3 Takeaways from my Conservatoire Exam Prep

It's technical exam time. I have been preparing for it for months. Today let's talk about my top 3 takeaways from the prep.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Confident Musicianing
Podcast.
My name is Eleanor and I am aBritish American oboist studying
at the Royal Conservatoire ofScotland literally my dream
school and it took me a long wayto get there.
I applied and auditioned for 12schools in three different
countries.
It was a lot of hard work but,oh my gosh, so worth it.

(00:24):
I want you to have theconfidence to work hard in
achieving your goals, so comewith 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 ConfidentMusicianing Podcast.
Hello, hello, hello and welcomeback.

(00:53):
I'm so glad that you are hereToday.
We are going to be talkingabout something very interesting
Exams, exam takeaways andpracticing for exams.
So I have my technical exam formy conservatoire next week and I
have been practicing for it formany a week, from like multiple

(01:13):
months ago.
I've been working on it and Ithought it would be maybe a good
idea to talk about it before Ido it.
So I'm gonna do it and I'm surethat when I do it.
So I'm gonna do it and I'm surethat when I do it afterwards we
will.
We will catch up about it, butI think for now it could be a
good idea to talk about the prep, the practice and the process

(01:34):
of right now.
So, whether you are doing anexam, an audition or nothing and
you just want to hang out,welcome.
So I literally got back rightnow from a session with some
friends where I played some ofmy exam repertoire and it, you

(01:59):
know, right now my head is, Ifeel, is just full of exam
repertoire, head is, I feel, isjust full of exam repertoire and
I'm quite nervous for it and Ijust I'm very excited to forget
all of it, maybe not forget, butjust to kind of relax
afterwards and be like, okay, Idon't have to remember this,
that and the other.
I mean we've all been there interms of exams, whether it's

(02:19):
like a written exam or our musicexam, you know, a playing exam.
We've all kind of been therewith the.
I wonder what life will be likeafter I finish this, but for now
let's talk about three thingsthat I have noticed from my prep
with my exam.
The first thing is it will beokay to take some rest.

(02:43):
This is an interesting thingand it kind of comes back to an
episode that I did, I suppose,if you listen to it about when I
took the week of Christmas offand that's what I'm talking
about my teacher told me Iremember, like at the beginning
of December, I was thinkingabout the week of Christmas and

(03:04):
I was like, okay, you know, itwould be great, some great time
to get some practice in.
And my teacher said to me hewas like you should not practice
during the week of Christmas.
He was like take the entireweek off.
And I was like what are youtalking about?
Like I have exams coming up.
I also had auditions coming up.

(03:25):
I had performances coming up,recordings that I had to do.
I was like there's no time torest.
And he was like you need torest.
He was like, um, you've madesome great progress in the first
term and now it's time to takea break, to take some rest for a
week, whole week.
Take a break, you know, takesome time and then when you get

(03:46):
back, you'll be more refreshed.
And I trusted him.
I was like, okay, I'll do it,I'll do it.
And it was so good.
It was so good.
Now there are things that youknow.
There are takeaways thathappened, and I will link the
episode with those takeawaysdown below, um, but it was just
so amazing to be able to havethat and to do that.

(04:08):
So I was really, I remember Iwas really nervous about it.
I was like, are we going to, amI going to forget everything?
And at the end of, at the endof the break, I thought for a
hot second, I thought that I wasgoing to like I forgot stuff.
I thought I had gone back, butwhat actually happened was I my
ear had gotten better, andthat's something that I talk

(04:30):
about in that episode about thisbreak.
So I'll link that down below inthe show notes, in the
description, depending on whereyou're watching or listening to
this.
But I think that that is so, sointeresting because I'm so glad
that I did it.
You know, I'm so glad that Irested.
When I came back afterChristmas, I was like, okay,

(04:50):
let's do it.
And I think the only reason nowthat I'm not absolutely sick of
the sound of the oboe, becauseI've been practicing and
practicing and practicing forthis exam, is because I took
that time to rest.
So if you are thinking aboutresting, if your body's asking
you to do it, then do it.

(05:12):
I think it's a good thing, andmaybe you know you can check
with your teacher and kind ofjust get some check-ins, because
it's also always in amusician's fear am I resting too
much?
Should I be practicing?
So it's always a balance.
I feel it's always a balance,but for me that rest was really

(05:33):
monumental in my technical exampreparation and practice.
It really really was.
The next thing we're going totalk about is specifically about
practicing for the exam, andthat is knowing what I need to
work on and isolating on that,or isolating that.

(05:55):
This is a very interestingthing because I mean, right now
I am practicing everything.
I have a few days until my exam.
So what I'm doing is I'm likedoing the scales, doing the
extracts, doing the studies,doing all of these things, and
you know I'm isolating some ofit, but mostly it's more broad
strokes, just to make sure thatwe're all okay, everyone's fine,

(06:15):
there's nothing, no randomthing that I'm like how does
this go?
You know, just like very, verygood.
But when I was practicing a fewweeks ago, I was definitely
isolating things.
For instance, I remember I wentto my lesson and my teacher
said he was like you're a littlebit behind from where I, where
I think you should be on scalesfor this exam.

(06:37):
And I went home and I stressed,I was like what are you talking
about?
I can't be behind on anything.
I need to be, I need to be good.
I can't, I need to be good, um,and I, you know, I stressed a
bit and then, after calming down, I I isolated that so for a
while.
You know, obviously I stillpractice studies, I still

(07:00):
practiced etudes, um, or this isthe same thing.
I still practice studies andextracts.
But I really focused on scalesand I remember there was like a
week or a week and a half andthat was like a period of scale
boot camp and once I had thatdown, I was fine to kind of move

(07:21):
on.
But I think that that issomething that's really helpful,
not necessarily just for aspecific, you know, preparing
for a specific thing, but alsojust generally.
You know, isolating all thethings that you need to work on
is a really good way to practiceIn the scales.
In that week and a half I alsoisolated the specific scales
that I needed to practice.
For instance, I did notpractice major scales.

(07:43):
I can play major scales tillthe cows come home, like I am
fine with major scales, melodicminor.
On the other hand, for me thatwas confusing.
I had no idea what washappening for that, so I focused
on those.
Also, I focused on specificscales in the melodic minor and

(08:03):
universe.
So, for me, g, flat, g, g,sharp those were the three that
I was like they need help, theyneed the most help.
So I focused on those, reallyisolating those things.
That is so helpful forpreparation.
So, whatever you're preparingfor, or maybe you're just
practicing, think what's thething that I need to work on and

(08:26):
isolate that and work on itright.
A way to do that is to play,for instance, the scales.
Play all the scales and writedown for each of them are they?
Are you comfortable?
Are you not comfortable?
Are you barely comfortable?
And then play those ones thatyou are either barely
comfortable or not comfortable.

(08:46):
On the ones that you'recomfortable on, they can.
They can chill for a second.
You know what I mean.
The last thing which I literallyjust came home from was playing
for other people.
Playing for other people.
This is so, so helpful.
I literally just came home fromsome of my friends and I.

(09:07):
We got a practice room and Iplayed my, my exam stuff, some
of them.
Like more than half of them, um, have already done their exams,
so they were able to pretend tobe the panel, which was very
nice, um, and they just askedstuff of me.
They were like play G, flat,harmonic minor, you know tongues

(09:28):
flowing, etc.
And that was really helpful.
That was really helpful For me.
I also did an Instagram scalesgame over.
On my Instagram I put all mystories and I asked people to
put in different scales and thenI recorded myself playing these
scales and posted them on mystories.

(09:49):
Um, that's something dependingon if you, if that's something
that you're into, if you do havethat, if you could do that with
friends or maybe you knowwhatever.
If that's something that you'reinto, then then maybe you could
do that.
Um, playing for your teacher ohmy gosh, I play for my teacher
all the time.
The past two, three, actuallyprobably four lessons have

(10:15):
started out as kind of mocksituations in some capacity or
another.
So I go in and he's like youknow, play this, play that you
know, and it's very much like atesting of can we do this, can
we do this?
And then also I've done classesand this is more kind of
through, like in my conservatoryclasses where we focus on

(10:39):
specific things for the exams.
So I remember one time we didlike a scales competition, which
was really fun, so and eventhat, like you can do that.
I know they're not myinstrument, but there were some
other students who kind of gottheir instrument everyone who
played that instrument togetherand they did the scales kind of
thing.
They did a game.
I don't know what they did, Iwasn't there but they did a

(11:00):
scales thing where they allplayed scales.
All of these things are greatways that I have found for prep
for me.
Um, and I think hopefully Iwant to share, you know, I want
to share this.
So hopefully this can help youin whatever you are preparing
for as well.
Just play, play, play, play,play, play.

(11:21):
I think mock auditions this isnot an audition, but mock
auditions can be so, so helpful.
I remember one mock audition Idid and I really didn't know
that I wasn't prepared for myreal auditions and I went in and
it wasn't good.
It really wasn't good and I'mvery glad that I did that,

(11:42):
because then I knew what to workon, what to work on.
So, in terms of talking aboutall of this, in terms of
practicing, in terms ofpreparing and kind of being
overwhelmed by all of the stuffthat I need to do.
The only thing and I can saythis with very much confidence

(12:05):
the only thing that has kind ofkept me together in terms of
organising is my practicejournal my practice journal if
you're watching this, you cansee it.
My practice journal is like thething that's holding me
together in terms of myorganisation.
And my practice journal is fromNotable.

(12:26):
I started using Notable'spractice journals a few months
ago and it has really changedthe way I practice.
Now I can actually plan what Iwant to focus on.
It's focused.
You know, my practice hasgotten way more focused and I
think this is a big thing forwhen we're stressing about

(12:48):
auditions or exams, I know whenmy practicing is over.
That's a really important one,because a lot of the times,
especially in the evening, mymind's like you should be
practicing.
Why aren't you practicing?
And I can literally look atthis journal and be like because
I've already practiced this,that and the other and I'm fine,
that's fine for today.

(13:08):
So this is so, so helpful.
It has helped me.
There's also like reflectionstuff after every session so you
can make sure that you improveat least a little bit every day
through reflection.
It's really helped me.
So as soon as I knew that thisjournal was working, I knew that
I needed to tell you about itworking.
I knew that I needed to tellyou about it and I knew that I

(13:30):
needed to give you a code.
So the code is Eleanor15 for15% off your order.
That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R-1-5 for15% off your order.
I will link the link in thedescription, in the show notes,

(13:53):
so that you can get your journaland literally just upgrade your
practice, your practiceorganization.
It has really been the thingthat has held me together
through this exam season,seriously.
So, alright, let's do a bit of arecap.
Number one it'll be okay totake some rest.

(14:17):
This, this, that week of rest,really helped me to not be sick
of my OVO and to be fullyrefreshed and excited to dive in
to all of the things that Ineed to do for my exam.
The second thing is knowingwhat I need to work on and

(14:37):
isolating that, and this can beso helpful because if we just
stretch ourselves over thethings even the good things that
are fine that we maybe don'tneed as much attention to things
that are fine that we don'tmaybe don't need as much
attention to the stuff that weneed attention to can slowly
diminish and get worse and worse.
So really isolating the thingsthat we need to work on can be
so helpful.

(14:57):
And then the last thing isplaying for other people.
Yeah, anyone and everyone yourteacher, your friends, people on
Instagram, maybe, if that'ssomething that you do, all of
these things can be so, so, sohelpful.
Alright, I am going to go takemy exam.
By the time you hear this, Iwill have taken it, but I'm

(15:23):
going to go take my exam now andI'll let you know how I do.
I'm very excited.
Alright, that is about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
As always, the stuff to do withthe episode is in the
description.
It's in the show notes,including the what's it called,

(15:54):
the blog post and all of thelinks to do with this episode,
including the other podcastepisodes that we talked about,
and also the link to getyourself a notable practice
journal.
All right, take care Bye.