How Musicians Can Use Hobbies To Refuel Creativity

Hobbies are so important, even to musicians. Today we dive into how you can implement them in your life.

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Transcript

Welcome And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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. Most times when I ask musicians about their hobbies, they say, um I don't have any. Music is basically all I do. And doing music is great. Do not get me wrong, I love being a musician. It is like so strong in me, the want to perform and to practice. Um, but I think as well, I wonder why. We as musicians have decided to deny ourselves the creativity, curiosity, and fun that a hobby can bring. It's like fun for the sake of fun. Even if it's just 10 to 20 minutes a day, why have we decided that we can't do things just for fun? I think for me, like sometimes when I do hobbies or I do fun things, I struggle with this. I feel like, oh my gosh, it's not productive. I should be doing something that will like lead to um some sort of you know way to get to like success or things I want or like goals, things like that. And to me, it's it's sometimes difficult to just do something for the fun of it. But that I think is where the magic of hobbies are. Um because then when I do hobbies, I do feel fulfilled. It's like filling your cup back up so that you can, you know, work on things and put effort into things because it's the time to to rest and relax. We might say, well, going back to like why do musicians not allow, like, why don't we allow ourselves to have hobbies? I think the thing that we might say for the reason for that is time. Like I have so much time, you know, so much work, not so much time. I have so much stuff that I have to get done, I have to practice, I have to prepare, I have to do this and that and the other, that I don't have time for hobbies. And I think as well, we can think of it. We often think of hobbies as like I have to take up something big, you know, I have to become a a good snowboarder, or I have to do rock climbing, or swing dancing, or something really quite, I don't know, involved. Um, and it's so good to do a hobby that is involved like that, but I think often that might scare us away. It's like, oh my gosh, I do not have time to go swing dancing or rock climbing or snowboarding because I have to prepare, you know, this Mozart concerto. Fair enough. So I think that there's also, you know, hobbies that we can do that do not involve a snowboard dancing shoes or whatever the other one I said, rock climbing. Um, we can do a hobby that is drawing, that is writing in a notebook every day, or like writing poems, or whatever it is. So we're gonna get into kind of more about um types of hobbies and things like that later, but I think it's really important if we say, Oh gosh, I just don't have the time, what in terms of hobbies, what are you prioritizing? Because what does a hobby do? A hobby creates time for you to have enjoyment for the sake of enjoyment, and it can be something big, it can be something small. But I think as a musician, talking to you who is a musician, I think it's important to incorporate hobbies, even if it is 10 to 15 minutes a day, I think it makes such a big difference. So let's dive into that and kind of why hobbies are important. We've kind of talked about that a little bit, but let's talk a more about what hobbies do specifically and how we can create hobbies, and then I have a really long list of hobbies that I thought of um to kind of inspire you big ones, small ones, teeny ones, and everything in between. So let's dive in. The first thing: why are hobbies important? Hobbies give your brain contrast. If you spend every day, hours upon hours a day in a practice room, what are you doing in that practice room? You are focusing, you are working on things, you are doing um scales and extracts and etudes and you know, figuring out phrasing and basically a lot of brain work. You're doing a workout for your brain. That is what practicing is. If you are in a rehearsal, what are you doing? You are playing with other people, you're figuring out, okay, how do I blend my sound, you're looking at the conductor, you're getting feedback, that is work. You know, if you are studying at a conservatoire or university, you will have uni work, you might have papers to write, that is work, right? Like it it is things that you have to put your energy out, and your brain probably loves doing that because that is what you are doing. But having a hobby contrasts that. So, okay, if you don't know this metaphor, your cup is like your energy or like your energy holder. And the water or whatever you're filling your cup with is your energy. You're filling your cup with your energy, and then when you are working on something that maybe requires your brain when you're practicing, when you're rehearsing, etc., you're pouring that cup out, you're pouring your energy onto something. But you need to have something, some way to put energy back into your cup afterwards. And so that I think is what like having a hobby, at least for me, it's helps me a lot, and I think it's so important to talk about. And I think another thing that's really cool is that your brain, when it's practicing or when you are practicing, it's it's focused as you know, thinking about that. But afterwards, your brain is still thinking about it. If you have ever, and I have done this, but if you have ever fallen asleep and had a dream about the music you've practiced, um that is that shows that your brain is still processing that stuff, right? If especially like I've done practice sessions where I have practiced and then took taken a nap afterwards, and I like I'm dreaming about the music. So that's like your brain processing it afterwards. And if you move on to something else, that you know, if you never have time to just do something fun for fun, your brain, I think, you know, it just it can get too overloaded, you know what I mean? Especially like like for me in my experience, I have like definitely experienced that, and it kind of for me it leads to burnout. I'm like, why would you want that? Having a really good balance is so important, and I encourage you to if you don't yet have a hobby, find a hobby, you know, because it can be so helpful. So that goes right into creating hobbies. This is where it gets fun, okay? So, what do you want to do? What hobby do you want to do? Some people like do knitting, I do knitting, some people do drawing, some people cook, some pe you know, there's a lot of stuff that you can do. Now, it can be so easy to be overwhelmed by hobbies like oh my gosh, I have to commit to something. You don't have to commit to something. You can have a bunch of hobbies that you pick up randomly. You could have a knitting project that you do once a week, you know, and it's not like you've said it once a week, it's just that it happens once a week. You can, you know, have a hobby of cooking, but maybe you do like a week where you cook a lot and then you don't cook for two months and then you cook again. That is fine too. Basically, it's like what do you just want to do, right? What makes you like have fun? What is enjoyable? Right? So, in terms of figuring out a hobby, I'm gonna ask you a question. Okay, let's get ready. Who? If time didn't matter, or like any responsibilities, so if if time, like having the time, not having the time, did not matter, or any like responsibilities that you already have prior like prior responsibilities, if none of those things mattered, and you could just do anything for fun, and there was no pressure, and it's not something you have to like produce a thing at the end, like a project. There's no pressure, there's no stress, there's no deadlines, absolutely nothing. What is the first thing that comes to your mind that you're like, oh, I want to do that? Right? What is it? Is there something that's come to your mind? Have you like all of a sudden gone, oh, well, I've always wanted to get into drawing? And if I didn't have time, like restraints or responsibilities or anything like that, if this thing did not matter, like I didn't have to produce something for you know, a project or something at the end, if it's just for fun, what is that thing? Okay, what is it? What just popped up in your brain? Because I have a feeling that that might be a great hobby. Right? Even if it's something that someone else does professionally, right? So, like if you for some reason, like I don't know, say just thought of wow, I love science. It just is a it's something that I just want to learn about. Science is interesting, and you know, I feel like people who like science and learn science might want to just become scientists, but maybe you don't, maybe you're like, Oh, I love being a musician, but oh, I just want to kind of learn about what's what's the periodic table about? That's a great hobby. Amateur scientists, like that's that's great, right? If there is something that did not come to your mind, that is absolutely fine, totally fine. So I've come up with a list. If something has not come up to your mind, I have a list of things that might be interesting to you. So, here are some ideas. We have knitting, crocheting, and sewing. Those are the first three. I love to knit. I am a knitter, I am a crocheter. Um, I sew, I I sew it sometimes. This was a very interesting hobby during my gap year. Um, because I took a gap year before starting at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, I would do hobbies religiously. Like every day or every week, depending on like the week or the day, um, I would make sure that I incorporated at least something fun. And what I did at the time I was so interested, and I still am interested, in the fashion of the decade of 1890. So niche, so niche. I love it. I love the silhouettes, I love the sleeves, I love the fabric, I love all of it. And I was like, I want to create an 1890s shirt waist, which is like their word for a blouse. And I was like, okay, I want to do it, and I want to do it like really authentically. I only use primary sources, I researched a ton, I dug up like you know, um women's sewing magazines from like eight the 1890s, like primary sources. I made it out of out of a bed sheet. I had never really sewn before. I did the entire thing by hand. It took about eight months to do. I learned the stitches, I learned what I needed, I learned how to do it. I designed it, I did not follow a pattern, I designed it and I created this shirt waist, and I have it and I've worn it out before. Um that is such a niche hobby, but it brought me so much joy because you know I was all day putting like output, focusing, focusing on stuff, and all I wanted to do at the end of the day was to just sew this shirt waist and research primary sources from the 1890s. So that is something that I like it really filled my cup, and that was a really great hobby for me. So you do not have to do it to that extreme. Um, you can knit, crochet, sew, I mean you could like crochet little stuffed toys, like whatever, whatever you know makes makes it interesting for you. Another thing is learning a new language. I love learning languages. I um um I speak German, um, I speak some Japanese, I speak a little Swedish, I'm learning French, I love language, I love learning languages, so I had to put this on the list because if you are someone who loves learning and communication, that's a great hobby to have. Reading, reading anything, reading non-fiction books, reading fiction books, reading the newspaper. I recently, this is really funny, I recently bought my very first newspaper. I have never bought before this, I have never bought a newspaper like as the paper paper. I just never did. I always got my news online, and I was like, what if I just buy a paper? What if I buy a paper? And I did, and I went to the news shop and I bought a paper, and to me it was like an adventure. Um, but it's really helped, especially in my practice, because when I do practice breaks, I tend to just like go on my phone and scroll. Um, but instead I picked up this newspaper that I bought, and that really helped in terms of focus of practicing because when during my breaks, I had kind of this this thing that you know kind of filled my cup back up rather than scrolling, which can kind of it your brain is still trying to focus, like it doesn't fill your cup back up. So reading anything, um, writing, writing anything. You can write stories, you know, that's fun. Writing just a story, and it doesn't have to be good, you don't have to show it to anyone. Just write. Um, writing poetry, if that's what you're into, that's amazing. Writing absolutely anything, writing letters. You could you could it could be a hobby that you write letters to someone like across the world, or maybe you write letters to your future self. Oh, I love that. Um, just writing whatever you want. Drawing does not have to be good, you do not have to show it to anyone, you can just do it for the fun. Okay, drawing, painting, there are lots of painting tutorials on YouTube. I looked them up when I was younger, um, when I was in high school, uh, this was like during the the COVID lockdown, and I I had a lot of time on my hands, and so I really got into painting tutorials on YouTube, so I know that they are there. Painting is great. Learning about a new subject. So going back to the kind of science thing. If you're just interested in something that you know might be like something that maybe someone else has as a profession, but maybe you're just interested in it, but you don't actually have the profession or the pressure of like studying it, just like look stuff up and watch documentaries about whatever you're interested in, learning about a new subject, whatever that subject is, right? I mean, for me it was the 1890s during my gaff year, and then tying that in with sewing a shirtwaist. So there's that cooking. Cooking is so much fun. I love to cook. Baking, um, I put tennis or any sport. I don't know, that was the first sport that came to my mind. Um, any sport that you want to do, if you want to do a sport, um martial arts, that's something I did martial arts growing up, that was really fun. Um, you can go to the gym, you know, get a gym membership. The gym, you know, you can make friends at the gym. This is also like if you go somewhere, you can like make friends, and that's great as well. Um, or you can dance, join a dance class. Or if you do not want to join a dance class, you're like, Eleanor, I do not have the time. Just dance in your living room or just like dance wherever. You know, one hobby of mine is pirouettes. I'm not a dancer, but I love pirouettes. I also know I don't do them very well. I really don't. I'm not the type of person that does a million turns and everyone goes, oh my gosh. I fall like lose my balance all the time, but it's fun. You know, it's fun, it's a great way of moving my body for five minutes. Piroettes, pirouettes, pirouettes is great. So that's a list of hobbies. I hope that that helped. Um I just kind of wrote all down the the hobbies that that came up to in my mind. You could grow a garden planting, you know, potting plants, things like that. So there's a lot to do, there's a lot you can do. It does not have to be good, it does not have to be consistent because this is for fun, right? But I think as musicians, it's so important to have a hobby. Something that has nothing to do with music, because I think it also enhances the music. When you have something that takes your mind off of the music and just kind of fills your cup back up, then the next day when you go to practice, you have the energy to. You have you know the the yeah, you have the energy to to to to just focus, right? And you also know I'm gonna do a hobby at some point today, or something like that, or tomorrow, or whatever it is. Like you have that as well. So I think it's so good to balance these things out. Alright. So that is about it for this episode. Um, before you before we go, I want to tell you about something to do with practicing. This is a tool that really helps me in my practice. I absolutely love it. Um, it is a notable practice journal. It is a really, really crappy feeling. Um, really, really crappy feeling in the practice room when you don't know what you're like what to do. You're stuck in the practice room, you have this room for an hour or whatever, and you don't know what to do. A great remedy for that is planning your practice, and that is what a notable practice journal helps you do. I plan my practice in this journal, and I there's like a space to plan my practice, and there's also a space to reflect. That is so important because then the next practice session can be even better than this one because I have reflected and I'm like, okay, I I you know I tried this, it was okay, but next time I want to do that. So that's a great way of practicing and planning and reflecting. It's all great. As soon as I realized that this was a helpful tool for me, I knew that I needed to tell you about it and give you a code. So use code LNR15 for 15% off your journal. And let's get so productive, so effective in our practice sessions. This code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you. And the link for this and the code will be in the description in the show notes of this episode. Alright, let's Do a bit of a wee recap. So basically, why are hobbies important? Hobbies balance things out. If we all day just put like output, you know, do output, you know, do like put our energy on things and kind of drain ourselves at the end of the day, that's not gonna be very good. Um, we need to have something that balances it out, and when we fill our cup, it means that the next day or the next time we we we put do the output, it will be more like effective and more full of energy. The next thing, creating hobbies. Um, what is it that you want to do? I gave you a huge list. Um, and and and if you are still not sure and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like maybe there were some things, go back and listen to that list again, or you can just look up a list. Um, it is it it like having a hobby that that works for you is so helpful. Alright, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I am so grateful. If you found this episode helpful, please do like, subscribe, comment, and share it with someone who you think needs it. Because I know you're thinking right now of someone, someone in your life, some musician who is tired, who works a lot, and who doesn't make time for themselves. Okay, we all know at least five, honestly. Um we know we know we know at least well, at least one. Send it to them, okay? Because we all as musicians we deserve time for ourselves. So please, please do send this to them. Um, if you are that person, hello, welcome, thank you for being here. Um, I hope you like the episode. Yeah, and I will see you in the next episode. Alright, take care. Bye.