The Confident Musicianing Podcast
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The Confident Musicianing Podcast
Jazz, Jobs, and Journaling: How I Am Creating Structure In My Summer Months
Summer can be so unstructured. Here is how I am creating structure in my musical journey this summer.
This episode is available as a blog post. Click here to read!
Use code ELEANOR15 for 15% off your Notabl_ practice journal, and level up your focus in your sessions! Click here for your journal.
I never recommend anything that I don't love. This contains an affiliate code which means that I receive a commission -- with no extra cost to you! 😊
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 to another episode of the Confident Musicianing Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so glad you are. Let's dive right into things.
Speaker 1:So, basically, it's summer, it's summer. That's so, so, so exciting. I just finished my first year playing oboe at a conservatoire. Studying oboe at a conservatoire, it was a crazy year, full of wins and also loses, you know, full of growth and failure and and I. But it was just so good and I'm so grateful for it.
Speaker 1:And now it's summer and you know what's weird about this summer, right, is that there's really not that much structure, for me at least. Like because I study at a conservatoire and it has like term dates and the term dates end over the summer, I don't have oboe lessons. This is the first time in literally forever that I actually don't have oboe lessons every single week. I think I started oboe lessons at 10, 10 or 11. So, yeah, it's been a long time of just every single week having that check-in, having that lesson, and now it's not there, right? My lessons start back up again when school starts and it's left me feeling kind of bewildered I don't know if that's the right word Kind of not stressed, but like whoa, this is a crazy feeling. No one is checking in on me, do you know what I mean? Like no one is. I don't have to prepare things for you know things every week. It's a very strange feeling and it got me thinking I really need to structure my summer a little bit, because it's going to be so easy to just roll through summer without any structure and, you know, at the end of it be like what actually happened? Just, it just become like just so confusing, and so that is kind of what today's episode is about how we can structure our summer, how I am structuring my summer and you know, like I hope that it gives you some thoughts on, maybe, how you can structure yours, as, as always, all of our summers, they're going to be different, right, and every summer throughout, every year it's going to be different. What I was doing last summer was preparing to move to the UK. I was super, duper, duper busy. Right now I'm not planning any international moves, so it's a little bit of a different summer, but let's just dive right into it.
Speaker 1:For me, I would always fill my summers up with jobs or courses or just things like that. I remember when I was in high school, I like would do classes over the summer, not because I was failing classes or anything, just because I wanted to do more classes. I remember I wanted to do so many different music classes that it actually bumped the other classes that I had to do and there were options of doing them over the summer, and so every summer, like, I was still in school. Basically it was just on my own school in school, basically it was just on my own school. Honestly, I look back and I'm like, wow, I was so motivated as, like a 12 year old not 12, 14 year old as a 14 year old, I was super duper motivated and that I'm just like wow, she was really focused. But I would always fill things up.
Speaker 1:These past two summers I have had a summer job and that really made me focus, because then, you know, when I got home from my summer job, I had to practice and I had to, you know, make sure that I focused on that as well. So there's definitely been my fair share of filling things up. But I think a good thing to focus on is how we're going to structure our practice in the summer. So I think the one thing that I am doing this summer that I haven't done before, because all of my other summers have been me still, you know, having lessons every week, and so it hasn't really felt like a summer off from oboe as such, and I don't think this summer is a summer off from oboe. I'm not stopping playing oboe. It's very important to to keep that up.
Speaker 1:But now that I don't actually have lessons every week, I've realized that this is an opportunity for me to, on top of, you know, etudes and fundamentals and the things that I am continuing to work on, I can kind of experiment with things that I might not have had time for during the school year. So, for instance, that includes for me, learning different structures. When it comes to jazz Right now, I mean, I've always loved jazz, I've always grown up with jazz and I've always wanted to kind of play jazz on the oboe, and this is something that it's always just been in the back of my head, but I've never really had time for it and I've never really had time to kind of learn how jazz is structured when it comes to playing it as such. And that's what I'm doing, like during my time in the practice room. Um, you know, after I finished my fundamentals and my etudes and the things that I need to to work on, I will, you know, spend some time just doing improv or focusing on, you know, blues structures. I've been doing that a lot recently and just learning about things that interest me. I think this is a great opportunity.
Speaker 1:I think summer is a great opportunity to learn about things that interest us. That might not necessarily have to do with the specific things that we're working on when we're in school. So what does that look like for you? What is that one thing in your life, or in your music life that you're like? I've always wanted to know how to do this thing, but there's never been time, when I'm, you know, in school and I have all of these things I need to focus on. There's never been time. What is that one thing for you? It might also be jazz, it might not, but I dare you to think about that. I dare you to kind of just take a moment and wonder what is something that you could learn during this time, music wise, even if you are, even if you still have, you know, regular lessons. Maybe you're not studying at a conservatoire and maybe you have regular lessons over the summer. Um, but just I, I dare you to think about what is that one thing that you've always wanted to learn how to do on your instrument and that you've never really had the time for it, even if it's like flutter, tonguing or extended techniques, things like that. I dare you to experiment, because it can be great when we experiment with things.
Speaker 1:The next thing is planning, our practice. Practice planning, I think, is so, so, so important, because over the summer, especially if we are in school and then we're not, and maybe we don't have other things in the summer, we can feel like, oh my gosh, we have so much time and then we're not, and maybe we don't have other things in the summer we can feel like, oh my gosh, we have so much time. And then you're like, okay, this is a great opportunity to practice. But then you don't know when to stop because you're like, oh my gosh, I have so much time, I should keep going, I should keep going, I should keep going, and that is never a good idea. Do not ever push yourself too far. That is never a good idea. So I think a great way to work through that is actually planning your practice, planning what you want to do for the day. And then then, because you have a plan, you know when you're done, you know when you're done, you know when it's done, and that is really really helpful.
Speaker 1:And the tool that I use when planning my practice is a notable practice journal. This journal is so helpful. Not only can I practice or can I plan my practice, but I can also reflect. There are reflection questions, there is a reflection section so that I know you know what went well and what didn't go well. So for the next practice session I can improve, like literally every single time. It is really really really helpful.
Speaker 1:And as soon as I found out, this notebook was helping me. I knew I had to tell you about it and I knew I had to give you a code. So use code Eleanor15 for 15% off your journal. That is, e-l-e-a-n-o-r-1-5 for 15% off your journal and get yourself a notable practice journal so you can have the summer of planning and structure, because isn't that what we all want? You know me, I do not recommend anything that I don't absolutely love. This code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you, and the link for getting your journal will be in the show notes. It will be in the description. So make sure you go check that out, because, literally, planning practice is so helpful, and not only in terms of you know knowing what to practice, but also looking back.
Speaker 1:If you, if you feel like and I know you know this feeling of feeling like, oh my gosh, what did I actually practice? You, if you feel like and I know you know this feeling of feeling like, oh my gosh, what did I actually practice this week? I feel like I got nothing done. When you have planned it out, you can literally look back and be like oh no, I did things. I did plan these things, I did practice these things. It's really helpful, especially when our brain starts to spiral out of control in terms of thinking, oh I've, I've done nothing this week. So, yeah, it's very helpful.
Speaker 1:The next thing is planning other things as well. This is really helpful, I think, when we feel like we have all the time in the world to practice, it's like it's really helpful to plan other things into our day as well. These can be music related. So, for instance, theory study. This is something that I am going to be planning into my day Time to study theory. Um, because I think I should. I think, you know, in this past year, I was in, you know, theory class and that was really good, but I think that there are some things that I can maybe review and go over so that I'm more than ready for second year theory class. So that's something that I am planning on doing.
Speaker 1:Also, with side instruments if you watch my Instagram stuff or like any social media stuff, you might have come across me playing the guitar. That is my side instrument. It's not I don't study guitar at conservatoire, it's not something that I'm being examined on, and that's really, really nice to have an instrument where I can just play, and that's a side instrument or something like that. If it is music related, maybe like listening you know summer is a great time for listening. Also, reads for me, reads is something that I think in the past few months I've kind of just focused on playing because I was preparing for my um exams you know my playing exams and I really needed to focus on that, so that's what I did. But now I have, you know, I'm dedicating time to read making and really focusing on that. So that's what I did, but now I have, you know, I'm dedicating time to read making and really focusing on that. So that's something. Um, yeah, just just stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Music stuff. Planning in time to work on that can be really helpful as well. Um, and then also non-music related. Let's be honest, like we are humans and we don't need to. We're not music robots, right? We're just humans. And so something else that you're maybe interested in learning I remember when I was 14 and I had a schedule conflict in high school and the way for me to resolve the schedule conflict was to take a class over the summer, take a German class over the summer, take a German class over the summer.
Speaker 1:So then in the next year I would be in like German for the year ahead of me and I was so excited to do this because I love language learning. And yeah, I just took a literal high school course that's supposed to last like what? Nine months and what? Three months of summer, so that. So that was crazy. I was very busy, but things like that, just like other things. So if you want to take a course, you know, if you're interested in things that you know you don't have time to do over during the school year, like I don't know, pottery maybe, or just things like that whatever you want to do, this is a perfect chance to do that, and then you can balance that out with your practicing so that you have something that you're focusing on other than your instrument and so you don't burn out. You can also balance that out with a job.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest, a summer job is really helpful. It's really good. I have had summer jobs For the past two years. I did a summer job and it was really helpful because the summer job actually the summer job that I had in the past two years I cleaned a high school. So I literally just like I cleaned a high school. That was it and it was really for me.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's always pros and cons about jobs. For me, I mean there's always pros and cons about jobs, and a pro I love to find the pros, you know and things, and a pro for me was definitely the fact that I could listen to things. So I listened to podcast after podcast after podcast and for me I mean that was helpful, because then I also listened to like music. I listened to a lot of uh, like excerpts, you know, oboe excerpts, things like that. That's a great way to to spend the time with that. Um, that was just like a pro for that.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, getting a getting a summer job is really helpful as well. Um, so, yeah, just think about things that you're interested in. I, I, I dare you to think about what, what other than music are you interested in? And if you honestly cannot come up with something which is totally fine, that was me, like we've all been there I challenge you to maybe find something. Try things out, take a class, you know, get involved in something and see what you like and what you don't like, because it can be really helpful, especially in the summer, to have something that you do that is not music related. It's really good to balance it out.
Speaker 1:And then the last thing is creating a weekly structure that works for you, specifically a weekly structure that is really helpful. So I mean, let's be honest, this is going to take time, like um, weekly structures are difficult, I feel, and we're never going to get it right the first time, because we're going to create a structure and then we're going to do it, and then we're going to realize what doesn't work and then the next week we're going to try and create a better structure. That's literally me every single week. Um, I record these episodes on Sundays and and so because that's like the quietest day. I live in a city, so Sundays tend to be the quietest day for podcast recording, and for me, it's also the day that I plan out the week, and so you can you can bet that I am, after recording this, I'm sitting down with my, with my notebooks and'm planning the week, and yeah, it can be really, really challenging to to get it right, but you know what that's okay. It's important that we're trying.
Speaker 1:So, structure when you're gonna practice, structure when you're gonna, um, do other things, you know, whatever that, that other non-music thing is, if you have shifts at a job structure, that like really kind of create a structure so you can see your week and then you can see the gaps of time that you can spend just hanging out in the summer. I was going to say the summer sun, but it might not be sunny. I live in Scotland. It's not always sunny. But yeah, creating that structure and understanding that it's not always going to work out, you might get to Thursday and be like what was Sunday me, thinking this is a crazy plan, and then you know you can always tweak it and work through it and that is a great way to structure your summer. I think this summer I am personally trying to find the balance between having a good structure and also having time to just be me. I am so good at structuring myself way too much and like that causes burnout and kind of over predicting what I can actually achieve in a week, and so that's something that I'm working on just kind of creating the time to just chill and be okay and be calm and quiet and still, and that's just kind of something that I'm focusing on. But yeah, so that is kind of it.
Speaker 1:Let's do a bit of a recap. The first thing is creating time in the practice room for experimenting. What is that thing that you want to do on your instrument that you didn't get time to do, you know, throughout the school year? What's that one thing that you're like I wish I learned how to do this? You can learn it now. And then the next thing is planning our practice. You know, so that you know when you're done practicing for the day. And I use a notable practice journal for my planning. Yeah, it's really, really, really helpful for me. And so there is a code Eleanor 15 for 15% off. Check, check the description, check the show notes for that code.
Speaker 1:Um, the next thing is planning other things as well. Planning other things music related. You can do theory, study a side instrument if you make reads, make reads, things like that. You can also plan like, um, you know summer opportunities, like there are like camps, like music camps and and things like that. I've never really done those, um, but you can totally do them, um. And then the next thing is creating a weekly structure that works for you. Oh, sorry, I forgot in the planning other things, also planning non-music related things. So something else that you're interested in learning or maybe having a summer job or all of these things, um are good as well. And then creating a weekly structure that works for you and let's let's be compassionate with ourselves. If we create a weekly structure that we get to Wednesday or Thursday and we're like this is not working, it's okay, we can tweak these things.
Speaker 1:All, all right, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I am so grateful. I hope you enjoyed it. I really hope you enjoyed it. And, if you did, please share this podcast and this video, if you're watching it on YouTube, with all of your music friends. Seriously, it does help grow the podcast and I appreciate it. So, so, so much. So, all right, that is about it for this episode. Yeah, thank you so much for listening and watching and I will see you in the next episode. All right, take care. Bye-bye.
