July 1, 2025 • 20 mins
Why did we start playing music? For the joy of it. That's what today's episode is all about.
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Episode Transcript
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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 welcometo this week's podcast episode.
(00:48):
Today, we are going to betalking all about cultivating
joy, finding joy in yourpractice, because I think, let's
be honest, when we started ourmusician journey whatever that
was we wanted to do it.
Do you know what I mean?
Musician journey?
Whatever that was, we wanted todo it.
Do you know what I mean?
(01:08):
Like we saw an instrument andwe thought, oh, I want to try
that, I want to figure that out.
I remember the first time Iever played an instrument and it
was the viola, and there weresome people who were older
students and they came into,like my class at school, and
they were showing theirinstruments and they were like
you can play this or this orthis.
And I remember just coming homeand telling my family like I
(01:31):
want to play the viola, I wantto play the viola.
And then, um, the viola wasadded on by the guitar and then
the oboe, and now I don't playviola anymore.
But it was my first musical loveand I think, going back to that
, you know little child for me,I was eight years old and I was
(01:54):
just like I want to play theviola.
I remember in class, like justwaiting for the time, you know,
because we had like viola classor like music class, and like I
was in math or English and I wasjust like, oh, I just want to
play the viola right now.
And I remember just wantingthat and that was just so pure
and so, I suppose, innocent.
(02:16):
It wasn't like, oh, I have tosound good at the viola.
It was just like I want to playthe viola and now, obviously,
for me at least, it's the oboe.
Right, that is my maininstrument, that I'm studying at
conservatoire and I think youknow, conservatoire is a very
different setting than, um,being eight and just wanting to
(02:38):
play an instrument and becauseyou know I was.
I was eight quite a while agoand during the you, the phase
for me being eight to now, Ihave done a lot of practice, a
lot of struggle, a lot of havingto reframe things, the idea of
(03:02):
thinking was I good, was I goodenough?
I remember when I was in schoolI would often equate kind of my
value with how well I played aninstrument or what grades I got
at school.
And that mentality I think itgets a lot of us, especially
musicians, because we'reperfectionists, we just want to
be good at something and thatjust kind of gets us and we just
(03:25):
want to be good at ourinstrument.
And then sometimes that canstart to chip away at that
beginning joy that we had whenwe first decided to start
playing that instrument.
And in a conservatoire it canbe quite competitive, it can be
quite stressful, it can be a lotof things.
(03:47):
You know it can be a lot ofthings.
It can be joyful, it can beamazing and I love studying at
conservatoire.
So far I have found it amazingand just lovely.
I have so enjoyed it.
But there is that kind of am Igood enough?
Will this be okay?
All of these stresses andthings, and because of that, you
(04:07):
know that can make us morestressed and then that can
affect our sound, that canaffect our playing, because, at
the end of the day, who actuallymakes the music?
Is it our instrument or is itus?
It's us, our instrument is atool that we use to make the
music, but all the, all themusicality, all the knowledge,
everything it's us, right, it isus, and so we need to take care
(04:31):
of us and remember that joythat we felt when we started.
I, in the past six months, havereally had a journey.
Let's say that I had a journey.
Let's say that I had a journeybecause I failed my midterm
technical exam at myconservatoire.
I overworked myself, I did nottake care of myself, I really
(04:53):
went into this rut of forgettingthe joy of oboe and just
practicing like I was a machine.
But I'm not.
I'm a human being and so areyou.
So I mean you can probablyunderstand that that didn't work
out and when I actually got tothe exam, I, just like it went
(05:15):
it just.
You know, I forgot everything.
You know, I, they, they wantedme to play some scales.
I forgot, I just forgot.
And it wasn't like me at all, itwas was so surprising.
Everyone else was surprisedbecause I am such a focused
student.
But what I didn't do was I did.
I took care of the oboe but Ididn't take care of the oboist.
I took care of the oboe but Ididn't take care of the oboist.
(05:38):
And that is really important todo.
That is so important.
And yeah, so after that, afterI failed, it was honestly
devastating because you know,when I talked about equating
kind of your worth with how youplay, that has gotten better for
me.
Definitely In the few years Ihave, I have gotten better at
(06:01):
that at that framework, um, butI really did.
Kind of it was a humbling moment.
I was like, oh my gosh.
You know I failed this exam andduring the months between my
failing my exam and my resetbecause I got a reset I really
focused on taking care of myself, on setting boundaries with my
(06:26):
oboe, setting boundaries with myoboe and my practice, taking
care of how important you knowmy mental health was.
That was so important.
And I remember I did a session.
I did a session with one of theteachers at my conservatoire
and this teacher kind of gave mea crash course in about 40
(06:47):
minutes of how to perform well,how to prepare a performance and
how to play kind of musically.
And during that 40 minutes itwas just my brain was
transformed.
I feel it was so, so, so goodand I had made a realization the
(07:08):
importance of joy in playing.
The importance of joy in playing.
Because when we started, youknow, when we started, we all we
had was joy.
Right, maybe not much skill,but joy.
And now that I have more skillfrom when I was eight or nine, I
(07:28):
am able to play better.
But I want to bring that joy ofthat eight-year-old right,
because she's still inside of meand she is so excited about
where I am and about all of thethings I'm doing musically and
she wants to share this joythrough my oboe, and so I wasn't
really letting her do that.
Do you know what I mean?
So that is what this episode isabout cultivating that joy.
(07:53):
How do we take that joy that wehad when we were young and all
we wanted to do was just makenoise and bring it back to now,
when we are stressed out, whenwe are stressed out when we have
deadlines, competitions,auditions, rehearsals, practice
sessions, performances, all ofthese things.
So let's dive into it.
(08:15):
The first thing, I mean this iskind of split out into two
things.
And the first thing is kind ofin practice, when we don't
necessarily have a performancecoming up, but just our everyday
practice.
And I think something that isso important and I think
something sorry, I just therewere birds that just flew by I
(08:37):
think that something that is soimportant with this is
cultivating curiosity.
Cultivating curiosity becausecuriosity can lead to joy.
When we first started at ourinstrument, we were curious.
We were like you know whathappens if I put the bow on the
strings?
I remember the first time Iplayed an oboe, I didn't know I
had to soak a reed.
I played it dry.
(08:57):
I was like what do I do if Iplay it dry?
It wasn't a good sound, but Iwas curious about it.
And then I was like do I soakit?
Do I get it wet?
How does this work?
I was so curious and socreating that curiosity.
Now, obviously, we have beenplaying our instruments probably
for a while now.
We know that we need to soak areed.
We know how a bow works, youknow, for a string instrument.
(09:19):
What I mean now is experimentingwith all the notes we play.
What happens if I play thiswith a little more bow on the
string?
What happens if I end this notea little quicker than I thought
I could?
What if I take this phrase andI make it more expansive, or
(09:41):
something?
Even I heard someone give kindof some tips for ways to
memorize a piece of music andthis person said and this was
like crazy to me, but they werelike memorize the chord
structure of the phrase and thenjust play whatever notes you
want in the phrase or in thechord structure of the phrase.
And then just play whatevernotes you want in the phrase or
(10:02):
in the chord structure, even ifthey're not the notes on the
page, to just understand whatnotes are important in this
section.
Now, obviously, when youmemorize something, you want to
play the right notes.
But it just made me realizelike, oh yeah, because every
piece of music has chordstructures, it has you know kind
of a structure to it.
We can have fun with that.
So, experimenting with that,you know what happens if, just
(10:26):
for 30 seconds in this practiceroom, I take a look at these two
bars, realize they're in Cmajor and just move the notes
around a little bit, see whathappens, right, and obviously
when we perform it we'll put thenotes back.
But that is something toexperiment with.
But when we put the notes backwe will have a better
(10:47):
understanding of the notes whenwe put them back, because we
know kind of the harmonicstructure of these two bars,
because we just played aroundwith it.
Do you know what I mean?
Like doing that experimentationin practice can be so helpful,
so helpful, being curious, andfrom there you'll start it, can.
(11:10):
You know it can take a while,but it can start to kind of
create joy.
Because what if you findsomething in your experiments
that you love and you're like ohmy gosh, you know, I love
playing it like this or I lovedoing it like that?
You, you know, in my personalexperience, when I experiment
more with my playing, I start tokind of like how do I put this?
(11:35):
Look like, look forward todoing more experiments, like
being like, oh my gosh, you know, this was so much fun, I need
to stop now maybe my face istired or something, but tomorrow
, you know, we can do it likethis or we can do it like that.
Right, and all of thisexperimentation kind of goes
into the practice, because ithelps us understand things more.
(11:56):
And it might not all be likeswitch the notes around, because
that might not be, you know,productive if we do that the
entire time.
Right, this is all just likelittle bits and pockets of
experimentation.
But you know, if we think toourselves, what if I play this
phrase a little differently?
What if I, you know, add acrescendo here or do this or do
that, it starts to kind of helpus with our like, like ability
(12:20):
to make music musically, notjust like read on the page.
Does that make sense?
And then it can create joy,then you can look forward to it,
then you're like, oh my gosh, Ifeel like a kid again who just
wants to play, who just has funwith it.
You know it can be reallyhelpful.
And the second thing this ismore before performing.
(12:43):
So let's say so, the thing thatwe just talked about was like
you're just practicing.
Now we have a performance, sayin two weeks.
Two weeks performance,cultivating the feeling of joy
from all of the feelings of joythat we've had in the past and
moving it onto what we have nowis kind of how I do it in this
(13:05):
stage.
So we have a performance comingup soon.
What do we do?
What I do, at least, is everymorning I sit and I think, like
I close my eyes, I do some deepbreaths I love meditation, by
the way, this is something I doall the time but I take a few
breaths and then I think howdoes it feel like to play oboe?
(13:29):
Well, how does it feel like toplay oboe?
Well.
And then I remember pastmemories and experiences of
playing oboe.
Well.
So for me, I remember there'sone audition that I did for a
conservatory in the States and Ifelt so confident in it.
(13:50):
I felt so confident and it just, I don't know, it just felt so
good.
I have this memory of me goingup a few floors in a lift
because the actual audition wason a higher floor than my
warm-up room and just me.
I think the lift had like amirror and me looking in the
mirror and thinking I am soready for this audition, I am so
(14:11):
excited to share the joy that Ihave of playing the oboe with
the panel, and I rememberfeeling that joy.
And so what I do now is I sitand I imagine that scenario, I
imagine my joy and I just bringit back up in my chest.
For me, I feel it in my chest,it's a warmth.
It's a warmth, it's notcompetitive, it's welcoming.
(14:33):
Do you know what I mean?
Like it's loving, it's justlike so, so sweet, and I welcome
that in.
And I just feel it for a second.
And then I imagine myselfplaying the oboe in whatever
practice room I'm gonna.
Do you know whatever practiceroom I'm gonna be in?
And I just feel this joy andimagine me practicing and that
(14:55):
is so helpful.
And then I do it with myperformance.
So I imagine myself performingand this kind of goes into
visualization, which is anotherpodcast episode I've done but I
imagine performing and feelingthis joy, feeling this joy and
kind of showing my brain thatthese two things can go together
.
Do you know what I mean?
(15:15):
And then when I actuallypractice and prepare for the
performance, I do that again.
I think to myself am I going to?
Or you know what does it feellike?
To feel joy in this moment?
And that's what I do, andthat's what I do and it really
helps.
It helps my breath support, ithelps my tone, it helps just my
(15:38):
general enjoyment of thepractice session and the
performances.
It is so, so helpful.
Honestly, I love it.
I love it so much.
So that's something that I doas well, and I remember, before
I took my exam reset, I did thisand I actually have it on
camera and I put it on myInstagram stories and I think I
(16:00):
asked you guys if you do it andquite a few of you do and quite
a few of you don't.
So that's kind of why I'mmaking this episode.
But there's a video of me on mycamera roll, of me just sitting
there and just asking myself outloud what does it feel like to
play oboe?
Well, and then I just take adeep breath and I imagine it and
(16:23):
you can see it's crazy becausewhen I watched it back, I was
like, oh my gosh, I can actuallysee in my face, in my body, how
I'm, my posture, how I'msitting, just me feeling so much
joy inside of me, and I waslike that is is so important and
it just helped me and I passed.
I passed my recent oh my goshand oh my gosh, that's so.
(16:44):
I'm just so happy that I passed, because I showed the panel joy
.
That was the difference, and Itook care of myself and I passed
.
Oh, all right, that is the two.
That's the two ways that I dojoy.
Now I think it's interestingbecause, in terms of doing joy
(17:07):
and doing joy, seeking joy andputting joy in the practice
sessions, a great way to do this, if you want to, is kind of
tracking your joy, kind oftracking that as well, but, more
importantly, tracking yourpractice.
What of tracking that as well,but more importantly, tracking
your practice what have youpracticed in the day and how
does it make you feel?
And maybe also reflecting onhow it's been like cultivating
(17:33):
that joy in your practicesession.
Because reflecting on sessionsis so important.
And a way that I reflect on mysession is with a notable
practice journal.
A notable practice journal isso, so, so helpful because not
only can you plan your practicebut you can also reflect and so
you can say I did thecultivation of joy.
(17:56):
I remembered that time that Ireally felt, know, really felt
so excited and confident andjoyful and I envisioned that
when I was playing and my tonegot a million times better or
whatever happened, and you canwrite it down in your reflection
section of the journal and thenthat helps, you know, for the
(18:16):
next session, the next session,as soon as I found out that a
notable practice journal was sohelpful for my practice, I knew
I had to tell you about it and Iknew I had to give you a code.
So use code ELENOR15 for 15%off your order.
That is, e-l-e-a-n-o-r 15 for15% off your order, and get
yourself a notable practicejournal and start reflecting on
(18:39):
these practice sessions, becauseit can be really, really,
really helpful.
All right, let's do a bit of arecap.
So this is just basically atwo-parter.
The first part is, in practice,experimenting, being curious,
oh, and you can also track thatin your notable practice journal
(19:00):
as well.
Um, you know what youexperiment with.
So experimenting, being curiousand, through that, seeking joy,
and then, before performing, um, cultivating that feeling, kind
of sitting with yourself andand imagining how does it feel
to play well, to playconfidently and then kind of
(19:21):
cultivating that feeling,bringing it up and then playing,
and that can be so helpful aswell.
And then you can, in terms ofreflecting and keeping track of
this cultivating joy and alsoyour experiments.
A notable practice journal issuch a helpful tool and there's
a code in the show notes, in thedescription for you and a link
(19:44):
as well, so you can get yours.
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.
Alright, that is about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
Oh my gosh, that is such alovely thing for you to you.
All right, that is about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
Oh my gosh, that is such alovely thing for you to do.
(20:04):
Please, if you enjoyed thisepisode, show the love, hit,
follow, subscribe, like all thethings All the things.
It really does help and itreally does mean the world to me
.
Help and it really does meanthe world to me and share this
(20:26):
episode with as many musicalfriends as you think will help
or will benefit from thisepisode.
Anyone you want, share it.
I'd be so grateful.
And, yeah, that is about it.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me, and I will see you
in the next episode, because Iliterally have a practice room
booked in five minutes.
Do you think I'm gonna make it?
Let's see.
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.
Hello, hello, hello and welcometo this week's podcast episode.
(00:48):
Today, we are going to betalking all about cultivating
joy, finding joy in yourpractice, because I think, let's
be honest, when we started ourmusician journey whatever that
was we wanted to do it.
Do you know what I mean?
Musician journey?
Whatever that was, we wanted todo it.
Do you know what I mean?
(01:08):
Like we saw an instrument andwe thought, oh, I want to try
that, I want to figure that out.
I remember the first time Iever played an instrument and it
was the viola, and there weresome people who were older
students and they came into,like my class at school, and
they were showing theirinstruments and they were like
you can play this or this orthis.
And I remember just coming homeand telling my family like I
(01:31):
want to play the viola, I wantto play the viola.
And then, um, the viola wasadded on by the guitar and then
the oboe, and now I don't playviola anymore.
But it was my first musical loveand I think, going back to that
, you know little child for me,I was eight years old and I was
(01:54):
just like I want to play theviola.
I remember in class, like justwaiting for the time, you know,
because we had like viola classor like music class, and like I
was in math or English and I wasjust like, oh, I just want to
play the viola right now.
And I remember just wantingthat and that was just so pure
and so, I suppose, innocent.
(02:16):
It wasn't like, oh, I have tosound good at the viola.
It was just like I want to playthe viola and now, obviously,
for me at least, it's the oboe.
Right, that is my maininstrument, that I'm studying at
conservatoire and I think youknow, conservatoire is a very
different setting than, um,being eight and just wanting to
(02:38):
play an instrument and becauseyou know I was.
I was eight quite a while agoand during the you, the phase
for me being eight to now, Ihave done a lot of practice, a
lot of struggle, a lot of havingto reframe things, the idea of
(03:02):
thinking was I good, was I goodenough?
I remember when I was in schoolI would often equate kind of my
value with how well I played aninstrument or what grades I got
at school.
And that mentality I think itgets a lot of us, especially
musicians, because we'reperfectionists, we just want to
be good at something and thatjust kind of gets us and we just
(03:25):
want to be good at ourinstrument.
And then sometimes that canstart to chip away at that
beginning joy that we had whenwe first decided to start
playing that instrument.
And in a conservatoire it canbe quite competitive, it can be
quite stressful, it can be a lotof things.
(03:47):
You know it can be a lot ofthings.
It can be joyful, it can beamazing and I love studying at
conservatoire.
So far I have found it amazingand just lovely.
I have so enjoyed it.
But there is that kind of am Igood enough?
Will this be okay?
All of these stresses andthings, and because of that, you
(04:07):
know that can make us morestressed and then that can
affect our sound, that canaffect our playing, because, at
the end of the day, who actuallymakes the music?
Is it our instrument or is itus?
It's us, our instrument is atool that we use to make the
music, but all the, all themusicality, all the knowledge,
everything it's us, right, it isus, and so we need to take care
(04:31):
of us and remember that joythat we felt when we started.
I, in the past six months, havereally had a journey.
Let's say that I had a journey.
Let's say that I had a journeybecause I failed my midterm
technical exam at myconservatoire.
I overworked myself, I did nottake care of myself, I really
(04:53):
went into this rut of forgettingthe joy of oboe and just
practicing like I was a machine.
But I'm not.
I'm a human being and so areyou.
So I mean you can probablyunderstand that that didn't work
out and when I actually got tothe exam, I, just like it went
(05:15):
it just.
You know, I forgot everything.
You know, I, they, they wantedme to play some scales.
I forgot, I just forgot.
And it wasn't like me at all, itwas was so surprising.
Everyone else was surprisedbecause I am such a focused
student.
But what I didn't do was I did.
I took care of the oboe but Ididn't take care of the oboist.
I took care of the oboe but Ididn't take care of the oboist.
(05:38):
And that is really important todo.
That is so important.
And yeah, so after that, afterI failed, it was honestly
devastating because you know,when I talked about equating
kind of your worth with how youplay, that has gotten better for
me.
Definitely In the few years Ihave, I have gotten better at
(06:01):
that at that framework, um, butI really did.
Kind of it was a humbling moment.
I was like, oh my gosh.
You know I failed this exam andduring the months between my
failing my exam and my resetbecause I got a reset I really
focused on taking care of myself, on setting boundaries with my
(06:26):
oboe, setting boundaries with myoboe and my practice, taking
care of how important you knowmy mental health was.
That was so important.
And I remember I did a session.
I did a session with one of theteachers at my conservatoire
and this teacher kind of gave mea crash course in about 40
(06:47):
minutes of how to perform well,how to prepare a performance and
how to play kind of musically.
And during that 40 minutes itwas just my brain was
transformed.
I feel it was so, so, so goodand I had made a realization the
(07:08):
importance of joy in playing.
The importance of joy in playing.
Because when we started, youknow, when we started, we all we
had was joy.
Right, maybe not much skill,but joy.
And now that I have more skillfrom when I was eight or nine, I
(07:28):
am able to play better.
But I want to bring that joy ofthat eight-year-old right,
because she's still inside of meand she is so excited about
where I am and about all of thethings I'm doing musically and
she wants to share this joythrough my oboe, and so I wasn't
really letting her do that.
Do you know what I mean?
So that is what this episode isabout cultivating that joy.
(07:53):
How do we take that joy that wehad when we were young and all
we wanted to do was just makenoise and bring it back to now,
when we are stressed out, whenwe are stressed out when we have
deadlines, competitions,auditions, rehearsals, practice
sessions, performances, all ofthese things.
So let's dive into it.
(08:15):
The first thing, I mean this iskind of split out into two
things.
And the first thing is kind ofin practice, when we don't
necessarily have a performancecoming up, but just our everyday
practice.
And I think something that isso important and I think
something sorry, I just therewere birds that just flew by I
(08:37):
think that something that is soimportant with this is
cultivating curiosity.
Cultivating curiosity becausecuriosity can lead to joy.
When we first started at ourinstrument, we were curious.
We were like you know whathappens if I put the bow on the
strings?
I remember the first time Iplayed an oboe, I didn't know I
had to soak a reed.
I played it dry.
(08:57):
I was like what do I do if Iplay it dry?
It wasn't a good sound, but Iwas curious about it.
And then I was like do I soakit?
Do I get it wet?
How does this work?
I was so curious and socreating that curiosity.
Now, obviously, we have beenplaying our instruments probably
for a while now.
We know that we need to soak areed.
We know how a bow works, youknow, for a string instrument.
(09:19):
What I mean now is experimentingwith all the notes we play.
What happens if I play thiswith a little more bow on the
string?
What happens if I end this notea little quicker than I thought
I could?
What if I take this phrase andI make it more expansive, or
(09:41):
something?
Even I heard someone give kindof some tips for ways to
memorize a piece of music andthis person said and this was
like crazy to me, but they werelike memorize the chord
structure of the phrase and thenjust play whatever notes you
want in the phrase or in thechord structure of the phrase.
And then just play whatevernotes you want in the phrase or
(10:02):
in the chord structure, even ifthey're not the notes on the
page, to just understand whatnotes are important in this
section.
Now, obviously, when youmemorize something, you want to
play the right notes.
But it just made me realizelike, oh yeah, because every
piece of music has chordstructures, it has you know kind
of a structure to it.
We can have fun with that.
So, experimenting with that,you know what happens if, just
(10:26):
for 30 seconds in this practiceroom, I take a look at these two
bars, realize they're in Cmajor and just move the notes
around a little bit, see whathappens, right, and obviously
when we perform it we'll put thenotes back.
But that is something toexperiment with.
But when we put the notes backwe will have a better
(10:47):
understanding of the notes whenwe put them back, because we
know kind of the harmonicstructure of these two bars,
because we just played aroundwith it.
Do you know what I mean?
Like doing that experimentationin practice can be so helpful,
so helpful, being curious, andfrom there you'll start it, can.
(11:10):
You know it can take a while,but it can start to kind of
create joy.
Because what if you findsomething in your experiments
that you love and you're like ohmy gosh, you know, I love
playing it like this or I lovedoing it like that?
You, you know, in my personalexperience, when I experiment
more with my playing, I start tokind of like how do I put this?
(11:35):
Look like, look forward todoing more experiments, like
being like, oh my gosh, you know, this was so much fun, I need
to stop now maybe my face istired or something, but tomorrow
, you know, we can do it likethis or we can do it like that.
Right, and all of thisexperimentation kind of goes
into the practice, because ithelps us understand things more.
(11:56):
And it might not all be likeswitch the notes around, because
that might not be, you know,productive if we do that the
entire time.
Right, this is all just likelittle bits and pockets of
experimentation.
But you know, if we think toourselves, what if I play this
phrase a little differently?
What if I, you know, add acrescendo here or do this or do
that, it starts to kind of helpus with our like, like ability
(12:20):
to make music musically, notjust like read on the page.
Does that make sense?
And then it can create joy,then you can look forward to it,
then you're like, oh my gosh, Ifeel like a kid again who just
wants to play, who just has funwith it.
You know it can be reallyhelpful.
And the second thing this ismore before performing.
(12:43):
So let's say so, the thing thatwe just talked about was like
you're just practicing.
Now we have a performance, sayin two weeks.
Two weeks performance,cultivating the feeling of joy
from all of the feelings of joythat we've had in the past and
moving it onto what we have nowis kind of how I do it in this
(13:05):
stage.
So we have a performance comingup soon.
What do we do?
What I do, at least, is everymorning I sit and I think, like
I close my eyes, I do some deepbreaths I love meditation, by
the way, this is something I doall the time but I take a few
breaths and then I think howdoes it feel like to play oboe?
(13:29):
Well, how does it feel like toplay oboe?
Well.
And then I remember pastmemories and experiences of
playing oboe.
Well.
So for me, I remember there'sone audition that I did for a
conservatory in the States and Ifelt so confident in it.
(13:50):
I felt so confident and it just, I don't know, it just felt so
good.
I have this memory of me goingup a few floors in a lift
because the actual audition wason a higher floor than my
warm-up room and just me.
I think the lift had like amirror and me looking in the
mirror and thinking I am soready for this audition, I am so
(14:11):
excited to share the joy that Ihave of playing the oboe with
the panel, and I rememberfeeling that joy.
And so what I do now is I sitand I imagine that scenario, I
imagine my joy and I just bringit back up in my chest.
For me, I feel it in my chest,it's a warmth.
It's a warmth, it's notcompetitive, it's welcoming.
(14:33):
Do you know what I mean?
Like it's loving, it's justlike so, so sweet, and I welcome
that in.
And I just feel it for a second.
And then I imagine myselfplaying the oboe in whatever
practice room I'm gonna.
Do you know whatever practiceroom I'm gonna be in?
And I just feel this joy andimagine me practicing and that
(14:55):
is so helpful.
And then I do it with myperformance.
So I imagine myself performingand this kind of goes into
visualization, which is anotherpodcast episode I've done but I
imagine performing and feelingthis joy, feeling this joy and
kind of showing my brain thatthese two things can go together
.
Do you know what I mean?
(15:15):
And then when I actuallypractice and prepare for the
performance, I do that again.
I think to myself am I going to?
Or you know what does it feellike?
To feel joy in this moment?
And that's what I do, andthat's what I do and it really
helps.
It helps my breath support, ithelps my tone, it helps just my
(15:38):
general enjoyment of thepractice session and the
performances.
It is so, so helpful.
Honestly, I love it.
I love it so much.
So that's something that I doas well, and I remember, before
I took my exam reset, I did thisand I actually have it on
camera and I put it on myInstagram stories and I think I
(16:00):
asked you guys if you do it andquite a few of you do and quite
a few of you don't.
So that's kind of why I'mmaking this episode.
But there's a video of me on mycamera roll, of me just sitting
there and just asking myself outloud what does it feel like to
play oboe?
Well, and then I just take adeep breath and I imagine it and
(16:23):
you can see it's crazy becausewhen I watched it back, I was
like, oh my gosh, I can actuallysee in my face, in my body, how
I'm, my posture, how I'msitting, just me feeling so much
joy inside of me, and I waslike that is is so important and
it just helped me and I passed.
I passed my recent oh my goshand oh my gosh, that's so.
(16:44):
I'm just so happy that I passed, because I showed the panel joy
.
That was the difference, and Itook care of myself and I passed
.
Oh, all right, that is the two.
That's the two ways that I dojoy.
Now I think it's interestingbecause, in terms of doing joy
(17:07):
and doing joy, seeking joy andputting joy in the practice
sessions, a great way to do this, if you want to, is kind of
tracking your joy, kind oftracking that as well, but, more
importantly, tracking yourpractice.
What of tracking that as well,but more importantly, tracking
your practice what have youpracticed in the day and how
does it make you feel?
And maybe also reflecting onhow it's been like cultivating
(17:33):
that joy in your practicesession.
Because reflecting on sessionsis so important.
And a way that I reflect on mysession is with a notable
practice journal.
A notable practice journal isso, so, so helpful because not
only can you plan your practicebut you can also reflect and so
you can say I did thecultivation of joy.
(17:56):
I remembered that time that Ireally felt, know, really felt
so excited and confident andjoyful and I envisioned that
when I was playing and my tonegot a million times better or
whatever happened, and you canwrite it down in your reflection
section of the journal and thenthat helps, you know, for the
(18:16):
next session, the next session,as soon as I found out that a
notable practice journal was sohelpful for my practice, I knew
I had to tell you about it and Iknew I had to give you a code.
So use code ELENOR15 for 15%off your order.
That is, e-l-e-a-n-o-r 15 for15% off your order, and get
yourself a notable practicejournal and start reflecting on
(18:39):
these practice sessions, becauseit can be really, really,
really helpful.
All right, let's do a bit of arecap.
So this is just basically atwo-parter.
The first part is, in practice,experimenting, being curious,
oh, and you can also track thatin your notable practice journal
(19:00):
as well.
Um, you know what youexperiment with.
So experimenting, being curiousand, through that, seeking joy,
and then, before performing, um, cultivating that feeling, kind
of sitting with yourself andand imagining how does it feel
to play well, to playconfidently and then kind of
(19:21):
cultivating that feeling,bringing it up and then playing,
and that can be so helpful aswell.
And then you can, in terms ofreflecting and keeping track of
this cultivating joy and alsoyour experiments.
A notable practice journal issuch a helpful tool and there's
a code in the show notes, in thedescription for you and a link
(19:44):
as well, so you can get yours.
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.
Alright, that is about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
Oh my gosh, that is such alovely thing for you to you.
All right, that is about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
Oh my gosh, that is such alovely thing for you to do.
(20:04):
Please, if you enjoyed thisepisode, show the love, hit,
follow, subscribe, like all thethings All the things.
It really does help and itreally does mean the world to me
.
Help and it really does meanthe world to me and share this
(20:26):
episode with as many musicalfriends as you think will help
or will benefit from thisepisode.
Anyone you want, share it.
I'd be so grateful.
And, yeah, that is about it.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me, and I will see you
in the next episode, because Iliterally have a practice room
booked in five minutes.
Do you think I'm gonna make it?
Let's see.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye.
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