with this Everyone does but with these phrases it's gotten better. You know, as I have struggled and worked through different auditions and audition seasons, I have tested out and collected strategies for all aspects of the auditioning process, not just working, but also, you know, the before, preparing to the middle, to the after of the audition process. And this is to go in a special guidebook for you, and the link all about this is in the show notes. So go check that out.
Speaker 1:
Number three schedule your hobbies. Like literally schedule them. For instance, in the morning, after breakfast, before I start working on things, I will devout 15 minutes to this hobby that I enjoy. Or during lunch, I will read this book that I enjoy. Or at 7 pm, when I finish my practicing, I will put on a TV show and do some baking. Like literally, just schedule them. That is what I am talking about and that helps you to look forward to them as well, because you know, if you don't look forward to them and you don't schedule them, it might be harder to stick to them. And also, if you schedule them and look forward to them, it'll help you be motivated when you are practicing and maybe you're stuck but you're like, okay, you know I have this fun thing planned, so I'm gonna work really hard because I know that I have resting time planned.
Speaker 1:
I remember last summer when I was doing this, I worked all day and then practiced all evening and around 8 pm I would sit and watch Netflix and crochet and that was a scheduled date. It was not negotiable Because I knew that if I didn't do this, I would end up feeling really poor and bad the next day and I wouldn't be able to focus or give all my attention on the things that needed to have the attention. So schedule, get creative about it, get excited Like it's amazing, it's cool, because you are taking, you are reclaiming that time for you and that's something worth celebrating. Remember this, my friend you need rest, you deserve to rest. Let me say that again you deserve to rest.
Speaker 1:
Okay, alright, that is it for today. Thank you so much for listening. As always, the stuff to do with this episode will be linked in the show notes From the blog post to go with this episode, to the link for the audition guidebook, to the link for episode 7, embracing the polls, and also, if you have any crucial lessons from my musical break and also your own audition playlist, just click the link and get that playlist right in your inbox. Make a habit of doing yourself a favor and looking at these show notes because, let's be honest, there's some really cool stuff in them. If you want to show your love and support for the confident musician podcast, make sure you give it a follow and, as always, if you have an audition coming up. I wish you all the best. Alright, bye, bye.