The Confident Musicianing Podcast

Stage Confidence For Musicians

• Eleanor

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Ever struggle with your stage confidence? Me too! We've all been there. Here are some stage confidence tips that I use. 

Here's a recent episode about how I learned the repertoire faster. Click here to listen!

Today's episode has an accompanying blog post. Read it here!

Use code ELEANOR15 for 15% off your Notabl_ practice journal, and level up your focus in your sessions! Click here for your journal. 

I only recommend things I love. This contains an affiliate code which means that I receive a commission -- with no extra cost to you! 😊

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 and welcome back to another episode of the Confident Musitioning Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I am really excited about today's topic. We're going to be talking about confidence on stage. We're going to be talking about some tips for doing that. And this has all kind of come out of a recent experience I've had on stage. And this episode is talking about kind of the confidence aspect of it. I recently did an episode about kind of the more technical things about it, and I will link that in the show notes. But let me tell you what happened. So I am currently studying at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, and one of the classes that we have is performance class. And in performance class, basically what it is is you are on like a rotating schedule, and when it's your turn, you perform for the class for all of the other Woodwin students, and you you know you prepare a piece and you have an introduction and you perform and then you get feedback from not only the teachers in the room but also the other students. I think it's an amazing opportunity to kind of collaborate with each other, um, give each other feedback, hear like the other students, especially if maybe someone is playing something you're learning, like it's just an amazing opportunity of a class, and so it was my turn, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna do Benjamin Britton's Sex Metamorphosis after Ovid, the first two movements, and I was so excited. Um, and then there was a last-minute switch, and I I mean it wasn't like with like I said okay to the switch, you know, it wasn't just like whoop-de-doo, here's the switch. I they asked me, is it's okay, and I said yes. Um, but basically what that meant was I I ended up performing a week earlier than what I had planned, so I literally lost a week of prep. And that's a bit stressful, especially because I had just started learning this piece, and I had really been counting on that week. Um, and I thought to myself, I was like, okay, so so I have options. I can either be stressed out about this or I can see it as an opportunity to kind of practice learning how to learn repertoire fast. And I thought, okay, I'm gonna like I'm gonna do a few things, I'm gonna test things, see if they work. And that is what a recent episode that I'm gonna link down below is all about. I tested practice techniques, they did end up working, um, and so I was like, you know what, I gotta share this with you. So that's what that episode is about, all the different kind of practice techniques that I did to learn the repertoire fast and still play it really confidently. Um, but this episode is more about kind of the actual confidence on stage. So I did all the practicing, I did all the kind of techniques um that I talked about in the previous episode, and then it's time to go on stage. And I remember sitting there before I was actually just sat on the floor uh in this hallway, um, and it was almost my turn, and I was just sat there and I was like, okay, you know, this is um this is what I'm gonna do, and I'm really excited about it, and now it's time to employ some really important um confidence tactics, and that's what we're gonna go into today. So we're gonna talk in we're gonna talk about the kind of the confidence side of things today. Flash fast forward, fast forward, I um I played. I played, I think it was probably one of the best performance classes I've ever done. I really just put the confidence like all on, you know what I mean? Like it was like seriously so everything was so confident, um, to the point where where I like really played quite well. So and and I'm really proud of myself for that. So I was like, afterwards, I was like, I need to share this with you because this is what I did. I don't gatekeep. This is what I did, um, because I want you to have the most confident performances that you can. Okay, here's what I did. So the first thing is I meditated. I think this is so important. I have this trick that I that I do um in my meditation. So basically, what I did was I I like sat on the floor and of this of this corridor, and usually I I have like a more quieter space, like you know, you can maybe find a corner. I was in a corridor, so there were people walking past, but I just took a moment to kind of focus on my breathing, focus on where I am in space, focus on kind of how like grounded, like grounding myself, so feeling like the parts of kind of my body that's touching the floor, do you know what I mean? So I was sitting on the floor, so like the my legs were touching the floor, my feet were touching the floor, like in you know, um, and like I I just kind of was aware of that, do you know what I mean? And I was aware of my breathing, and I just kind of centered myself because I think especially as wind players, um, if you are a wind player, it's very easy to kind of get a really high breath, kind of a shallow breath when you're nervous. So this is a great exercise for for that to kind of ground my breath, and that's what I did. I just focused on my breath. Now, in that I did a few things. The first thing was I envisioned a younger me who was so excited about where I am. This is something that I love to do, and I actually started doing it when I was um gosh, when I was like 17. And when I was 17, I was in a Japanese competition. Um, because I love learning languages, this is like a side thing, and I was in this speech competition, and I had to prepare, memorize, and perform a five-minute speech um in Japanese. And I remember like it was it was like online because of because of COVID. So um I was kind of just in my room and I was thinking I was I was really nervous about the speech, and and like out of the blue, my mind said, nine-year-old you would be so proud. And I was like, Oh my gosh, she would, she would, because when I was nine, I had started kind of started trying to learn Japanese, um, and I was really interested in in getting better at it, and the idea that I was you know doing a Japanese speech competition that I had memorized Japanese speech, you know, that I prepared and I'm about to perform it. Like I think that that younger Eleanor would just be bouncing up and down in excitement, and all of a sudden I had so much confidence because I think kind of younger me had confidence in me. Do you know what I mean? And so I did the same thing with this. I imagined myself when I was like 14, and you know, I had just started high school, and I was like, okay, I want to do music school, but I don't really know how to start, I don't really know where to go, you know, all of these things. Um and and I I envisioned that that Eleanor and I envisioned telling her today I am going to perform in a performance class, you know, with a piece that I have just recently started learning, but I employed really, really important practice techniques so that so that you know I learn it faster. I'm doing this class at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland because yes, that is where I study, and I was telling her that in my mind, right? And all of a sudden I just felt more confident, more confident, more excited, more like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. And that really helps me because instead of just me being like, Oh, can I do this? Can I do this? I really hope I do this. I was like, that younger Eleanor has so much kind of trust in me. It's so interesting how this works. But when you kind of in your mind tell your younger self what you're doing, I think I think that younger self just gets so excited about where you are, no matter like how you play, just the fact that you're you're at a conservatoire or you're you know, wherever you are, for me it's at a conservatoire. Um, and that was just so exciting. I think as well, um so so okay, so that's that's the meditation side, and and I did that in my mind, and I that that was really good confidence, um, which was which was really good. The second thing was I made a good introduction. So, so I mean sometimes with performances you have an introduction, sometimes you don't, so it does kind of vary, but in this you have to do an introduction, and so I made a good introduction, and this is something that I feel like other people have told me that their introductions, like talking to the crowd, is more stressful than playing. For me, I find the opposite, I find that I can talk really easily in front of crowds. Um, but what I did was I planned my introduction, and I planned what I was gonna do, and I I spoke about it in a way of like, this is what I'm gonna do, and this is how I want you to feel, right? I think a lot of times it's so easy to say, this is what I'm gonna play, and um you know, the piece was written in and it was first performed when, and hope you enjoy. And I mean that's that's a fine introduction, but I found that when I do introductions, I find it much easier to say something like, Um, this is what I'm playing, this is why I wanted to play it, and this is what I hope you feel when I play it. And all of a sudden it's less of like around the piece, but around the message that I'm gonna share with people in my performance. And when you do that, you kind of you kind of have to deliver. Do you know what I mean? When you s when you end up saying, This is what I'm gonna play, this is why I want to play it, this is what you're going to hear, um, and I invite you to, you know, go on this journey with me, or I hope that you feel this certain way, or you know, kind of giving them making it more interactive, because then when it's like that, it's less of performer, spectator, and more of together we're going on this journey, right? And I and I'm leading it with my instrument, you know, with my performance. And when that happens, you have to deliver, and I think that kind of changes my mindset from I hope I get the notes right, I hope I don't mess up, to I hope I share this really exciting story with them, and then and then you kind of things start to fit in. Do you know what I mean? So that's the second thing, and then the last thing, and I think this is so kind of overlooked, but it it's so important. My entrance. I smiled. I kind of it's interesting because for this performance I was going on on my own. I didn't have an accompanist because this piece that I'm playing is just solo ovo. Um, and I there's like a little section in the back of the stage that I was just sat in or stood in. And before I walked on, I took two seconds. I took two seconds to do a nice deep breath, ground myself again, kind of that meditation situation. And I just took that those two seconds to kind of just give myself space and time, remind myself that we're not rushed. And also, this might be a bit dramatic. Picture myself as if I'm in a film. You know, like those films that that um that you see, I mean you always people see films, it's yeah, anyway, you you know films um that like the protagonist is about to do something, whether that's like an athlete, you know, about to I don't know, do their sport or a musician about to perform, and you have that shot of like the back of their head going on stage or going into the field or the arena or whatever, and it's like the back of their head, and then you can see kind of the the landscape of what they're going to do. And I imagined what that picture would look like with me in that moment, and I know that is kind of dramatic and a bit much, maybe I don't know. It worked for me, so maybe it's not a bit much. Um, it might feel a bit awkward, but I mean it's only awkward if you make it awkward, you know what I mean? But my brain just went to that, and I thought, yeah, that's what this is, you know. Like in this moment, I am the protagonist of my own performance, and I'm about to go on stage. And so I took that moment, um, my brain just pictured me as if I was in a film, which honestly I'd I appreciate. Um, it was helpful for like confidence boosting. I took those two seconds, I took a deep breath, and then I put on the biggest smile. I think this is so important. When you walk through a door, this is this is a great like piece of advice that I try and do. When you walk through a door, smile. No matter what door it is, even if the door goes into a room where no one is in it, smile. Get into that habit because that means when you go on stage, if especially if you're nervous, your brain will just smile, like your face will do it because you're in the habit. But I put on a huge smile and I walked out really confidently, and starting it out like that was a really great way of starting it out because immediately I tell the audience with my body language, I'm ready to do this, let's do this together, this is going to be fun, you know, like it's really good in that way. So that was my entrance, and I think if we add, I know I said for that was that was my last thing, but if we kind of add on to that, I understood that I had done all I could do. There was a switch up, I did lose a week of prep. I but but I I adjusted to that situation. I did specific, you know, practice techniques that I tried out, I did my best. And it's like when you go on stage, it's important to understand that you have done your best in your prep. You have prepped, the prep is done. Now it's time to share that with people and to give it your all, right? Because you've done all the practice, the practice is is good, good job, you've done that, right? Now it's time to share this thing that you've been working on with everyone. And I think when you think about it like that, less of I hope I don't mess up or I hope it doesn't go wrong, and more of I hope people can feel what I want them to feel with this piece, then that kind of changes the whole situation. And I walked out, I did my introduction, walked out on stage, I didn't leave. I walked out on stage, I did my introduction, I performed, and I think with these confidence things, I performed really kind of really confidently, and I think I did one of the best performance classes that I've done. So I'm really grateful for that, and that's something that yeah, I'm just so happy about. So, in that way, um that's that's what I did. Before we do a Wii recap, I want to just tell you about something that I did in my practice. This is a little kind of I suppose it ties in with confidence because then you can kind of see all the work you've done. Because when you woke out and you understand that you have done your best, um, it's really helpful and handy to kind of see a written record of the practice that you've done and the preparation that you've done for your performance. And in order to do that, it's important to plan your practice and also reflect on your practice. And the tool that I use is a notable practice journal. Honestly, notable practice journals are so handy and so helpful because you not only can plan your practice, but you can also reflect on it, and from there you can write the things that you want to work on and improve the next day. You know, if you say, Oh, I you know, this thing went well, but this thing didn't go so well, so I want to start with that, you can write that down so you don't forget it. Um, a notable practice journal is also an amazing tool because when it's time to perform, you can flip through and see all your sessions and be like, oh yeah, I did practice that enough. You know what I mean? Like, oh, I have worked on that, but also you can also say, Oh, I've noticed I've worked on this a lot, but maybe I'm actually lacking in these things. So next week I want to make that more of a priority. Honestly, having a plan and having a plan sessions can is really really helpful for me to kind of know where I am in my progress and be able to continue that progress in a more productive and effective way. As soon as I realized that this journal was helping me out, I knew that I needed to tell you about it, and I knew that I needed to give you a code for it. So use code LNR15 for 15% off your journal. That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R. Yeah, that's how you spell my name. E-L-E-A-N-O-R 15 for 15% off your journal. And yeah, just like they're so so handy and so helpful, especially for um planning your practice and knowing kind of what you're gonna work on and what you already have worked on, especially it's an amazing feeling for right for the performance, flipping through the journal and seeing all of the hard work actually documented that you have done. 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. The code will be in the description in the show notes, um, as well as a link for you to go and check out the journals. So yeah, they are honestly so helpful, and it it was so helpful for me to use one in this process as well. Alright, shall we do a recap? The first thing is I meditated, and I think, I mean, I think to people who don't meditate, that can feel really daunting, like you have to, I don't know, light a candle and put on music. But honestly, it was literally just me in a hallway with people walking past um for about 20 seconds, it was not long, just focusing my breath and kind of centering myself, grounding myself, feeling kind of the floor beneath me. Um, and also imagining kind of how a younger me would be so excited about where I am now, which I think is so important to kind of remember. The next thing is I made a good introduction and I focus less on kind of the piece itself and more about what I want the audience to feel and kind of how we're gonna go on this journey together, which I think is I mean, that when I did that, that also kind of helped my brain to realize okay, we're gonna show them a journey rather than I hope I don't mess up. The last thing is the entrance. I think this is so important. Um, I smiled, I this might be dramatic. Pictured myself in a film. What would what would that look like? I think I mean I don't know if it's dramatic, it gave me a huge confidence boost. So, you know, whatever works, works. Um, and then I walked out confidently, and that set the stage for the performance. And the last thing is understanding um that I am doing my best and that I have done my best, and it is now time to share with people all the hard work that I have done. And a great way to document that hard work is through a Notable Practice Journal, and the link and the code are in the show notes. Alright? That is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do like, subscribe, share, comment, follow, all the things, and share this um episode with your friends, your musician friends, especially the ones who may have performances coming up. And I will see you in the next episode. Alright, take care, bye bye.

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Eleanor

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