The Confident Musicianing Podcast
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I’m Eleanor, and together we dive into concrete strategies for the before, during, and after of your audition process so that you can be better prepared and crush that performance! If you’re a music student ready to revolutionize your auditioning, let’s jump in. Tune in every Tuesday for another insight-filled episode; see you there!
The Confident Musicianing Podcast
Transforming Performance Nerves into Inner Joy
Performing is supposed to be fun -- that's why we do it. I've had so many stressful performances and joyous ones. They are usually the same ones. Today we discover how we can perform with joy, even if we are feeling nervous.
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That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to see them because I have trust in them that they will be good and the people who see you also have that. Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. My name is Eleanor and I am a British-American oboist studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Literally my dream school and it took me a long way to get there. I applied and auditioned for 12 schools in three different countries. It was a lot of hard work but, oh my gosh, so worth it. I want you to have the confidence to work hard in achieving your goals. So come with me as we go on this journey together. So sit down, pull up a chair, take a seat or, if you're on the go, welcome to the Confident Musicianing Podcast. Hello, hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Confident Musicianing Podcast. Thank you for being here. Let's dive in.
Speaker 1:So, basically, something happened last week that was a bit nerve-wracking and I got through it. But I didn't just get through it, I got through it gladly. So what I'm talking about is my first ever performance class with other Woodwind students. Now, if you don't know what that is because, to be honest, this time last year I didn't either. It is a class that I have at music school which, basically, you get chosen for different classes to perform a piece and then you get feedback from the other students in the class and also the teachers. And I was chosen to play in a performance class last week and I performed and I don't know why I did this. And if you are an oboist especially if you're an oboist who knows this piece, you know that this is a tricky, tricky piece.
Speaker 1:Schumann's second oboe romance. There's literally not a crotchet or quarter note rest until like the third to last bar. It's a tough one. It's a tough one especially for stamina. It's very, it's very difficult, um, but I chose to do it. Um and um.
Speaker 1:So I I was a bit nervous about it. I was, I was really nervous about being able to, to get through it. Um. But I remember sitting there in like the warmup room before I was about to go on and for some reason I just felt quite contented. I felt quite contented and I was like you know what, I'm really proud of myself for getting this far. Um, and this is my first ever performance class in front of all the woodwind students and I'm just going to have fun. Um, and yes, of course I was a bit nervous. And yes, of course I was a bit nervous and yes, of course the performance could have gone better. It could have always have gone better. There are always things, you know, there's always things, but I just I did really, really, really enjoy it and I was nervous on the inside, but, like, I was also contented and ready to go.
Speaker 1:And so I've come up with three different things to kind of incorporate more joy in your performance, because there was joy in that performance. And let's, I want to just go through them with you today so that you can have more joy in your practice as well. So the first thing is thinking of your younger self. I remember gosh, this was like almost three years ago I was doing a Japanese speech contest. If you don't know this, I speak some Japanese and I was in a Japanese speech contest. I had to write, memorize and perform a five minute speech in Japanese and perform a five-minute speech in Japanese. I ended up winning, actually for the intermediate category, and I remember kind of giving myself a pep talk before I went on to perform this speech and this idea was think of your younger self, how proud they would be of you now. So I thought at that time of my younger self learning Japanese, because I did start learning Japanese quite young. I really enjoyed it and what that Eleanor would think of me doing this competition and it was so like I don't know. It just gave me so much, so much strength to do this, because I knew that I was doing this for her. So if you think about maybe a performance that you've done, something that you've been a part of, that just has you know like you can, you can think about the younger version of you and how proud they would be because we have all gotten somewhere, even if that somewhere is um, you've just started learning an instrument. That is somewhere you've gotten somewhere. Or if that somewhere is, you are at a music school, or maybe you just got an orchestral job or you know something, something really major like that. They are all steps, they're all steps and our younger selves would be proud of us. So thinking about that can really bring out the joy and the just the excitement that your younger self would have for you, because they're still inside you. The next thing is understanding that people are there because they want to be. So this is another thing now for my performance class. All the woodwind students have to be there. It is a requirement for school, but we can think about it maybe in a different way.
Speaker 1:If you are doing a recital, if you are doing some sort of performance where you know people have chosen to be there, they have chosen to be there. You know what I mean. Like they have chosen to be there. They could do other things, they haven't. They've chosen to see you perform and I think that that is just a really important reminder that, like they want to see you, and that must mean something.
Speaker 1:Think about, for example, all the concerts that you have been to. You have wanted to hear that person and you have wanted to have fun, just like. Think of one concert, for instance. A few days ago I went to see the Royal Scottish National Orchestra perform their New World Symphony. I wanted to go, I was excited, I wanted to have fun. That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to see them because I have trust in them that they will be good and the people who see you also have that. You know what I mean. Like they also have that. So if you think of one concert, just literally one that is like that. Just think about that and then think about the reverse. People want to see you, just like you want to see other people in a concert, right?
Speaker 1:And the third thing is associating positive thinking to your performances. We don't want to take this to the extreme. I mean we have bad performances sometimes. We don't want to be too positive, that it is dangerous or, you know, not helpful for us. But it is okay to kind of remember the positives as well as the negatives. I feel like sometimes we only remember the negatives and that's not a good way to go about things. So choosing excitement over fear means that the next time you are performing it will be easier to be excited. So if you are performing and yes, there might be things that are stressful, yes, there might be things that didn't go well but if you remember also the maybe lovely comments that you got after your performance or maybe something that you were able to do that maybe a few weeks ago, you will be able to happen more in the future. If you create more negative thoughts, then it is easier for your brain to create more later on. But if you create more positive thoughts in the moment or even after, then the next time you perform, your brain will find it easier to to still create those positive thoughts and memories. So that is another way of going about it associating positive thinking to your performances.
Speaker 1:Now, of course, you can have things that you want to improve. Of course there are things that will have maybe not gone as well as you wanted to, but that is okay for me. Um, after my performance in the class, I got out a notebook and I just wrote down all of the things that I wanted to improve from it, and you know my, my thoughts and my, my things that I want to do with it. That's completely normal to do as well, but I think as well, on top of that, remembering the positives is a completely fine thing to do. I also wrote down some of the comments that I got from other students who said that I performed very well and they thought that it was really good and all of these things. I also remembered some of those as well. So the next time I have a performance, I can kind of have my confidence come from that as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's do a quick recap. The first thing is thinking of your younger self. How proud they would be of you. The second thing is understanding that people are there because they want to be, because they are there because they want to be. This is a fact and associating positive thinking to your performances. Yes, you can have things that you want to work on, of course, but also remembering the things that went well as well can be a key factor to having good vibes in the performances coming up. Okay, I know this episode was a little bit of a shorter one I don't know how long it's been, but, yeah, it's been a little bit of a shorter one, but I hope that you enjoyed it and I hope to see you in the next episode. If you did enjoy this episode, please do um, heart it, follow, subscribe whatever, whatever is that is on your platform to show some love. But I hope that you do show some love for this episode, um, and the podcast, and I will see you in the next episode. All right, take care Bye.
