The Confident Musicianing Podcast
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The Confident Musicianing Podcast
3 Takeaways from my Conservatoire Exam Prep
It's technical exam time. I have been preparing for it for months. Today let's talk about my top 3 takeaways from the prep.
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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 and welcome back. I'm so glad that you are here Today. We are going to be talking about something very interesting Exams, exam takeaways and practicing for exams.
Speaker 1:So I have my technical exam for my conservatoire next week and I have been practicing for it for many a week, from like multiple months ago. I've been working on it and I thought it would be maybe a good idea to talk about it before I do it. So I'm gonna do it and I'm sure that when I do it. So I'm gonna do it and I'm sure that when I do it afterwards we will. We will catch up about it, but I think for now it could be a good idea to talk about the prep, the practice and the process of right now. So, whether you are doing an exam, an audition or nothing and you just want to hang out, welcome. So I literally got back right now from a session with some friends where I played some of my exam repertoire and it, you know, right now my head is, I feel, is just full of exam repertoire, head is, I feel, is just full of exam repertoire and I'm quite nervous for it and I just I'm very excited to forget all of it, maybe not forget, but just to kind of relax afterwards and be like, okay, I don't have to remember this, that and the other. I mean we've all been there in terms of exams, whether it's like a written exam or our music exam, you know, a playing exam. We've all kind of been there with the.
Speaker 1:I wonder what life will be like after I finish this, but for now let's talk about three things that I have noticed from my prep with my exam. The first thing is it will be okay to take some rest. This is an interesting thing and it kind of comes back to an episode that I did, I suppose, if you listen to it about when I took the week of Christmas off and that's what I'm talking about my teacher told me I remember, like at the beginning of December, I was thinking about the week of Christmas and I was like, okay, you know, it would be great, some great time to get some practice in. And my teacher said to me he was like you should not practice during the week of Christmas. He was like take the entire week off. And I was like what are you talking about? Like I have exams coming up.
Speaker 1:I also had auditions coming up. I had performances coming up, recordings that I had to do. I was like there's no time to rest. And he was like you need to rest. He was like, um, you've made some great progress in the first term and now it's time to take a break, to take some rest for a week, whole week. Take a break, you know, take some time and then when you get back, you'll be more refreshed. And I trusted him. I was like, okay, I'll do it, I'll do it. And it was so good. It was so good.
Speaker 1:Now there are things that you know. There are takeaways that happened, and I will link the episode with those takeaways down below, um, but it was just so amazing to be able to have that and to do that. So I was really, I remember I was really nervous about it. I was like, are we going to, am I going to forget everything? And at the end of, at the end of the break, I thought for a hot second, I thought that I was going to like I forgot stuff. I thought I had gone back, but what actually happened was I my ear had gotten better, and that's something that I talk about in that episode about this break. So I'll link that down below in the show notes, in the description, depending on where you're watching or listening to this.
Speaker 1:But I think that that is so, so interesting because I'm so glad that I did it. You know, I'm so glad that I rested. When I came back after Christmas, I was like, okay, let's do it. And I think the only reason now that I'm not absolutely sick of the sound of the oboe, because I've been practicing and practicing and practicing for this exam, is because I took that time to rest. So if you are thinking about resting, if your body's asking you to do it, then do it. I think it's a good thing, and maybe you know you can check with your teacher and kind of just get some check-ins, because it's also always in a musician's fear am I resting too much? Should I be practicing? So it's always a balance. I feel it's always a balance, but for me that rest was really monumental in my technical exam preparation and practice. It really really was.
Speaker 1:The next thing we're going to talk about is specifically about practicing for the exam, and that is knowing what I need to work on and isolating on that, or isolating that. This is a very interesting thing because I mean, right now I am practicing everything. I have a few days until my exam. So what I'm doing is I'm like doing the scales, doing the extracts, doing the studies, doing all of these things, and you know I'm isolating some of it, but mostly it's more broad strokes, just to make sure that we're all okay, everyone's fine, there's nothing, no random thing that I'm like how does this go? You know, just like very, very good.
Speaker 1:But when I was practicing a few weeks ago, I was definitely isolating things. For instance, I remember I went to my lesson and my teacher said he was like you're a little bit behind from where I, where I think you should be on scales for this exam. And I went home and I stressed, I was like what are you talking about? I can't be behind on anything. I need to be, I need to be good. I can't, I need to be good, um, and I, you know, I stressed a bit and then, after calming down, I I isolated that so for a while. You know, obviously I still practice studies, I still practiced etudes, um, or this is the same thing. I still practice studies and extracts.
Speaker 1:But I really focused on scales and I remember there was like a week or a week and a half and that was like a period of scale boot camp and once I had that down, I was fine to kind of move on. But I think that that is something that's really helpful, not necessarily just for a specific, you know, preparing for a specific thing, but also just generally. You know, isolating all the things that you need to work on is a really good way to practice In the scales. In that week and a half I also isolated the specific scales that I needed to practice. For instance, I did not practice major scales. I can play major scales till the cows come home, like I am fine with major scales, melodic minor. On the other hand, for me that was confusing. I had no idea what was happening for that, so I focused on those. Also, I focused on specific scales in the melodic minor and universe. So, for me, g, flat, g, g, sharp those were the three that I was like they need help, they need the most help. So I focused on those, really isolating those things. That is so helpful for preparation. So, whatever you're preparing for, or maybe you're just practicing, think what's the thing that I need to work on and isolate that and work on it right. A way to do that is to play, for instance, the scales. Play all the scales and write down for each of them are they? Are you comfortable? Are you not comfortable? Are you barely comfortable? And then play those ones that you are either barely comfortable or not comfortable. On the ones that you're comfortable on, they can. They can chill for a second. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:The last thing which I literally just came home from was playing for other people. Playing for other people. This is so, so helpful. I literally just came home from some of my friends and I. We got a practice room and I played my, my exam stuff, some of them. Like more than half of them, um, have already done their exams, so they were able to pretend to be the panel, which was very nice, um, and they just asked stuff of me. They were like play G, flat, harmonic minor, you know tongues flowing, etc. And that was really helpful. That was really helpful For me. I also did an Instagram scales game over. On my Instagram I put all my stories and I asked people to put in different scales and then I recorded myself playing these scales and posted them on my stories. Um, that's something depending on if you, if that's something that you're into, if you do have that, if you could do that with friends or maybe you know whatever. If that's something that you're into, then then maybe you could do that. Um, playing for your teacher oh my gosh, I play for my teacher all the time.
Speaker 1:The past two, three, actually probably four lessons have started out as kind of mock situations in some capacity or another. So I go in and he's like you know, play this, play that you know, and it's very much like a testing of can we do this, can we do this? And then also I've done classes and this is more kind of through, like in my conservatory classes where we focus on specific things for the exams. So I remember one time we did like a scales competition, which was really fun, so and even that, like you can do that. I know they're not my instrument, but there were some other students who kind of got their instrument everyone who played that instrument together and they did the scales kind of thing. They did a game. I don't know what they did, I wasn't there but they did a scales thing where they all played scales.
Speaker 1:All of these things are great ways that I have found for prep for me. Um, and I think hopefully I want to share, you know, I want to share this. So hopefully this can help you in whatever you are preparing for as well. Just play, play, play, play, play, play. I think mock auditions this is not an audition, but mock auditions can be so, so helpful. I remember one mock audition I did and I really didn't know that I wasn't prepared for my real auditions and I went in and it wasn't good. It really wasn't good and I'm very glad that I did that, because then I knew what to work on, what to work on.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of talking about all of this, in terms of practicing, in terms of preparing and kind of being overwhelmed by all of the stuff that I need to do. The only thing and I can say this with very much confidence the only thing that has kind of kept me together in terms of organising is my practice journal my practice journal if you're watching this, you can see it. My practice journal is like the thing that's holding me together in terms of my organisation. And my practice journal is from Notable. I started using Notable's practice journals a few months ago and it has really changed the way I practice. Now I can actually plan what I want to focus on. It's focused. You know, my practice has gotten way more focused and I think this is a big thing for when we're stressing about auditions or exams, I know when my practicing is over.
Speaker 1:That's a really important one, because a lot of the times, especially in the evening, my mind's like you should be practicing. Why aren't you practicing? And I can literally look at this journal and be like because I've already practiced this, that and the other and I'm fine, that's fine for today. So this is so, so helpful. It has helped me. There's also like reflection stuff after every session so you can make sure that you improve at least a little bit every day through reflection. It's really helped me.
Speaker 1:So as soon as I knew that this journal was working, I knew that I needed to tell you about it working. I knew that I needed to tell you about it and I knew that I needed to give you a code. So the code is Eleanor15 for 15% off your order. That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R-1-5 for 15% off your order. I will link the link in the description, in the show notes, so that you can get your journal and literally just upgrade your practice, your practice organization. It has really been the thing that has held me together through this exam season, seriously.
Speaker 1:So, alright, let's do a bit of a recap. Number one it'll be okay to take some rest. This, this, that week of rest, really helped me to not be sick of my OVO and to be fully refreshed and excited to dive in to all of the things that I need to do for my exam. The second thing is knowing what I need to work on and isolating that, and this can be so helpful because if we just stretch ourselves over the things even the good things that are fine that we maybe don't need as much attention to things that are fine that we don't maybe don't need as much attention to the stuff that we need attention to can slowly diminish and get worse and worse. So really isolating the things that we need to work on can be so helpful. And then the last thing is playing for other people. Yeah, anyone and everyone your teacher, your friends, people on Instagram, maybe, if that's something that you do, all of these things can be so, so, so helpful.
Speaker 1:Alright, I am going to go take my exam. By the time you hear this, I will have taken it, but I'm going to go take my exam now and I'll let you know how I do. I'm very excited. Alright, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. As always, the stuff to do with the episode is in the description. It's in the show notes, including the what's it called, the blog post and all of the links to do with this episode, including the other podcast episodes that we talked about, and also the link to get yourself a notable practice journal. All right, take care Bye.
