May 20, 2025 • 18 mins
When we practice, we tend to think it is just playing our instrument. But that isn't everything! Here are four ways I practice.
This episode is available as a blog post. Click here to read!
Click here for more on how I mentally practice.
Use code ELEANOR15 for 15% off your Notabl_ practice journal, and level up your focus in your sessions! Click here for your journal.
I never recommend anything that I don't love. This contains an affiliate code which means that I receive a commission -- with no extra cost to you! 😊
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
(00:53):
I am an oboe student at aconservatoire and if all I did
when I practiced was just playthe oboe, then I would not have
grown as much as I have at theoboe.
I think it's such aninteresting thing.
I feel like when we think ofpractice a a lot of the times me
included we just think ofsitting down with your
instrument, making noise, doingthe same thing over and over
again until you get it right,spending hours and hours, and
(01:14):
hours and hours in a room justmaking noise, making noise, and
I mean that is good to a point.
But I think it's also reallyimportant to apply different
kinds of practice, because thereare, you know, kinds of
practice where we play ourinstrument, but then we can also
practice in ways that are alittle different, maybe even
(01:37):
without our instruments.
That can still help us inspecific things.
I think if all we did was onething to fix a multitude of
issues, some of those issueswould not be fixed as well as
they could be if we had.
You know, if we just do onething, which is just practice by
playing and making noise.
So today we are gonna diveright into different ways of
(02:02):
practicing.
I have four different ways thatI practice and, like everyone's
, I suppose everyone's levels interms of like how much you do
one thing versus another thingis gonna be different, but these
things have really helped me inmy practice.
So let's get into it.
(02:22):
I think it's really important tounderstand the different kinds
of practice, first and foremostto get better in the ways that
we specifically need.
So for me, I am currentlychanging styles, oboe playing
styles from the American styleto the European style and unless
you're an oboist, you might notknow like it it's.
(02:44):
That is a lot right.
That is completely a differentway of playing the oboe.
My embouchure is different, theway I breathe is different, the
way I, you know, support my airis different All of these
things, the reads are different,they're so, so different, and
because of this I'm actuallytraining different muscles than
I would be using if I was doingthe American style.
(03:07):
And because of this I, you know,get a lot of fatigue from this.
Especially at the beginning, Ilike I couldn't play for longer
than like 10 minutes at a timebecause my face was just so
tired, because it's doingsomething it's not used to, and
so.
So, in order to kind of justget everything done that I
needed to do practice wise, Icouldn't always just play the
(03:30):
oboe, and that can also be thecase if maybe you struggle with
pain as well.
I have some chronic illnesses,and that they contribute to pain
when I play the oboe.
If I play the oboe for too long, I do get some pain, and so you
know, if I have a day where I'mhaving more pain than usual,
(03:51):
then I might need to have analternative way of practicing
that day.
So here are four ways ofpracticing that have helped me
grow so far.
So the first one is regularpractice.
We're starting off with theregular one.
I mean, I suppose regular issubjective, but the practice we
(04:12):
think of when we think ofpracticing, just playing the
oboe, just practicing and Ithink there are different ways
of doing this specific thing.
I mean we could just like getinto a practice room and just
like play whatever and then justkeep going and then just like
(04:34):
just make noise, or we can beextremely intentional with every
note.
It is easy to just playwhatever we want, but being
intentional with everything,even every single note, is
really really helpful.
I think something that I havebeen working on in my regular
practice, and just the standardpractice that I do, is really
(04:57):
channeling joy through the oboeand fullness of sound.
I think this is reallyimportant because I recently
failed my midterm technical examat my conservatoire and I'm
doing a reset and one of thethings that I'm working on is
kind of preparing before playingscales and making sure that it
(05:18):
is basically just as musical asit possibly can be and full of
just joy and just fullness andconfidence and you know all of
these good things, um, to helpespecially with, like the stress
of it right, and so when I'mpracticing, being intentional
with every single note that Iplay is really helpful.
(05:42):
It can be tiring.
I feel like sometimes I getdone with some practice and like
this was, this was reallytiring, I'm really tired.
But that is kind of a similaridea of just being intentional
with every single note, even ifit does make you tired.
But that's much better thanjust playing, to play If you
want to get better.
(06:02):
You know, if you're focusing onsomething, it's much better
than just playing whatever andnot actually being there and
thinking about it, because thenyou're just wasting time, you
know I mean.
So that's the regular practice.
That's the first kind ofpractice and I think we probably
all all have been acquaintedwith this kind of practice.
That's a practice, that that weall do, um, and that we all
think of when we think ofpracticing.
(06:24):
The next thing that I think isinteresting and that has helped
me so much is mental practice.
This is practice without theinstrument.
You're not playing theinstrument when you do this, and
I think it's interestingbecause if we think about it, if
you think of your instrument,whatever it is, if you set it
(06:45):
down on the floor, it's notgoing to make noise.
You know what I mean?
It's not, it's just going tosit there If you're like go make
noise, it won't make noise,it'll just sit there.
What it needs is you.
It needs you to kind ofinitiate that noise and then
it'll create music.
So, basically, what that meansis that you are the person that
(07:06):
actually creates the music.
You just use a tool and that'syour instrument.
I think it's very easy for us tothink that, you know, the
instrument is the thing thatcreates the music, but we are
the thing that creates the music.
The instrument is just like,kind of just the tool that we
use to create it with you know.
And so, with that in mind, inorder to kind of get things in
(07:26):
your head, especially if youfeel like the oboe well, for me,
the oboe, whatever yourinstrument is, is in the way.
This is a great way to workthrough that with mental
practice.
I think, especially if I'mplaying oboe and especially if I
feel quite fatigued and theissue that I'm worried about or
(07:47):
I'm working on is like myfingerings, maybe, like I'm
struggling with a note change orsomething, but the thing is, my
face is so tired that it'sdistracting me from actually
working through the fingeringsand the notes.
That is when the oboe is in theway.
Do you know what I mean andthat that is a great opportunity
(08:07):
to mental practice.
So what I do, if you're watchingthis, um, if you're listening
to this, I'll kind of describeit.
These are some, some thingsthat help me.
Um, I kind of just kind ofthink about the notes.
So what I do is I kind of putmy hands together, so I've put
my hands together and then I'velike put my fingers like down,
so kind of like I'm holding myhands, I suppose, and then I
(08:34):
just put pressure on each fingerthat has the note.
So if I play like a B, flat,major scale, I'm thinking
through each note as I play andI'm putting pressure on the
fingers that are used to engagethat note.
Right, and for this youcouldn't go so slow.
Speed does not matter, right?
(08:55):
When speed happens, it's like,ah, so speed does not matter,
this is just brain connection,solely for you.
So you're just thinking throughit very slowly, just to work
through it, and that's somethingthat is really helpful and
really important in ourpracticing just getting through
it and working on each note.
(09:15):
Right, you can also do it.
I've seen people do it on theirknees.
So you put your hands, eachhand, on your knees and you just
put pressure on the fingersthat are used in each note and
you're just thinking in yourmind like, okay, now we're going
to play a G and then a C andthen whatever it is, and that
can really help just get it inyour head.
Do you know what I mean?
(09:36):
So that's one way of doing it.
There's I do have an episodeall about mental practice.
If that's something that you'reinterested in, um, I will link
it in the description in theshow notes and you can go take a
look at that if you want to Um.
But that is just kind of anintroduction to one way of how I
mental practice.
I go into more depth in thatepisode if you want to take a
(09:58):
look at it.
Um.
The next thing is activelistening.
Active listening, um, this isreally interesting because you
know, I feel like when we thinkabout you know, as musicians, we
got to listen to music.
We got to always be listening.
There are different kinds oflistening.
You can put music on in thebackground where you get work
done.
That's not active listening,that's passive listening.
(10:19):
This is active listening and Imean don't get me wrong, passive
listening is great as well, butwhat we're talking about with
this is active listening.
And I mean, don't get me wrong,passive listening is great as
well, but what we're talkingabout with this is active
listening.
So, for instance, putting onthe music and reading along with
it, get the score out, maybefinger along as well, maybe do
it like in the mental waywithout your instrument, maybe
(10:39):
bring your instrument into themix as well.
A lot of times for me, I enjoyconducting, so if I am listening
to the music and I have thescore out in front of me, so
maybe I see the oboe and thepiano part, for instance, if I'm
doing, say, a concerto with apiano or something, and I am
really just focused on that andI'm conducting the beat and I'm
(11:02):
just seeing how things arefitting in with each other, I
might clap as well and I mightsay things out loud.
I may be like one, two, three,four.
You know one, two ready and doyou know, or whatever, I might
be singing along with the pianopart so that I can understand
that better.
That is great and it's likeactively listening, right,
(11:24):
actively hearing how your partfits in with other players, and
that is very different from justputting music on and just
listening to it right or dancingto it or whatever.
This is serious, focused.
We are here to solve themystery of where do I fit in.
(11:45):
So that's one way of activelistening.
The fourth thing is score study.
Score study and activelistening are very similar, but
I think score study is moreabout understanding where you
fit in and what are the otherparts playing, and it can also
be a bit more like theory.
So, for instance, I'm currentlyworking on a sonata that I
(12:08):
literally today I am planning onsitting with it and figuring
out kind of the theory aspect ofit, kind of the keys and the
key changes and the chords andkind of how that goes, because I
have a lot of notes with thisand I know that if I understand
the harmonic structure of it, Iwill be able to play it much
(12:28):
more musically rather than justseeing a sea of notes and
getting overwhelmed.
And so that's something thatI'm working on today actually
just understanding where I fitin with the music and what the
other parts are playing and alsohow that works harmonically
right, melodically andharmonically in the whole idea
of the piece.
I think that score studythere's probably a lot of
(12:52):
different ways of doing it and Ifeel like maybe that's
something I want to kind of divemore into, just like for me
personally, um, in my, in myperforming and in my studies,
but for the at the moment, thatis specifically how I do score
study and I think it's reallyreally helpful for me as well.
So there's a lot of differentkinds of practice, and the thing
(13:15):
about different kinds ofpractice for me, I think, is
when I do a lot of differentkinds of practice, sometimes I
feel like I well, I have a hardtime remembering how much I do.
You know, because now you mightbe thinking to me, eleanor,
like what, how do I know howmuch regular practice or how
much mental practice, how muchactive listening or score study
should I do?
(13:35):
Like, what are the ratios thatI should be doing?
And I think that it's it'sdifferent for everyone.
I don't think that I personallycan like say you should do this
, you should do that, you know,50%, 60%, 20%, whatever, um, I
don't think that I would be ableto do that because it is very
different for everyone and it'sdifferent in different times.
(13:56):
So, you know, if you say forsome reason, if you're, if your
instrument's in the shop, you'renot doing regular practice and
you don't have access to aninstrument.
So you're going to be doingmental practice, active
listening score, study, all ofthese things, but then you know
when your instrument comes backthen it'll change or you know
all of these things.
So it is.
It's very specific to theperson and I think something
(14:19):
that we were, something that'shelpful when we are trying to
figure out what the ratios are,is really tracking our practice
and planning our practice sothat we can go back and see what
worked and what didn't and whatwe were doing.
And the way that I personallytrack and plan my practice is
with a notable practice journal.
This practice journal hasreally helped me in my first
(14:41):
year of music school.
It is a great way for me toplan my practice, make sure that
I have ticked everything off onmy practice checklist for the
day and also reflect on what Ithink.
So what I do with this is Iwrite down all my different
practice and then I put whetherit's regular, whether it's
(15:01):
mental, active listening score,study, all of these things and
then when I reflect I can say Ithink you know, the mental
practice was really helpful, butmaybe the regular practice
seemed a bit redundant, or maybethe active listening wasn't as
focused.
Tomorrow I want to maybe workmore on that.
Or, you know, maybe the activelistening today was really good,
or maybe I didn't do any activelistening today, maybe it was
(15:24):
just regular practice, buttomorrow I know that I should do
some active listening.
All of these things can betracked in this notable practice
journal.
As soon as I realized that thisnotebook was helping me, I knew
that I had to tell you about itand I knew that I had to give
you a code.
So use code Eleanor15 for 15%off your journal, and I will
link a link in the description,in the show notes, for where you
(15:48):
can get your journal and whereyou can use the code Eleanor15
for 15% off your journal.
You know me, I do not recommendanything that I don't
absolutely love.
This code is an affiliate code,so I do receive a commission
with no extra cost to you.
All right, let's do some orlet's do a recap.
(16:10):
So the first thing is regularpractice.
We all know this regularpractice practicing with your
instrument, kind of, but alsomaking sure that you are
intentional with every singlenote.
And that that's hard.
You know, if I think of all thenotes that I play in the day,
um, and how many I've beenintentional with it really
fluctuates sometimes.
I really struggle with it, solike it's hard.
(16:32):
But that's one way ofpracticing mental practice doing
it in your head really, andlike really focusing on the, on
the mental side of it, of thelike you thinking through it as
well and just really workingthrough it mentally and
imagining.
It is a great thing to do.
I have an episode all aboutthat, which I will link below.
The next thing is activelistening putting music on,
(16:56):
reading along with it, fingeringalong, clapping along to the
beat, saying things out loud.
You're probably just going tobe really loud and just like
listen and sing along on allthese things, but it's a good
old time.
And the last thing is scorestudy, so understanding where
you fit in, what the other partsare playing and kind of also
(17:18):
figuring out maybe the moretheory aspect of it, the
harmonic um structure of it.
All of these things are allgood things, um, and of course,
make sure you get yourself anotable practice journal to
track these things and toreflect on them so that you can
get better every single day.
All right, that is about it forthis episode.
(17:39):
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
I'm so grateful that you did.
As always, everything to dowith this episode will be in the
show notes all the things fromthe blog post that goes with
this episode to the link for themental practice episode and
also the link where you can getyour notable practice journal.
If you enjoyed this episode,please do show the love, share
(18:00):
the love, like, comment,subscribe, follow, share this
episode with all of your musicfriends and I will see you in
the next episode.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye.
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.
(00:53):
I am an oboe student at aconservatoire and if all I did
when I practiced was just playthe oboe, then I would not have
grown as much as I have at theoboe.
I think it's such aninteresting thing.
I feel like when we think ofpractice a a lot of the times me
included we just think ofsitting down with your
instrument, making noise, doingthe same thing over and over
again until you get it right,spending hours and hours, and
(01:14):
hours and hours in a room justmaking noise, making noise, and
I mean that is good to a point.
But I think it's also reallyimportant to apply different
kinds of practice, because thereare, you know, kinds of
practice where we play ourinstrument, but then we can also
practice in ways that are alittle different, maybe even
(01:37):
without our instruments.
That can still help us inspecific things.
I think if all we did was onething to fix a multitude of
issues, some of those issueswould not be fixed as well as
they could be if we had.
You know, if we just do onething, which is just practice by
playing and making noise.
So today we are gonna diveright into different ways of
(02:02):
practicing.
I have four different ways thatI practice and, like everyone's
, I suppose everyone's levels interms of like how much you do
one thing versus another thingis gonna be different, but these
things have really helped me inmy practice.
So let's get into it.
(02:22):
I think it's really important tounderstand the different kinds
of practice, first and foremostto get better in the ways that
we specifically need.
So for me, I am currentlychanging styles, oboe playing
styles from the American styleto the European style and unless
you're an oboist, you might notknow like it it's.
(02:44):
That is a lot right.
That is completely a differentway of playing the oboe.
My embouchure is different, theway I breathe is different, the
way I, you know, support my airis different All of these
things, the reads are different,they're so, so different, and
because of this I'm actuallytraining different muscles than
I would be using if I was doingthe American style.
(03:07):
And because of this I, you know,get a lot of fatigue from this.
Especially at the beginning, Ilike I couldn't play for longer
than like 10 minutes at a timebecause my face was just so
tired, because it's doingsomething it's not used to, and
so.
So, in order to kind of justget everything done that I
needed to do practice wise, Icouldn't always just play the
(03:30):
oboe, and that can also be thecase if maybe you struggle with
pain as well.
I have some chronic illnesses,and that they contribute to pain
when I play the oboe.
If I play the oboe for too long, I do get some pain, and so you
know, if I have a day where I'mhaving more pain than usual,
(03:51):
then I might need to have analternative way of practicing
that day.
So here are four ways ofpracticing that have helped me
grow so far.
So the first one is regularpractice.
We're starting off with theregular one.
I mean, I suppose regular issubjective, but the practice we
(04:12):
think of when we think ofpracticing, just playing the
oboe, just practicing and Ithink there are different ways
of doing this specific thing.
I mean we could just like getinto a practice room and just
like play whatever and then justkeep going and then just like
(04:34):
just make noise, or we can beextremely intentional with every
note.
It is easy to just playwhatever we want, but being
intentional with everything,even every single note, is
really really helpful.
I think something that I havebeen working on in my regular
practice, and just the standardpractice that I do, is really
(04:57):
channeling joy through the oboeand fullness of sound.
I think this is reallyimportant because I recently
failed my midterm technical examat my conservatoire and I'm
doing a reset and one of thethings that I'm working on is
kind of preparing before playingscales and making sure that it
(05:18):
is basically just as musical asit possibly can be and full of
just joy and just fullness andconfidence and you know all of
these good things, um, to helpespecially with, like the stress
of it right, and so when I'mpracticing, being intentional
with every single note that Iplay is really helpful.
(05:42):
It can be tiring.
I feel like sometimes I getdone with some practice and like
this was, this was reallytiring, I'm really tired.
But that is kind of a similaridea of just being intentional
with every single note, even ifit does make you tired.
But that's much better thanjust playing, to play If you
want to get better.
(06:02):
You know, if you're focusing onsomething, it's much better
than just playing whatever andnot actually being there and
thinking about it, because thenyou're just wasting time, you
know I mean.
So that's the regular practice.
That's the first kind ofpractice and I think we probably
all all have been acquaintedwith this kind of practice.
That's a practice, that that weall do, um, and that we all
think of when we think ofpracticing.
(06:24):
The next thing that I think isinteresting and that has helped
me so much is mental practice.
This is practice without theinstrument.
You're not playing theinstrument when you do this, and
I think it's interestingbecause if we think about it, if
you think of your instrument,whatever it is, if you set it
(06:45):
down on the floor, it's notgoing to make noise.
You know what I mean?
It's not, it's just going tosit there If you're like go make
noise, it won't make noise,it'll just sit there.
What it needs is you.
It needs you to kind ofinitiate that noise and then
it'll create music.
So, basically, what that meansis that you are the person that
(07:06):
actually creates the music.
You just use a tool and that'syour instrument.
I think it's very easy for us tothink that, you know, the
instrument is the thing thatcreates the music, but we are
the thing that creates the music.
The instrument is just like,kind of just the tool that we
use to create it with you know.
And so, with that in mind, inorder to kind of get things in
(07:26):
your head, especially if youfeel like the oboe well, for me,
the oboe, whatever yourinstrument is, is in the way.
This is a great way to workthrough that with mental
practice.
I think, especially if I'mplaying oboe and especially if I
feel quite fatigued and theissue that I'm worried about or
(07:47):
I'm working on is like myfingerings, maybe, like I'm
struggling with a note change orsomething, but the thing is, my
face is so tired that it'sdistracting me from actually
working through the fingeringsand the notes.
That is when the oboe is in theway.
Do you know what I mean andthat that is a great opportunity
(08:07):
to mental practice.
So what I do, if you're watchingthis, um, if you're listening
to this, I'll kind of describeit.
These are some, some thingsthat help me.
Um, I kind of just kind ofthink about the notes.
So what I do is I kind of putmy hands together, so I've put
my hands together and then I'velike put my fingers like down,
so kind of like I'm holding myhands, I suppose, and then I
(08:34):
just put pressure on each fingerthat has the note.
So if I play like a B, flat,major scale, I'm thinking
through each note as I play andI'm putting pressure on the
fingers that are used to engagethat note.
Right, and for this youcouldn't go so slow.
Speed does not matter, right?
(08:55):
When speed happens, it's like,ah, so speed does not matter,
this is just brain connection,solely for you.
So you're just thinking throughit very slowly, just to work
through it, and that's somethingthat is really helpful and
really important in ourpracticing just getting through
it and working on each note.
(09:15):
Right, you can also do it.
I've seen people do it on theirknees.
So you put your hands, eachhand, on your knees and you just
put pressure on the fingersthat are used in each note and
you're just thinking in yourmind like, okay, now we're going
to play a G and then a C andthen whatever it is, and that
can really help just get it inyour head.
Do you know what I mean?
(09:36):
So that's one way of doing it.
There's I do have an episodeall about mental practice.
If that's something that you'reinterested in, um, I will link
it in the description in theshow notes and you can go take a
look at that if you want to Um.
But that is just kind of anintroduction to one way of how I
mental practice.
I go into more depth in thatepisode if you want to take a
(09:58):
look at it.
Um.
The next thing is activelistening.
Active listening, um, this isreally interesting because you
know, I feel like when we thinkabout you know, as musicians, we
got to listen to music.
We got to always be listening.
There are different kinds oflistening.
You can put music on in thebackground where you get work
done.
That's not active listening,that's passive listening.
(10:19):
This is active listening and Imean don't get me wrong, passive
listening is great as well, butwhat we're talking about with
this is active listening.
And I mean, don't get me wrong,passive listening is great as
well, but what we're talkingabout with this is active
listening.
So, for instance, putting onthe music and reading along with
it, get the score out, maybefinger along as well, maybe do
it like in the mental waywithout your instrument, maybe
(10:39):
bring your instrument into themix as well.
A lot of times for me, I enjoyconducting, so if I am listening
to the music and I have thescore out in front of me, so
maybe I see the oboe and thepiano part, for instance, if I'm
doing, say, a concerto with apiano or something, and I am
really just focused on that andI'm conducting the beat and I'm
(11:02):
just seeing how things arefitting in with each other, I
might clap as well and I mightsay things out loud.
I may be like one, two, three,four.
You know one, two ready and doyou know, or whatever, I might
be singing along with the pianopart so that I can understand
that better.
That is great and it's likeactively listening, right,
(11:24):
actively hearing how your partfits in with other players, and
that is very different from justputting music on and just
listening to it right or dancingto it or whatever.
This is serious, focused.
We are here to solve themystery of where do I fit in.
(11:45):
So that's one way of activelistening.
The fourth thing is score study.
Score study and activelistening are very similar, but
I think score study is moreabout understanding where you
fit in and what are the otherparts playing, and it can also
be a bit more like theory.
So, for instance, I'm currentlyworking on a sonata that I
(12:08):
literally today I am planning onsitting with it and figuring
out kind of the theory aspect ofit, kind of the keys and the
key changes and the chords andkind of how that goes, because I
have a lot of notes with thisand I know that if I understand
the harmonic structure of it, Iwill be able to play it much
(12:28):
more musically rather than justseeing a sea of notes and
getting overwhelmed.
And so that's something thatI'm working on today actually
just understanding where I fitin with the music and what the
other parts are playing and alsohow that works harmonically
right, melodically andharmonically in the whole idea
of the piece.
I think that score studythere's probably a lot of
(12:52):
different ways of doing it and Ifeel like maybe that's
something I want to kind of divemore into, just like for me
personally, um, in my, in myperforming and in my studies,
but for the at the moment, thatis specifically how I do score
study and I think it's reallyreally helpful for me as well.
So there's a lot of differentkinds of practice, and the thing
(13:15):
about different kinds ofpractice for me, I think, is
when I do a lot of differentkinds of practice, sometimes I
feel like I well, I have a hardtime remembering how much I do.
You know, because now you mightbe thinking to me, eleanor,
like what, how do I know howmuch regular practice or how
much mental practice, how muchactive listening or score study
should I do?
(13:35):
Like, what are the ratios thatI should be doing?
And I think that it's it'sdifferent for everyone.
I don't think that I personallycan like say you should do this
, you should do that, you know,50%, 60%, 20%, whatever, um, I
don't think that I would be ableto do that because it is very
different for everyone and it'sdifferent in different times.
(13:56):
So, you know, if you say forsome reason, if you're, if your
instrument's in the shop, you'renot doing regular practice and
you don't have access to aninstrument.
So you're going to be doingmental practice, active
listening score, study, all ofthese things, but then you know
when your instrument comes backthen it'll change or you know
all of these things.
So it is.
It's very specific to theperson and I think something
(14:19):
that we were, something that'shelpful when we are trying to
figure out what the ratios are,is really tracking our practice
and planning our practice sothat we can go back and see what
worked and what didn't and whatwe were doing.
And the way that I personallytrack and plan my practice is
with a notable practice journal.
This practice journal hasreally helped me in my first
(14:41):
year of music school.
It is a great way for me toplan my practice, make sure that
I have ticked everything off onmy practice checklist for the
day and also reflect on what Ithink.
So what I do with this is Iwrite down all my different
practice and then I put whetherit's regular, whether it's
(15:01):
mental, active listening score,study, all of these things and
then when I reflect I can say Ithink you know, the mental
practice was really helpful, butmaybe the regular practice
seemed a bit redundant, or maybethe active listening wasn't as
focused.
Tomorrow I want to maybe workmore on that.
Or, you know, maybe the activelistening today was really good,
or maybe I didn't do any activelistening today, maybe it was
(15:24):
just regular practice, buttomorrow I know that I should do
some active listening.
All of these things can betracked in this notable practice
journal.
As soon as I realized that thisnotebook was helping me, I knew
that I had to tell you about itand I knew that I had to give
you a code.
So use code Eleanor15 for 15%off your journal, and I will
link a link in the description,in the show notes, for where you
(15:48):
can get your journal and whereyou can use the code Eleanor15
for 15% off your journal.
You know me, I do not recommendanything that I don't
absolutely love.
This code is an affiliate code,so I do receive a commission
with no extra cost to you.
All right, let's do some orlet's do a recap.
(16:10):
So the first thing is regularpractice.
We all know this regularpractice practicing with your
instrument, kind of, but alsomaking sure that you are
intentional with every singlenote.
And that that's hard.
You know, if I think of all thenotes that I play in the day,
um, and how many I've beenintentional with it really
fluctuates sometimes.
I really struggle with it, solike it's hard.
(16:32):
But that's one way ofpracticing mental practice doing
it in your head really, andlike really focusing on the, on
the mental side of it, of thelike you thinking through it as
well and just really workingthrough it mentally and
imagining.
It is a great thing to do.
I have an episode all aboutthat, which I will link below.
The next thing is activelistening putting music on,
(16:56):
reading along with it, fingeringalong, clapping along to the
beat, saying things out loud.
You're probably just going tobe really loud and just like
listen and sing along on allthese things, but it's a good
old time.
And the last thing is scorestudy, so understanding where
you fit in, what the other partsare playing and kind of also
(17:18):
figuring out maybe the moretheory aspect of it, the
harmonic um structure of it.
All of these things are allgood things, um, and of course,
make sure you get yourself anotable practice journal to
track these things and toreflect on them so that you can
get better every single day.
All right, that is about it forthis episode.
(17:39):
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
I'm so grateful that you did.
As always, everything to dowith this episode will be in the
show notes all the things fromthe blog post that goes with
this episode to the link for themental practice episode and
also the link where you can getyour notable practice journal.
If you enjoyed this episode,please do show the love, share
(18:00):
the love, like, comment,subscribe, follow, share this
episode with all of your musicfriends and I will see you in
the next episode.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye.
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