2 Strategies For The Week Before The Performance

Performance soon? Here's how I prepare to perform.

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Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

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.

The Practice–Performance Gap

SPEAKER_00 0:45

We all know that we need to practice before a performance, before a music exam, or before an audition. We got that. Our teachers have told us. We understand that. So what do we do? We get into the practice room and we work on that and we really, really, really, really practice a lot. But then when we get to the performance or the audition, something's changed. We don't play as well, we feel a bit different. And all of a sudden we're wondering, what is what happened? What happened in that audition? I played this yesterday so much better than I did today. What is happening and why is it happening? It can be so frustrating when this happens seriously. Like, and it's happened to me so many times throughout the years where I'm just practicing and I know, like, okay, it's ready, it's ready, I feel it, I feel it, and then I get there and I'm like, oh, it's not ready. Oh, it's falling apart, and it's not a good feeling. So there have been many auditions where I didn't sound as good in the practice room. I have tried a ton of methods to remedy this, and there are two specifically that have helped. So after starting these two practices, I have found that they help with these issues of having the disconnect between the practice session and the performance. And I think it's really important to share them because if you have clicked on this episode, I have a feeling that you understand what I just said. Like you understand this feeling of why this is happening. I played it so well, and then I get out in front of people and it's it's different. So these are two things that have helped me, and once I started doing them and doing them consistently, I started to see a little bit of a change, which is so exciting. Before

Two Strategies That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_00 2:36

we dive in, if you are listening to this and you know one of your friends who is also struggling with this, and they are like popping up in your mind, and you're like, oh my gosh, this person has told me this, that they've struggled with this, that this is frustrating for them, go ahead and send this episode to them, please. These are two things

Share This With A Friend

SPEAKER_00 2:55

that have really helped me, and I want to share these two strategies with as many people as they can help. So please, if you have someone in mind, if that this person has popped up in your mind, please do pause this episode, hit that share button, and send it to them. I will wait and then we can continue. And if you are that friend, welcome. Thank you for being here. I am so glad that you are here. Alright, let's dive in.

What Visualization Really Does

SPEAKER_00 3:26

The first thing is visualization. Why is visualization important? Now that's a big word, okay? That's a big word, and it might not mean anything to you, and that's fine, especially if you've never heard it used in this before. So, why is visualization important? Well, visualization is the idea of you kind of visualizing what you want to happen. And it is important because your brain doesn't know what is real or imagination. Like Loki, your brain does not know what you are imagining versus what you are actually seeing in the real world. So you can imagine things going well, and subconsciously it makes your brain go, oh yeah, no, that's the reality. I've seen that. And it it helps it to kind of be easier to attain. So, like if you are doing an audition and you're nervous about it, and you sit down and you visualize, you imagine you in the audition, and you're calm and you're collected and you feel good, and maybe you like, um, depending on if you know what the audition room looks like, you might, you might not. Um, you can also visualize like walking up to the building, walking into the building. You can change things, so you're like, okay, I wonder what would it look like if the piano was this way? What would it look like if the you know judges were this way? All of these things, um, you can just visualize them, and then your brain will just be like, okay, well, I've seen that, I've seen that, it must be real, and then when you actually do it, your brain's like, oh, we've done this before, we've done this before, and it's been fine, and that can really help.

Step-By-Step Visualization Routine

SPEAKER_00 5:09

So, how do I do it? Let me tell you exactly how I do visualization. First thing is I sit down. I usually just sit down, I get into like a comfy position, and I focus on my breathing. I just focus on going, you know, just like the inhale and the exhale, just really focusing on the sensation in my body of my lungs expanding and getting smaller and expanding and getting smaller. What does that feel like? I feel the ground underneath me, um, and that really helps to ground me, and I just focus on the breathing. And then I imagine what it might look like if I go into the building, right? If I if I whether I'm like taking the train to this audition, or maybe I'm taking a car or a bus or walking, whatever it is, and I imagine that what might it look like? What might the building look like? What might it look like going in? And it's not necessarily just looking like what do I feel like? Because you might the building might look different, okay? What do I feel? Going, let's say I take the bus to the audition, sitting on the bus, what do I feel inside of me? And you just try and curate calm. I feel calm, and just feel like just focus on your breath and feel the calm. And then imagine. So now your brain's kind of associated with the bus right there that you know you're gonna take to calm.

unknown 6:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And then you think about walking in, and maybe you have to do a registration, right? You have to sign up or like you know, say that you're here. How do I feel when I do that? Calm, collected, excited, maybe. And you you really think about that feeling. What does it feel like to be excited? What does it feel like in my body to be excited? Okay, and then your brain's connected those two things together. And then you say, Okay, warming up. Do you get what I mean? Like it just keeps going. So, warming up, how do I feel when I play that first note on my instrument? How do I feel? And you maybe decide. Like, the the important thing is deciding how you feel, not going, oh my gosh, what if I feel stressed? What if I feel scared, nervous? What if, what if? No, no, no. You are deciding, you are saying, I'm gonna feel calm, I'm gonna feel excited, I'm gonna feel confident. Because let's remember, confidence is a choice. So I'm gonna feel confident, I'm gonna be feel calm. Then you think about okay, how does that feel like in my body, and then you feel that, and then that's how you create the brain connection, okay? And then when you're actually performing, and this is something that I do that really helps me, is I get out a recording of the repertoire that I'm playing. So if I'm playing a concerto for an audition or performance, I will um like just get a recording of it and I will play the recording, and I am not mentally practicing in this exercise. I am not imagining like um, you know, the fingerings or whatever. I am listening to the music and really honing that calm feeling in my body. So as I am listening, for me, it's playing the oboe, as I am listening to the oboist in the recording, you know, go all the way down and up the instrument, all of these passages or whatever, even if it's a passage that I'm nervous about, I am deciding to feel calm in that moment. I am imagining myself performing this piece in the audition, and I am focusing on how I feel, which I've decided is calm, collected, and confident. And so I think about okay, how does it feel to be calm, collected, and confident in my body? And so as I'm listening to the music, imagining in my mind's eye um what it looks like, I am feeling in my body calmness and confidence. Okay, what does that feel like? Focus back on the breath as well. As I'm saying this, it does sound like quite a lot to focus on. Um, but in the moment, I think I think it kind of all comes together. Um, but if you ever get overwhelmed when doing this or confused or whatever, just go back to the breath. Just think about your breath. What does my breath feel like? That's a good grounding thing. So really thinking about calmness whilst listening to this and kind of imagining you playing it, and so your brain now is like, oh, when I play this thing, this is like kind of how I feel, and it has that link, and that's that that is kind of how I do it, and it creates that connection, and

Simulating Nerves And Stress

SPEAKER_00 9:51

that's so helpful. Kind of the week running up to the audition or whatever it is, the performance, I'll do that maybe a few times. So I'll do that like in the morning, maybe four days, you know, the the four days before I have the the performance of the audition every morning or every evening or whatever it is I am doing this visualization. It is so good. The more you do it, the stronger it gets, right? So that that is really helpful for me. So that's visualization, that's the first thing. The second thing, stim what what does this say? Okay, I'm reading my script and I just read the wrong word. Okay, simulation of nerves and stress. So now we've done visualization, that's great. We've told our brain we're gonna be calm, that's great. Now we're gonna kind of go for a more athletic side, and that is simulation of stress and nerves, which might sound like it's opposite to the visualization, but they kind of complement each other. So, why is this important? And then we're gonna talk about how I do it. It's important because it's important to prepare for stress. Even if you do visualize, you might still feel a little stressed, a little nervous, and that might affect your playing. Okay, especially for wind players are breathing, it can affect that. So, yes, the visualization is so helpful for me, and it kind of takes me down from a really stressed position, but you might have some stress still, even a little bit, um, or it might just be in your body, and that might affect your plane. So, this is kind of how we work on that as well. So, what we're doing is we're prepping our body so it's ready. So, the biggest thing kind of that we do when we are stressed is our heart rate goes up, okay? And that leads our breathing to we're starting to pant, maybe, maybe hyperventilate a bit, which makes our heart rate faster, which makes us hyperventilate, which makes our heart rate faster. Did you see? It's kind of like a tumbling down the hill situation. So we need to prepare for this, we need to simulate it, and we need to know what our sound is going to sound like when our body might feel kind of stressed. So, this is how I

Turning Data Into Better Playing

SPEAKER_00 12:06

do it. I, in my practice sessions, about you know, a few days before, maybe even a week before the um audition or performance, I will do this. I will jump up and down, I will dance around, I will get my heart rate up. No matter how I get it up, I just get it up, okay? Next, I play through the pieces like it's a performance with my heart rate up. So my heart rate's up, maybe I'm a little out of breath, and I play, okay? And for Obo, that is so hard because all of a sudden my breaths aren't as long. Maybe the breath marks that I've had in my piece are kind of, you know, not as where they should be, or I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I can't actually get to that. I need to take a breath before that. That's great information because that might be what you're like in the actual situation of the performance or audition. So you can just put a little breath mark in there. You can plan for those things. It's basically data gathering, it's telling, is having you realize, oh, you know, when my heart rate's up and I'm I'm, you know, my breath is is a bit short. This, these are the issues that come up when I have to play this repertoire straight through, okay? And so that's what you do, and then that's your new standard because you might be stressed. And so that's the standard of playing that you're gonna be you might be playing at, okay? And so focusing on getting that better. So what you do, you evaluate what has changed now that my heart rate is up. Is it my breathing? Is it um my tone? Like what is different, and how can I work on that? Then you work on the things that have changed. If it's your breathing, then maybe you need to write more breath marks. If it's your tone, then maybe you need to practice more getting used to playing a better tone with your heart rate like this, okay? And then that's your baseline, then you do it again. And you can do this a few times in the practice session if that's something you're comfortable with, or you can take a break and do it later, but like doing it repeatedly. This is not a one thing, but throughout the the week before, just doing it repeatedly, and it's it gets you to a state where you can either play when you're stressed a little bit better, at least a little bit better, or maybe you get there and you don't feel stressed as much because you've been doing the visualization, then like your body's like, oh well, we don't, you know, we're not even our heart rate isn't even fast, you know. We're not you we're not panting. Oh my gosh, this is great, and that that is a great scenario. I have had I've I've been in that scenario before where it's like, okay, actually I feel better than I thought I would, which is so cool. So those are two things right there that have really helped me in preparing for auditions and performances.

Practice Journal Tool And Discount

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Before we do kind of the closing of this episode, I do want to tell you about a tool that really helps me in my practice. So, in that practice, um, you know, it is important to really make sure that that practice is effective. And even with these things, you might want to document some takeaways that you have from, say, doing the different exercises that we've been talking about. So, planning my practice is something that has been really helpful for me. And one tool that I use is a notable practice journal. This notable practice journal has been so helpful for me. Not only can I plan my practice, but I can also reflect. So if the plan says jump up and down and get your heart rate fast and then play the pieces through, the reflection section might say, Oh my gosh, when I did that, I did not realize that I would struggle with this thing. Next practice session, I want to I want to work on that thing. All of a sudden, I'm having more effective sessions because I'm writing these things down. I am planning my time and I am reflecting from my time, and that is so helpful, okay? As soon as I realized this journal was helping me, I knew that I needed to tell you about it and give you a code. So use code Eleanor15 for 15% off your journal. That is Eleanor15 for 15% off. I do not recommend anything that I don't absolutely love. This journal or this code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you. The link for your journal and the code will be in the description in the show notes. Please do go check it out. It has really, really helped me.

Closing And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Alright, that is about it for this episode. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. Um, this was really fun, and I really hope that these things have or are helpful for you. If you found this episode helpful, please do like, subscribe, comment, share, and I will see you in the next episode. Alright, take care.

unknown 16:47

Bye bye.