The Confident Musicianing Podcast

Here's How I Learn Repertoire Fast and Confidently

• Eleanor

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I recently had to prepare a piece for a performance class in a really short amount of time. So I decided to do an experiment. I tested some practice methods for learning a piece quickly to see if they would work in time for me to perform. The result? I did one of the best performance classes I've ever played. So here are the things I did to prep.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to the Confident Musitioning Podcast. My name is Eleanor and I am a British American oboist studying at the Royal Conservatory 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 Musitioning Podcast. Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode. I it is so early in the morning. Well, it's not so early in the morning, but it feels early in the morning. I woke up this morning to lovely rain. It's just a lovely autumn day. Right now, it's it's autumn, depending on whenever you hear this, it might be, it might not be. Um, but I it it's just so kind of rainy and cozy. Do you know what I mean? And so this morning I had a lovely um morning. I have my coffee, I read a bit, you know, and I just watched the rain outside, and it just it made me feel so cozy, and I was like, you know what, we we need to do a podcast episode, and I was like, what not a better day and a better time to do it than when we are all cozy in in the flat um with with lovely pitter patter rain outside. So that is what we're doing now. So I hope wherever you are, whether it is raining, whether it is sunny or cloudy or whatever, I hope that you are having a lovely, lovely day, and I'm so grateful that you are here to share this, you know, these few moments with me. It's it's really lovely. So today I think the life update, because because I usually do like um a part of the episode that has like a life update, and I think the life update honestly ties into the episode because it's what the episode's about. So um, which is very exciting. So recently I did a performance class at my conservatoire. So I'm studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and one of the classes that we do is called Performance Class. So basically, what you do is um there's like a rotating uh thing, and if you get chosen to perform, then you prepare a piece, you perform the piece in front of your peers, and your peers give you feedback. Um and it's honestly a really amazing opportunity. I really enjoy performance class. I enjoy the um opportunity to be able to perform in front of people who kind of understand my instrument and and know my instrument and what I've been working on, you know, and you know, I think I think it it's a really great experience. And so recently I was chosen for a performance class, and I was preparing a piece, and it was the first two movements of Benjamin Britton's Six Metamorphosis After Ovid for Obo, and it was kind of a a silly situation because about two weeks or a week before, well, two weeks before my um intended performance date, uh there was there was a switch. Um, someone couldn't do the their date and they they switched with me, and like I was fine with this, but what that meant was I lost a week of preparation and it was a bit daunting, but I was like, you know what? This is gonna be an amazing opportunity. I am going to use this as a way to practice learning repertoire fast. I had honestly just started with this piece, um, and I was kind of counting on that on that week. Um, but I saw it and I was like, you know what, this is this is what I'm gonna do. I I one of my goals uh recently is to be able to do things faster in terms of like learning pieces faster, adapting quicker and rehearsals, you know, being able to make changes in in my in my pieces faster, etc. And I was like, this is an amazing opportunity to practice that, and so I did that, and it was like a big experiment. I tried things, I tried practice techniques that we're gonna talk about today, and I ended up doing it really well. I ended up going on that stage and performing and surprising myself at how kind of well those those tactics paid off because I think when you when you have you know limited prep time, there's a part of you that's like, oh my gosh, you know, can I do this? And even on stage, you're like, ah, can I do this? I don't know. Um, but I did not have that. When I started playing, I was like, this is what we're gonna do, and and we can do it. And I I was honestly so surprised at the fact that I just did it, and I did it so kind of confidently and and without any doubt of not being able to do it. So I think I owe um that to some specific practice techniques that I did, and that is what we're gonna get into this episode today, get into in this episode today. So let's let's dive in. I think the first thing, and this is not number one, but I think this is just something to note. I took this on board. I said, this is an opportunity, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna give it my all. I took this on board, I didn't hide from it, I didn't avoid it, I didn't go, oh, am I gonna do well? I don't know. I was like, I have limited time, I'm gonna do my best, I'm gonna give it my all, and I really went into it. And I think that that is a really important mindset shift. Um, if you if you have a piece or whatever you're doing, even if it doesn't have to do with music, like this can be um like used throughout everything, I feel. If you need to go in, go all in. You know what I mean? And like avoidance kind of avoidance just makes it worse, I feel. Like just go go all in and and do it. So that's what I did. I was like, I I took on the challenge. I was like, I know this is gonna be hard, but I'm gonna give it my best, you know, and I I did. Okay, now for the real number one. So the real number one is mental practice. Mental practice, I will preach mental practice forever and ever. I feel it is an amazing tool. I love it so much. It is basically, if you're not familiar with mental practice, it is the practice of practicing without your instrument. How many times can I say practice in this in this section of the episode? So it's when you practice without your instrument, and what I mean by that is you kind of just go through it mentally, and there are specific tactics and techniques, and actually, I have an episode about this, and I will link it in the description in the show notes. So if you want to go check that out, that will be linked down below. Um, but basically, just kind of an overview, you go through it mentally in your head, and this is a great thing to do if you are struggling and your your instrument feels like it's in the way. Do you know what I mean? So, like if you're trying to learn notes and like your fingers aren't very coordinated and you're like, oh, your brain just is struggling to look, and you're oh well, I was gonna say your oboe, but your instrument for me is an oboe. Your instrument is just kind of it feels in the way. It feels like what you actually need to do is just get the notes in your head, and then it can come out your instrument. Do you know what I mean? So what I do often is I put my instrument down or I do mental practice sessions where I don't even get the instrument out of the case, and I will kind of just go through um like the fingerings or the the notes, and I'll I'll what I'll do is I I put my hands together and then I like close my fingers down over each other, so I'm kind of doing like a clasped um situation right with my hands. Um, and then what I'll do is the fingers that are used in each note, I put a little bit of pressure on them. Um and so and and I really go slow. I feel like mental practice is not meant to go fast. You're for me at least, I never go at speed with mental practice. It is all about kind of solidifying the connections in your brain so that you can you can um you can do it well when you have the instrument. So I just put like a little pressure on the fingers that you know are used in in each in each note, and sometimes I might sing along with it, sometimes if I need to get the rhythm right, I might clap along with it. It's it's all just kind of an interaction between you and the music where you've taken your instrument out of the situation, and so your brain can actually fully digest what it needs to do, and then when you put your instrument back, then your brain has a better idea and it can actually do it a little better through the instrument. I I honestly find it such a game changer, it is amazing. So if you want to learn more about mental practice, please do check out the episode in the description in the show notes because um yeah, mental practice is the best. The second thing, and I think this has to tie into mental practice, is listening. Listening is so important, and you can do mental practice with listening. So I think listening is such a good way to practice because it gets it in your brain, but it also gives you different ideas. It was interesting because there was a s of the second movement that I was doing for this. I practiced it, practiced it, you know, it it it sounded okay, but it also sounded lifeless. The second movement of this piece is just a bunch of quavers, right? It's literally the entire movement is just me playing quavers. And the quavers are interesting because you know they have they're different notes and they're interesting, but it's very easy to have them be boring because they are just quavers. That's eighth notes. Um and so for me, you know, I had gotten it to a point where okay, I could play it, but it had no life into it, and so I started really listening to different pieces or different, you know, recordings of this this movement, and I heard how different people put life into it, and I thought, okay, I like that, okay, I don't like that. And that is how I kind of put life into my version. Um, it's interesting because you know, you can listen with the score, you can listen without the score. I listened for the beginning with the score, and I also this this second movement is quite kind of almost percussive in the articulation. Um, and so it's interesting. I I tried this, I don't know if it works, but I tried dancing to it, not like with any skill, but just having my my kind of movements mirror the articulation. So there were some notes that like really you accented, and so what I did was I stomped my foot, and that got it in my brain, like we're gonna accent this one, and then the other ones were maybe like more floaty, and so I I don't know, I I kind of floated around a bit, like not literally, obviously, but kind of you know did some twirls and stuff. I don't know if that helped, but the the the stomping definitely did. Um kind of getting it in your in your movements and helping you to kind of embody the the piece so that you can get it out through the oboe or through your instrument. Um and that really helped me as well. So listening to the piece, listening in different ways, it's really good. And the last thing, well, the second, the last thing I suppose, the next thing is theory study. This is something interesting because the second movement is just quavers, and I could look at that movement and I could see okay, it's literally a sea of quavers. I really would struggle if I hadn't broken it into sections and looked at the chord structure or the the note structure, the key structure, right? Because especially in the second movement, it changed, you know, they did quavers in in this key and then then it, you know, kind of modified to another one and then another one, and then you know, and then oh this, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever. So I needed to write that down because if I just put like a little thing at the top that says, I don't know, there was one that was G7, right? And so the the arpeggio was a G7 chord. And if you have a G a G dominant seven, for me at least, I know that there's an F rather than an F sharp, okay, because because the in a G dominant seven chord, the seven is is flattened, and so I knew that that was the case, and that helped my brain to not go, oh my gosh, is it F sharp? Is it F natural? I don't know, I don't know. Because when you're learning a piece fast and you have to you learn it quickly, and yeah, I mean you can't have your brain go, oh my gosh, I don't know, I don't know, even if it hasn't been a while for your brain to learn. So I just put that at the top, and my brain goes, Okay, G7, you know, that's F natural. And it just it did it. Do you know what I mean? And I think you know, everyone's level of theory, we're all on different levels. Yeah, even in the conservatoires, actually quite interesting to see in theory class, everyone is on different levels, and I think everyone, you know, any any theory study that that we do is is is what we need to do at the time. Do you know what I mean? Like it's it's good to it's good to work on theory and it's good to try and understand it better, but we're all on different levels. So so if you know if the thing for you that that's gonna help you is to understand the key of the piece, then that's great, and that's gonna help you, and then you're gonna understand, you know, what notes fit, what notes don't. Maybe if you see a note that doesn't, you can ask yourself why. That's what I love about theory. You always ask yourself why. Do you know what I mean? I asked myself why so many times during trying to figure this movement out, and it was just it was it was so helpful to ask myself why because then I had questions, and then I could go ask people who had the answers, and then I learned. Do you know what I mean? Like that's great. I feel like learning theory is probably one of the most helpful things I have done so far in my course, and I I'm I'm saying that like I've learned it all, I really haven't. But the more I learn, I feel like the easier it gets to actually just play the oboe, you know what I mean? So having that kind of basis of of theory in the piece and kind of just writing it down really helps me to to understand what sections we were in, to break the piece down into sections so I can also practice them in sections, but also when I'm performing it, it doesn't feel like a sea of quavers, you know, it doesn't feel like a sea of notes, it just feels like okay, we're in this section, we're in this section, and then this section, right? And I think that that goes into a kind of another thing, um, which is section, sectioning it off, sectioning different pieces or sectioning different sections. Um at the beginning or at the end of this of this movement, it kind of goes a bit crazy. It doesn't really follow a theory structure, right? There's a lot of um chromatic stuff, there's a lot of stuff that just kind of you know sounds it sounds like it doesn't make sense, um, but you have to play it confidently. So what I did was I kind of I I got the phrases um and I sectioned off each phrase and then I wrote in or I circled the note that was like the note that I wanted to get to, so I had little goals. So rather than seeing a sea of notes, I saw sections with a goal. You know, you're gonna play towards this note, you're gonna play towards this note, and then this note, and then this note, and that really helped my brain to not get overwhelmed. So sectioning it out really helped me as well. And then the last thing is understanding that I did my best and just going for it. And this kind of goes to the first thing that we talked about with accepting the challenge. But when I finished my practice and I was there before the performance class, I thought to myself, I was like, Okay, this is it, you've done the work, you've done the work, you know, the most work you can do, all you can do now is go out and do your best and show off that work. Do you know what I mean? And you know, I think there's confidence that goes into that, and we're gonna get into that in a later episode, but it just it was really helpful for me to to understand that I did I did the best I could do. Do you know what I mean? And and when I had finished that, understanding okay, I've I've done those things, those are the things I chose to do, I did them, and now I can move on to the performance. Do you know what I mean? So that is something that really helped as well. And then a tool that I used, I know I'm kind of sh like talking about all the different things, but this this tool was really helpful as well because obviously, if I have a deadline and I have to learn music fast, I need to be able to plan that practice, you know, just be able to when I get in the practice room, I have an hour or however long I have, and I'm like, okay, I need to use this hour in the most productive way I can because I have a performance in a few days, um, and I need to get this this piece ready, and that I use a notable practice journal. So my notable practice journal is extremely helpful for me. Not only can I practice or not only can I plan my practice, but I can also reflect on my practice. I think that that is so so helpful because when I reflect, I reflect on what went well, what didn't go well, and that means that I can I can improve this the next session and the next session, you know what I mean? So I can say, okay, I listened to the piece, this is what I thought, this is what I I you know, maybe I'm not sure about this, you know, and then and then I can look at that reflection and go, oh, right, okay, maybe the best thing to do now is mental practice, or the best thing to do now is run it through, you know, things like that, and then and then I can see kind of my progress and see how it goes. So using a notable practice journal has is is really really helpful for me. And as soon as I realized that it was helping me, I knew that I had to tell you about it, and I knew that I had to give you a code because I want what's best for you in your practice, and I want you to have the best practice that you can because, or or at least you know, a more focused and a more effective and exciting practice session. And so use code Eleanor15 for 15% off your notable practice journal, and yeah, start be having more productive and focused sessions with planned practice because there's nothing like it just it feels so much better when you know that you've achieved things that you set out to do, and and it's just the best, okay. Um, I only recommend things that I absolutely love. This code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you. And the link um for your journal will be in the show notes as well as the code written out. Um, yeah. Alright, let's go, let's do a quick recap before we before we finish off. So the first thing is I took on the challenge. I was like, this is this is it, this is what I'm gonna do, this is my project, and I'm gonna give it my my effort. The next thing is mental practice, kind of the practice of of learning things without my oboe, it going in my brain, so then it can go out my oboe. Okay, and you know, whatever instrument you play, it's the it's the same principle. Um, and then the next thing is listening, listening to and understanding um different ways that you can play a piece, maybe help other people have interpreted it. It's really helpful to just kind of bring life into a piece that maybe you've practiced um a lot, uh, or not a lot, you know. And then theory study that really helped me not see a sea of notes, and so that that made it so that it was easier to kind of digest and play because the notes started to make sense in the context of the piece, and then the last thing was just doing my best and going for it, and then we have planning my practice, and that is with a notable practice journal. Alright, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. If you enjoyed this episode, please do show it all the love, like, subscribe, comment, share with your friends, all of your musician friends, especially the ones who have to learn pieces very quickly. And I hope to see you in the next episode. Alright, take care.

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Eleanor

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