The Confident Musicianing Podcast
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The Confident Musicianing Podcast
3 Things To Prep For The New Academic Year
The next academic year is approaching! Whether that is high school, university, or conservatoire, here are 3 things to prepare for it.
This episode has an accompanying 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.
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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 to another episode of the Confident Musicianing Podcast. I'm so happy you're here, I'm so happy we're doing this and we're back for another episode.
Speaker 1:It's actually much later in the day than when I normally record these episodes. Usually I am recording them during the morning or the early afternoon and it's like almost 7 pm. That's quite late for a podcast episode recording. But I felt like this morning I was feeling so kind of tired and just I just wasn't up for it. You know, I was like if I record, it's just going to be not the best I can. You know it's not going to be the best that I can do it. So, and even like the early afternoon I was still feeling that way, but then I felt a little better. I was like you know what I am up for doing the episode today, and I know that I can make it the best that I can now, so that's what we're doing. So this is like the latest I've recorded an episode, and so there we go. I feel like this episode is a little bit of like I don't know a record, the latest episode recorded in the day. Anyway, but I am so happy that you are here Today. We are going to be talking about starting our next year of school. So, whether that is for you high school, whether that's university, whatever it is, that's what we're going to be talking about, and kind of three things to do to prepare for that.
Speaker 1:For me, I actually have about a month left of summer break. My conservatoire starts pretty late, and so that's what's happening for me, and so I am still kind of in the mode for preparation. I've been thinking how do I want to approach this year? You know, what do I want to do? How do I want to create good habits and things like that, and so I thought I'd turn this into an episode. If you have already started your year, that's perfectly fine for this episode as well, because you can still kind of reflect on things and decide how you want to show up for the year, even if you have already started it. So this is perfect for either situation.
Speaker 1:But before we do that, let's dive into the little life update bit of the episode. This is kind of a new thing I'm doing. We start with something new and exciting that I've done, and for me that is I got invited by the Edinburgh International Festival to watch a concert, to go to a concert in Edinburgh. The Edinburgh International Festival is like a big classical music festival. There's lots of different concerts and things like that on. And yeah, they reached out to me and they were like hey, do you want to come to this concert? And it was so good.
Speaker 1:It was the Carmen Suite, but arranged for strings and percussion, and I think that that's such a cool mix strings and percussion. Like there were no woodwinds, there were no brass, it was just strings and percussion, and that meant that like there were parts of it, you know, like the well, like some of the famous Carmen themes if you're familiar with with the music. They're not always on like percussion, like the themes. You know the main melodies, but these ones were. And it's interesting because Carmen is such a if you've watched the opera. It's such a dramatic opera and it's a tragedy like it end. It ends in a, in a very tragic way, and so there's very heavy music. Um, and it's funny because, like the music that in the original is supposed to be heavy and stressful and like, oh, things are happening when it's played on, say, I don't know, vibraphone, it's really funny and it so so funny because the orchestra, like, was playing and you could tell they were having so much fun and the audience there were parts of the time where, like, the audience was laughing, like audibly laughing, because the arrangement was so much fun. Oh my gosh, it was the best. So I had such a a fun time there and I knew that I had to tell you all about it because, yeah, it was amazing and so much fun. I love it when you can tell that orchestras are having fun. You know, I mean like, like, I feel like as musicians, we often lock ourselves in a practice room and we, you know, make sure we get everything right, and sometimes that can take the fun out of it, um, but seeing professional musicians in their element, making music and visibly having fun with it is just so inspiring. It is so inspiring and I felt really inspired and I had a good time. So that is something I wanted to tell you all about.
Speaker 1:All right, let's actually get back into the part of the episode that is the content part, the actual part that the title is about, and that is starting your next year of school, whatever that is high school, university, conservatory, whatever it is. Here are three things to do in preparation. So the first thing is reflecting on how you want to show up this year. I think this is a really important thing to do, instead of just starting the year being like, okay, let's do this, reflecting on how do you want to show up. You have this opportunity, whatever, whatever it is, you have this opportunity to learn. Right, there is, there is academics in your future how exciting. And there is this opportunity for you to learn, and the amount that you get out of it is gonna depend on how you show up for it. So I think a really good way to kind of prep for that is reflect how did you show up for your learning last year, you know how do you show up for these things and how can maybe you show up, how can you maybe show up better for that or more prepared, or however you want to show up for it. And so that starts in thinking about what you did before, maybe last year, what you liked, what you didn't like.
Speaker 1:So for me, for instance, I didn't allow myself to rest last year. I was just focused on practice, practice, practice, work, work, work. And because of that I burnt out and I ended up failing an exam because I burnt out and I had no energy for the actual exam because I was so focused on the prep for the exam. And I think, you know, if I I know that if I hadn't worked myself so hard, I would have been able to to do better on that exam. And I did an exam reset and I really focused on building new, better you know habits for that and I ended up passing my exam recent, which is very exciting. But seeing that and kind of learning from it, how can I do better this year?
Speaker 1:I think for me, it's very important to prioritize my rest, prioritize downtime and prioritize yeah, just things that are going to serve me as well. So intentionally bringing that up. So for me I'm not really sure how that's going to look yet, I'm still thinking about that but something like a habit, you know, something to make sure that I have time to rest, and also maybe a habit of reflecting after every week, or something to make sure that I'm not pushing myself too much, because when you push yourself too much, it often happens when you don't realize it's happening. Do you know? I mean, and that's kind of what happened when I failed my exam. So that's something that I want to be intentional about.
Speaker 1:I also last year, because I was really focusing on being, you know, passing my exam the second time around for my reset, I kind of stopped focusing on making reads as much, because I'm an oboe player, I need to make reads, and so this year that's something that I really want to prioritize making reads and doing doing that, and so that's something that I've made sure to, to make make sure that I prioritize. So, remembering what you did last year, kind of thinking what worked, what didn't, and what do you want to set up, what new things do you want to set up. So that's the first thing. The next thing is organizing your structure for studying. So we've taken the first thing, which is kind of reflecting and seeing what you want to do differently, and adding a little bit onto it. So organizing your structure.
Speaker 1:This is an interesting thing and I feel like maybe you can't always do this before. Do you know what I mean? Like sometimes you might organize it and then you might get to it and be like, oh, this is something I can't do or oh, I could maybe do it differently. So organization isn't always set in stone. We can always change it to whatever works best for us. But if you get partway through the year and maybe everything is disorganized and in a pile, maybe you need that for studying or whatever. That will not help anyone. I feel like we all know the feeling of maybe having just a pile of whatever. It is just disorganized, especially musicians. I feel like musicians just have music everywhere, but especially for studying right, so paper things, so like taking notes and studying those notes and things like that. So maybe not like playing your instrument but studying for things like theory or something like that music history.
Speaker 1:Having a system, having an organizational system, is a really good idea and the system that I use and that I have been using for almost seven years yeah, it's going to be like seven, eight years. It's very helpful for me is like a specific system with binders, and so what I do is I write notes on loose leaf paper, right, I don't really use notebooks for note-taking in classes. I use notebooks for practice journaling and things like that. I love a good notebook, but for this I use loose leaf paper and then I use a binder and what I do is I kind of only keep the notes that I need presently in that binder and at home or for me, you know, in my flat I have a second binder of other notes. So if I start the year and say I'm a month in and I have the binder that I carry around with me, it's quite heavy and maybe only 50% of that I actually need because maybe we finished a unit and I'm just carrying around those notes. I put that in my home binder so that when I go home, like I have the notes, that I can access them. But I know I'm maybe not going to use the notes that I took a month ago for the thing that I'm going to do today, so I don't take those notes to school because, um, that I don't need that, that's extra weight, you know, and so that's what I do, and then so, so it kind of goes through a process like that, and then that means that when I I don't know finish the semester or or the term or whatever, um, I don't have to carry around those notes the whole year, do you know? I mean, whereas if I had a notebook, then that's just extra paper and that's quite heavy for me, and so for me, that that is a very good way for me to to stay organized. Now, everyone's organizational system is different, but that's how mine works and it's really helpful for me. So I hope, hope, that was helpful me telling you about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, the last thing is organizing your practice. So we've started from reflecting to organizing, studying, and now we're organizing our practice because, as musicians, we have that as well. So this is important. Every day for us as musicians might be different, but for something that's helpful with practicing is attaching your sessions to things that are happening. So, for instance, if you know you have a class at two, you're going to practice from one until two. So you're like, okay, I can, you know, get to the, get to wherever my class is um, and maybe book a practice room nearby, practice from one until two realistically, maybe one until 150, because you know you're going to get to the class. But one, you know, you know, but one until two, and then two, you, you, you get to the class and or you start your class, and that kind of attaching can help. You can also do it the opposite way, where you can, if you, if you can, practice at the same time every day.
Speaker 1:So I remember when I was in high school, I practiced I, there was this ability. I think I think it was actually during um, the pandemic, and it was like the year that school was online, um, and so I had more time and so I practiced, uh, an hour at 10 am, an hour at two and an hour at five, and that's what I did every single day. I think now I don't think that would be effective, that that's like that was effective back then. I don't think it would be effective now if I did it like that and that's, that's fine. Our practice changes as we grow, um, but that's what I did and that really worked for me and it was like clockwork, like I put it in my google calendar, like those were standing things. They weren't attached to anything, they were standing things, 10, and 10 to 5, 10 to 5, 10 to every single every 10 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 5 o'clock, and that's also another way that you can do it.
Speaker 1:So really think about how do you want to organize that practice? How do you want to organize your sessions? Now, you can organize the sessions, but then there's also organizing what's in the sessions and planning your practice, and that is really important as well. And I want to share with you a tool that's very helpful for planning practice, and that is a notable practice journal. A notable practice journal is so helpful for me in planning my practice. I can plan and then I can also reflect. I think that that's so important, having the balance. So I write down, you know, all the things that I'm gonna do, and then I can check them off and then afterwards I can reflect on how the session went, and that means that the next session I can look back on my reflections and if I have any notes for the next session or if I want to do something differently, I can remember that and I can do those things differently, and that makes it so that I can improve in like every single session, which is a really good thing. So that is a way that I structure, like the actual practice bit, and I highly recommend having a practice journal because then you could also look back and see what you've been working on over a day, over a week, over a month. It's very helpful, especially when we have those days where we feel like we're not practicing enough, just having a reference point and being like, oh yeah, no, I did do that, and then I did that, and then I did that. That's also very helpful.
Speaker 1:As soon as I found out that this was helping, I knew that 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 yeah, get yourself a notable practice journal and start planning those sessions. There's going to be a link for that in the description, in the show notes, so please do go check that out. 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.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's do a bit of a recap. So the first thing is reflecting on what happened last year what went well, what didn't go well, what do we want to change, what do we want to keep? All of these things are really good, and having last year as a reference point is such a good way to like start those reflections. The next thing is organizing your structure for studying. How do you want to organize your notes? How do you want to organize like all of these things, maybe even your study sessions? We didn't really talk about that, but how do you want to organize that? Thinking about organizing your studying.
Speaker 1:And then the last thing is organizing your practice, and how do you want to. You know, when do you want to practice? Do you want to attach sessions to other things? Is that kind of how your brain works? Do you want to have those sessions to be like standalone sessions and then everything else goes around them? How do you want to kind of structure that? And then also, how do you want to structure the actual sessions themselves?
Speaker 1:And a tool that's very helpful for me is a notable practice journal, and the link will be in the description in the show notes for that, so please do go check that out. So those are the three things to do before or before or during at the beginning of the school year. So, yeah, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Um, it was so much fun and I'm so glad that you listened or you watched. Yeah, if you enjoyed this, please do show all the love like, subscribe, comment all of the things and share with anyone you think could benefit from this, and I will see you in the next episode. All right, take care. Bye.
