How to find the spark in your repertoire... again

When we practice the same thing over and over, it can get boring. Here are 3 ways to revive that boring repertoire.

This episode is available as a blog post. Click here to read.

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! 😊

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.

(00:53):
Almost every time I do a Q&A onInstagram, I get asked about
what I do when I am playing apiece and I am kind of tired of
it, but I still have to keeppracticing it.
And how do I make itinteresting so that I can keep
practicing it without beingbored?
This is something that I havefelt so many times.
I think classical musiciansgenerally can feel this way,
because the pieces that we playtake time and they take time to

(01:18):
work through and get better andthey, you know, sometimes take
months or years to perfect.
And through that time sometimeswe can be like I am sick of
this piece, I am sick ofpracticing it every day.
To me now it's just notes, what, like.
How do I make it interesting?
And so today, I think it's areally good opportunity to talk

(01:41):
to you about three ways that Imake my pieces more interesting
after a while of playing themand practicing them and when I
am bored with them.
But I still need to keeppreparing them for something.
So let's dive into it.
The first thing is creating astory around it.
This is an interesting ideabecause I feel like with

(02:04):
classical music, there's so muchto dive into, right, there's so
many parts to it.
There's so many pieces to it.
It can be very what's the wordnot?
Difficult, but like intricate,right, it can also be difficult,
but for us, I think it'scrucial that we put a story
towards it, and not necessarilythe story that it was it had,

(02:28):
because some pieces of classicalmusic have stories to them, but
maybe our own story.
I remember, for me, when I waspreparing for my university
auditions, I had to prepare theMozart oboe concerto, the first
movement, and that piece isdifficult.
It's definitely difficult, andyou know, I spent months and

(02:48):
months and months and monthsdoing it every single day, and
for me, kind of the only waythat I was able to keep doing it
without getting extremely tiredof it was to create a story
around it, and the story changedas it developed.
I think that this can also behelpful because maybe if the
notes themselves might seemboring because you've been

(03:09):
playing them a lot, a way tokind of make them more
interesting is to change thestory around them.
So maybe at the beginning it'sone thing, and then as you learn
it and as maybe you get betterat the notes and maybe the notes
get faster if you're making the, it needs to get faster or
maybe you're adding more depthdynamics, then the story itself
can change and that can bereally, really helpful as well.

(03:31):
I think I remember in the sameaudition cycle I had to prepare
the second movement of theSaint-Saëns Oboe Sonata.
I had to prepare the secondmovement of the Saint-Saëns Oboe
Sonata and that was definitelyan interesting piece because
it's so visual to me.
I think at the beginning ofthat audition cycle I had one

(03:52):
story in it and I think it wasbecause the audition cycle for
me started in the autumn, so thestory in it was, you know, had
an autumn feel to it.
It was, you know, walkingthrough a forest with with
leaves falling down in beautifulcolors and then, as it
progressed, without kind ofrealizing it, the story in my

(04:13):
mind.
I was now walking through awinter wonderland, because it
was winter and, you know, maybeI saw deer in the background or
maybe there was a pond that hadiced over and I had ice skates.
If you've heard that sonata,you can maybe visualize and
understand why I might put iceskating to it.
So, whatever you are focusing on, whatever piece you're working

(04:35):
on and maybe you're sick of it,because, let's be honest, we get
sick of things sometimes addinga story to it being like, how
can I add a story?
And it could be something sovague, like walking through the
woods.
It could be something sospecific, like maybe it's you
and a friend that you are closeto and you guys are doing

(04:55):
something you enjoy, and thatmight be something that you
visualize or something like that, so something that makes you
excited to play it because ofthe story.
And if you visualize a story,that can actually really help
with the musicality of it,because you're now trying to get
something across right, andthat can be very, very, very

(05:17):
helpful in terms of just gettingthe music out and it being more
than just notes, especiallyafter months and months and
months of preparing it.
The next thing is findingdifferent places to play it.
I think that this can be sohelpful, especially because I
mean especially if all you havedone is just practice it in one

(05:37):
spot in a practice room, overand over and over and over, and
this piece maybe hasn't seen thelight of day, or maybe it has,
but not for a while, and you'rebored of it, then finding
different places to play it canbe just a great way to just put
a spin on it.
Even the act of getting anaccompanist or a collaborative
pianist and just working withthem because then you have

(06:03):
another part of it come to life,if, say, you're working on a
concerto or a sonata that has apianist, if it's something else
and there's other parts of themusic, then working on that can
be good as well, even justplaying around with it.
You know, if it's a piece thatis maybe just for your
instrument, maybe get anotherperson who plays your instrument

(06:24):
and play it together, or maybeplay it in a round.
If that's something that youcan do, maybe, like if you
really want to get into it andget technical, maybe understand
the chord structure of it andhave the other person just kind
of play those chords as you playit, that can make a world of
difference, I think, for me.
Right now I'm working on a Bachsonata and this is for me more

(06:49):
of a practice technique, as I amjust understanding kind of the
chord structure and the notesand getting them even, because,
because I feel like with Bachespecially, there's just lots of
notes, just a ton of notes.
But what I do is what I foundhelpful is I play the right hand
of the piano on oboe and Irecord that and then I listen to

(07:09):
that recording and I play myoboe with that, and that can be
really helpful because all of asudden I'm in a duet and these
notes mean more than just notes.
Right, I can hear, oh, you know, the other person or the you
know the right hand of the pianois playing this while I'm doing
this long note.
They're doing this really, youknow interesting, you know
semi-quaver passage, and all ofa sudden I'm like, okay, this is

(07:31):
, this is interesting now To me.
Before this was just like aminim or a half note, now it is,
you know, something that I canimagine the other part playing
right, that can be reallyhelpful as well, of course, if
you want to put on a recital orjust put on a performance or
just record yourself.
You know, for me I recordthings and I put them on the
internet.
You know, for example, thisvideo or this podcast.

(07:54):
So kind of working through thatand just bringing life to it,
playing it in different places,playing it in different settings
with different people, even if,you know, maybe you don't have
a different setting or adifferent person to play it with
.
Record yourself, playing adifferent part of it If there is
a different part of it, andthen play with that recording.

(08:14):
Okay, that like just doing allof that stuff.
It can make number one practicemore interesting, but also the
piece more interesting,especially if you've gotten
bored of it.
We all get bored of pieces.
The last thing that I think canbe really helpful is watching
masterclasses on it.
This I didn't think of.

(08:36):
And then when I sat down towrite kind of my ideas for this,
for this video, for thisepisode, I was like, okay, um, I
think, I think I need to putthis in because I I remembered
as I was writing it in, I waslike, oh yeah, I used to do this
because I remember when Iauditioned for um, the youth
orchestra that I was in in thestates, I really, really, really

(08:58):
wanted to get good at theextracts.
The excerpts, like they, youknow, were all there and there
were quite a few, and I was likeI really want into this youth
orchestra, like I want to get in, and so I want to be very good
at the extracts and I want toconvey that I understand them.
And so I spent quite a bit oftime on YouTube just watching

(09:22):
masterclasses.
I remember there was onemasterclass that I watched with,
like Albrecht Mayer, who washe's an oboist for the Berlin
Philharmonic and he was he wasgiving a masterclass about the
exact excerpts that I had toprepare and, oh my gosh, did it

(09:43):
not only make them less kind ofboring, because I had been
preparing them for a while, butthey also just added a whole new
spin on them and made me thinkabout them in very different
ways and just ultimately gotthem better.
And so if that is somethingthat you are working on and
maybe you, you know, are like,okay, I'm kind of bored of this,
but I've run out of ideas.

(10:03):
You know what I mean, like I'verun out of things to work on,
but I know it's not good enough.
Watching masterclasses on itcan be really helpful, and I
mean, depending on what you'replaying like I was playing very
famous oboe excerpts that ispretty easy to find
masterclasses on.
If maybe you're playingsomething that you can't
necessarily find a masterclassor just a class on YouTube, then

(10:28):
listening to recordings of thepiece and I know that this can
sound a bit like you knoweveryone says that but listening
to different kinds ofrecordings, maybe like your
favorite musician on thisinstrument, going to the like
live performances of this piece,if you can is also really
helpful.
Or playing it for other peopleand getting their thoughts, and

(10:50):
that's kind of ties into the tothe second point of playing it
in different places.
But yeah, just getting people'sthoughts on it.
Maybe playing it for yourteacher you're probably already
playing it for your teacher butplaying it for different people
and getting their differentperspectives on it can be really
helpful as well.
But for me, especially when Iwas doing this this audition for

(11:11):
this youth orchestra that Ireally wanted to get into I just
kept doing, you know, watchingmasterclasses, just masterclass
after masterclass of this, and Iwatched them multiple times.
So we're actually only aboutthree or four videos on YouTube
that I actually watched, but Iwatched them over and over and
over and every single time I gotkind of a new idea about it.

(11:32):
So, you know, even if you're inyour mind, you're like I don't
know if this will be on YouTube,just look it up, just look it
up and see if it is, because itmight be right, it might be.
So that is something that youcan do as well.
Just kind of listen to it,watch it, watch masterclasses,
watch classes of it.
You know, ask people for inputabout it.

(11:56):
All of these things can maybegive you a new perspective of
the piece so that you're not asbored of it, because we all get
like this sometimes and we all,I suppose, need this kind of
just refresher on, you know, howto make the music we're working
on, and that we have beenworking on for months, every
single day, interesting andexciting.
Again, because we picked thesepieces for a reason, you know.

(12:18):
We picked them at one point, um, for for a reason, so, kind of
before we do the recap, divingin to the ideas of practicing it
, because we did touch onpracticing things and kind of
understanding how we practicethings and maybe we do watch

(12:40):
masterclasses, because that canbe kind of considered practice
in a way and then alsopracticing it, and maybe
practicing it with the story,all of these things that we
touched on.
Sometimes, a great way to trackthese things, sometimes a great
way to track these thingsbecause it is very important to
track things and plan things isusing a practice notebook or a

(13:00):
practice journal.
This way we know what we'reactually practicing and we know
when we're done practicing andthen we can also look back and
see what we have practiced sothat we're able to kind of go
forward from there.
And, moving into this, somethingthat I do when I plan my

(13:21):
practice is use a notablepractice journal.
A notable practice journal issomething that, honestly, has
changed my practice for thebetter so much.
A notable practice journal is apractice journal and you can
write the stuff that you haveplanned for your practice and
then you can also reflectthere's reflection questions,

(13:42):
there's spaces to reflect sothat you can maybe look back and
say, okay, I added this storyto this piece and it made it
more interesting, and then maybeif you go in the next practice
session, you're like hang on,what was that story that made it
really interesting?
You can just look in yourjournal and be like, oh yeah, I
wrote it down and then you cansave time and it's just better

(14:03):
and you have better efficientpractice sessions.
Oh my gosh, it's just so good,so good.
So, as soon as I realized thatthis journal was helping me, I
knew that I needed to tell youabout it and I knew that I
needed to get you a code becausearen't codes great A discount
code.
So use code Eleanor15 for 15%off your practice journal.

(14:26):
That is, e-l-e-a-n-o-r-1-5 for15% off on your practice journal
, and get yourself a practicejournal and, yeah, just like,
write things down, plan, reflect, have overall, more structured,
focused and effective practicesessions, because, let's be
honest, isn't that what we allwant?
I never recommend anything thatI don't absolutely love.

(14:50):
Um, this discount code is anaffiliate code, which means I do
receive a commission with noextra cost to you.
All right, let's get into arecap, because I think all of
these points I'm so excited totell you about, because they are
so helpful for me, so let'sjust recap them before the end
of this episode so that you canremember them easier, easily or

(15:14):
when you get into your nextsession.
So the first thing is creating astory around it, like literally
anything.
Anything you want, justsomething that maybe helps you
remember it, something thatmaybe there is already a story
around the piece.
So maybe visualizing that moreand changing the story as you
change as well it doesn't haveto be the same story, whatever
helps you.
The next thing is findingdifferent places to play it,

(15:37):
whether that is maybe a recitalspace or maybe it's just outside
the practice room, maybe it iswith someone else, with an
accompanist, maybe just with arecording of you playing a
different part and then youplaying, you know, with that
recording, just findingdifferent places and ways of
playing the piece.
And the last thing is watchingmaster classes on it or maybe

(15:58):
going to a performance orlistening to it or all of these
things, kind of getting someinput on the piece and not just
you in a practice room playing,playing, playing over and over
and getting bored.
So these are three things that,um, I hope that you have found
helpful, uh, for for makingwhatever piece you're working on
and you find boring a littleless boring and a little more

(16:19):
engaging Because, let's behonest, as musicians I mean, we
focus on the same stuff over andover again, and anything that
can help it be more engaging isreally good.
It's really good.
All right, that is about it forthis episode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
If you enjoyed this, please dolet me know, um, whether it is
subscribing, following, liking,you know, commenting whatever it

(16:46):
is, depending on what platformyou're watching this or
listening to this on Um, and, asalways, all of the links to do
with this will be in the shownotes, um, from the blog post
that goes with this, as well asthe link for you to get your
notable practice journal.
And please, please, please, douse the code Eleanor15 for 15%
off so you can get that discountand start getting better
focused practice sessions.

(17:07):
All right, that is about it forthis.
Thank you so much, and thankyou so much for watching or
listening, and I will see younext time.
All right, take care bye.