July 8, 2025 • 19 mins
Summer can be so unstructured. Here is how I am creating structure in my musical journey this summer.
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Use code ELEANOR15 for 15% off your Notabl_ practice journal, and level up your focus in your sessions! Click here for your journal.
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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, andwelcome back to another episode
(00:47):
of the Confident MusicianingPodcast.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I'm so glad you are.
Let's dive right into things.
So, basically, it's summer, it'ssummer.
That's so, so, so exciting.
I just finished my first yearplaying oboe at a conservatoire.
Studying oboe at aconservatoire, it was a crazy
(01:09):
year, full of wins and alsoloses, you know, full of growth
and failure and and I.
But it was just so good and I'mso grateful for it.
And now it's summer and you knowwhat's weird about this summer,
right, is that there's reallynot that much structure, for me
(01:30):
at least.
Like because I study at aconservatoire and it has like
term dates and the term datesend over the summer, I don't
have oboe lessons.
This is the first time inliterally forever that I
actually don't have oboe lessonsevery single week.
(01:51):
I think I started oboe lessonsat 10, 10 or 11.
So, yeah, it's been a long timeof just every single week
having that check-in, havingthat lesson, and now it's not
there, right?
My lessons start back up againwhen school starts and it's left
me feeling kind of bewildered Idon't know if that's the right
(02:13):
word Kind of not stressed, butlike whoa, this is a crazy
feeling.
No one is checking in on me, doyou know what I mean?
Like no one is.
I don't have to prepare thingsfor you know things every week.
It's a very strange feeling andit got me thinking I really
need to structure my summer alittle bit, because it's going
(02:35):
to be so easy to just rollthrough summer without any
structure and, you know, at theend of it be like what actually
happened?
Just, it just become like justso confusing, and so that is
kind of what today's episode isabout how we can structure our
summer, how I am structuring mysummer and you know, like I hope
(03:01):
that it gives you some thoughtson, maybe, how you can
structure yours, as, as always,all of our summers, they're
going to be different, right,and every summer throughout,
every year it's going to bedifferent.
What I was doing last summerwas preparing to move to the UK.
I was super, duper, duper busy.
Right now I'm not planning anyinternational moves, so it's a
(03:23):
little bit of a different summer, but let's just dive right into
it.
For me, I would always fill mysummers up with jobs or courses
or just things like that.
I remember when I was in highschool, I like would do classes
over the summer, not because Iwas failing classes or anything,
(03:45):
just because I wanted to domore classes.
I remember I wanted to do somany different music classes
that it actually bumped theother classes that I had to do
and there were options of doingthem over the summer, and so
every summer, like, I was stillin school.
Basically it was just on my ownschool in school, basically it
was just on my own school.
(04:05):
Honestly, I look back and I'mlike, wow, I was so motivated as
, like a 12 year old not 12, 14year old as a 14 year old, I was
super duper motivated and thatI'm just like wow, she was
really focused.
But I would always fill thingsup.
These past two summers I havehad a summer job and that really
(04:25):
made me focus, because then,you know, when I got home from
my summer job, I had to practiceand I had to, you know, make
sure that I focused on that aswell.
So there's definitely been myfair share of filling things up.
But I think a good thing tofocus on is how we're going to
structure our practice in thesummer.
(04:47):
So I think the one thing that Iam doing this summer that I
haven't done before, because allof my other summers have been
me still, you know, havinglessons every week, and so it
hasn't really felt like a summeroff from oboe as such, and I
don't think this summer is asummer off from oboe.
(05:07):
I'm not stopping playing oboe.
It's very important to to keepthat up.
But now that I don't actuallyhave lessons every week, I've
realized that this is anopportunity for me to, on top of
, you know, etudes andfundamentals and the things that
I am continuing to work on, Ican kind of experiment with
(05:29):
things that I might not have hadtime for during the school year
.
So, for instance, that includesfor me, learning different
structures.
When it comes to jazz Right now, I mean, I've always loved jazz
, I've always grown up with jazzand I've always wanted to kind
(05:51):
of play jazz on the oboe, andthis is something that it's
always just been in the back ofmy head, but I've never really
had time for it and I've neverreally had time to kind of learn
how jazz is structured when itcomes to playing it as such.
And that's what I'm doing, likeduring my time in the practice
room.
Um, you know, after I finishedmy fundamentals and my etudes
(06:15):
and the things that I need to towork on, I will, you know,
spend some time just doingimprov or focusing on, you know,
blues structures.
I've been doing that a lotrecently and just learning about
things that interest me.
I think this is a greatopportunity.
I think summer is a greatopportunity to learn about
(06:36):
things that interest us.
That might not necessarily haveto do with the specific things
that we're working on when we'rein school.
So what does that look like foryou?
What is that one thing in yourlife, or in your music life that
you're like?
I've always wanted to know howto do this thing, but there's
never been time, when I'm, youknow, in school and I have all
(06:59):
of these things I need to focuson.
There's never been time.
What is that one thing for you?
It might also be jazz, it mightnot, but I dare you to think
about that.
I dare you to kind of just takea moment and wonder what is
something that you could learnduring this time, music wise,
even if you are, even if youstill have, you know, regular
(07:23):
lessons.
Maybe you're not studying at aconservatoire and maybe you have
regular lessons over the summer.
Um, but just I, I dare you tothink about what is that one
thing that you've always wantedto learn how to do on your
instrument and that you've neverreally had the time for it,
even if it's like flutter,tonguing or extended techniques,
things like that.
I dare you to experiment,because it can be great when we
(07:47):
experiment with things.
The next thing is planning, ourpractice.
Practice planning, I think, isso, so, so important, because
over the summer, especially ifwe are in school and then we're
not, and maybe we don't haveother things in the summer, we
can feel like, oh my gosh, wehave so much time and then we're
not, and maybe we don't haveother things in the summer we
can feel like, oh my gosh, wehave so much time.
And then you're like, okay,this is a great opportunity to
(08:09):
practice.
But then you don't know when tostop because you're like, oh my
gosh, I have so much time, Ishould keep going, I should keep
going, I should keep going, andthat is never a good idea.
Do not ever push yourself toofar.
That is never a good idea.
So I think a great way to workthrough that is actually
planning your practice, planningwhat you want to do for the day
.
And then then, because you havea plan, you know when you're
(08:33):
done, you know when you're done,you know when it's done, and
that is really really helpful.
And the tool that I use whenplanning my practice is a
notable practice journal.
This journal is so helpful.
Not only can I practice or canI plan my practice, but I can
also reflect.
There are reflection questions,there is a reflection section
(08:56):
so that I know you know whatwent well and what didn't go
well.
So for the next practicesession I can improve, like
literally every single time.
It is really really reallyhelpful.
And as soon as I found out, thisnotebook was helping me.
I knew I had to tell you aboutit and I knew I had to give you
a code.
So use code Eleanor15 for 15%off your journal.
(09:19):
That is, e-l-e-a-n-o-r-1-5 for15% off your journal and get
yourself a notable practicejournal so you can have the
summer of planning and structure, because isn't that what we all
want?
You know me, I do not recommendanything that I don't
absolutely love.
This code is an affiliate code,which means I do receive a
(09:41):
commission with no extra cost toyou, and the link for getting
your journal will be in the shownotes.
It will be in the description.
So make sure you go check thatout, because, literally,
planning practice is so helpful,and not only in terms of you
know knowing what to practice,but also looking back.
If you, if you feel like and Iknow you know this feeling of
(10:02):
feeling like, oh my gosh, whatdid I actually practice?
You, if you feel like and Iknow you know this feeling of
feeling like, oh my gosh, whatdid I actually practice this
week?
I feel like I got nothing done.
When you have planned it out,you can literally look back and
be like oh no, I did things.
I did plan these things, I didpractice these things.
It's really helpful, especiallywhen our brain starts to spiral
out of control in terms ofthinking, oh I've, I've done
(10:22):
nothing this week.
So, yeah, it's very helpful.
The next thing is planning otherthings as well.
This is really helpful, I think, when we feel like we have all
the time in the world topractice, it's like it's really
helpful to plan other thingsinto our day as well.
These can be music related.
(10:43):
So, for instance, theory study.
This is something that I amgoing to be planning into my day
Time to study theory.
Um, because I think I should.
I think, you know, in this pastyear, I was in, you know,
theory class and that was reallygood, but I think that there
are some things that I can maybereview and go over so that I'm
(11:04):
more than ready for second yeartheory class.
So that's something that I amplanning on doing.
Also, with side instruments ifyou watch my Instagram stuff or
like any social media stuff, youmight have come across me
playing the guitar.
That is my side instrument.
It's not I don't study guitarat conservatoire, it's not
(11:24):
something that I'm beingexamined on, and that's really,
really nice to have aninstrument where I can just play
, and that's a side instrumentor something like that.
If it is music related, maybelike listening you know summer
is a great time for listening.
Also, reads for me, reads issomething that I think in the
past few months I've kind ofjust focused on playing because
(11:47):
I was preparing for my um examsyou know my playing exams and I
really needed to focus on that,so that's what I did.
But now I have, you know, I'mdedicating time to read making
and really focusing on that.
So that's what I did, but now Ihave, you know, I'm dedicating
time to read making and reallyfocusing on that.
So that's something.
Um, yeah, just just stuff likethat.
Music stuff.
Planning in time to work onthat can be really helpful as
(12:09):
well.
Um, and then also non-musicrelated.
Let's be honest, like we arehumans and we don't need to.
We're not music robots, right?
We're just humans.
And so something else thatyou're maybe interested in
learning I remember when I was14 and I had a schedule conflict
in high school and the way forme to resolve the schedule
(12:30):
conflict was to take a classover the summer, take a German
class over the summer, take aGerman class over the summer.
So then in the next year I wouldbe in like German for the year
ahead of me and I was so excitedto do this because I love
language learning.
And yeah, I just took a literalhigh school course that's
(12:51):
supposed to last like what?
Nine months and what?
Three months of summer, so that.
So that was crazy.
I was very busy, but thingslike that, just like other
things.
So if you want to take a course, you know, if you're interested
in things that you know youdon't have time to do over
during the school year, like Idon't know, pottery maybe, or
(13:12):
just things like that whateveryou want to do, this is a
perfect chance to do that, andthen you can balance that out
with your practicing so that youhave something that you're
focusing on other than yourinstrument and so you don't burn
out.
You can also balance that outwith a job.
Let's be honest, a summer job isreally helpful.
It's really good.
(13:32):
I have had summer jobs For thepast two years.
I did a summer job and it wasreally helpful because the
summer job actually the summerjob that I had in the past two
years I cleaned a high school.
So I literally just like Icleaned a high school.
That was it and it was reallyfor me.
(13:52):
I mean, there's always pros andcons about jobs.
For me, I mean there's alwayspros and cons about jobs, and a
pro I love to find the pros, youknow and things, and a pro for
me was definitely the fact thatI could listen to things.
So I listened to podcast afterpodcast after podcast and for me
I mean that was helpful,because then I also listened to
like music.
I listened to a lot of uh, likeexcerpts, you know, oboe
(14:17):
excerpts, things like that.
That's a great way to to spendthe time with that.
Um, that was just like a profor that.
But, yeah, getting a getting asummer job is really helpful as
well.
Um, so, yeah, just think aboutthings that you're interested in
.
I, I, I dare you to think aboutwhat, what other than music are
you interested in?
And if you honestly cannot comeup with something which is
(14:39):
totally fine, that was me, likewe've all been there I challenge
you to maybe find something.
Try things out, take a class,you know, get involved in
something and see what you likeand what you don't like, because
it can be really helpful,especially in the summer, to
(14:59):
have something that you do thatis not music related.
It's really good to balance itout.
And then the last thing iscreating a weekly structure that
works for you, specifically aweekly structure that is really
helpful.
So I mean, let's be honest,this is going to take time, like
um, weekly structures aredifficult, I feel, and we're
(15:22):
never going to get it right thefirst time, because we're going
to create a structure and thenwe're going to do it, and then
we're going to realize whatdoesn't work and then the next
week we're going to try andcreate a better structure.
That's literally me everysingle week.
Um, I record these episodes onSundays and and so because
that's like the quietest day.
I live in a city, so Sundaystend to be the quietest day for
(15:42):
podcast recording, and for me,it's also the day that I plan
out the week, and so you can youcan bet that I am, after
recording this, I'm sitting downwith my, with my notebooks
and'm planning the week, andyeah, it can be really, really
challenging to to get it right,but you know what that's okay.
It's important that we'retrying.
(16:03):
So, structure when you're gonnapractice, structure when you're
gonna, um, do other things, youknow, whatever that, that other
non-music thing is, if you haveshifts at a job structure, that
like really kind of create astructure so you can see your
week and then you can see thegaps of time that you can spend
just hanging out in the summer.
I was going to say the summersun, but it might not be sunny.
(16:26):
I live in Scotland.
It's not always sunny.
But yeah, creating thatstructure and understanding that
it's not always going to workout, you might get to Thursday
and be like what was Sunday me,thinking this is a crazy plan,
and then you know you can alwaystweak it and work through it
and that is a great way tostructure your summer.
(16:47):
I think this summer I ampersonally trying to find the
balance between having a goodstructure and also having time
to just be me.
I am so good at structuringmyself way too much and like
that causes burnout and kind ofover predicting what I can
actually achieve in a week, andso that's something that I'm
(17:10):
working on just kind of creatingthe time to just chill and be
okay and be calm and quiet andstill, and that's just kind of
something that I'm focusing on.
But yeah, so that is kind of it.
Let's do a bit of a recap.
The first thing is creatingtime in the practice room for
experimenting.
What is that thing that youwant to do on your instrument
(17:31):
that you didn't get time to do,you know, throughout the school
year?
What's that one thing thatyou're like I wish I learned how
to do this?
You can learn it now.
And then the next thing isplanning our practice.
You know, so that you know whenyou're done practicing for the
day.
And I use a notable practicejournal for my planning.
Yeah, it's really, really,really helpful for me.
(17:52):
And so there is a code Eleanor15 for 15% off.
Check, check the description,check the show notes for that
code.
Um, the next thing is planningother things as well.
Planning other things musicrelated.
You can do theory, study a sideinstrument if you make reads,
make reads, things like that.
You can also plan like, um, youknow summer opportunities, like
(18:15):
there are like camps, likemusic camps and and things like
that.
I've never really done those,um, but you can totally do them,
um.
And then the next thing iscreating a weekly structure that
works for you.
Oh, sorry, I forgot in theplanning other things, also
planning non-music relatedthings.
So something else that you'reinterested in learning or maybe
(18:37):
having a summer job or all ofthese things, um are good as
well.
And then creating a weeklystructure that works for you and
let's let's be compassionatewith ourselves.
If we create a weekly structurethat we get to Wednesday or
Thursday and we're like this isnot working, it's okay, we can
tweak these things.
All, all right, that is about itfor this episode.
(18:57):
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
I am so grateful.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
And, if you did, please sharethis podcast and this video, if
you're watching it on YouTube,with all of your music friends.
Seriously, it does help growthe podcast and I appreciate it.
(19:19):
So, so, so much.
So, all right, that is about itfor this episode.
Yeah, thank you so much forlistening and watching 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.
Hello, hello, hello, andwelcome back to another episode
(00:47):
of the Confident MusicianingPodcast.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I'm so glad you are.
Let's dive right into things.
So, basically, it's summer, it'ssummer.
That's so, so, so exciting.
I just finished my first yearplaying oboe at a conservatoire.
Studying oboe at aconservatoire, it was a crazy
(01:09):
year, full of wins and alsoloses, you know, full of growth
and failure and and I.
But it was just so good and I'mso grateful for it.
And now it's summer and you knowwhat's weird about this summer,
right, is that there's reallynot that much structure, for me
(01:30):
at least.
Like because I study at aconservatoire and it has like
term dates and the term datesend over the summer, I don't
have oboe lessons.
This is the first time inliterally forever that I
actually don't have oboe lessonsevery single week.
(01:51):
I think I started oboe lessonsat 10, 10 or 11.
So, yeah, it's been a long timeof just every single week
having that check-in, havingthat lesson, and now it's not
there, right?
My lessons start back up againwhen school starts and it's left
me feeling kind of bewildered Idon't know if that's the right
(02:13):
word Kind of not stressed, butlike whoa, this is a crazy
feeling.
No one is checking in on me, doyou know what I mean?
Like no one is.
I don't have to prepare thingsfor you know things every week.
It's a very strange feeling andit got me thinking I really
need to structure my summer alittle bit, because it's going
(02:35):
to be so easy to just rollthrough summer without any
structure and, you know, at theend of it be like what actually
happened?
Just, it just become like justso confusing, and so that is
kind of what today's episode isabout how we can structure our
summer, how I am structuring mysummer and you know, like I hope
(03:01):
that it gives you some thoughtson, maybe, how you can
structure yours, as, as always,all of our summers, they're
going to be different, right,and every summer throughout,
every year it's going to bedifferent.
What I was doing last summerwas preparing to move to the UK.
I was super, duper, duper busy.
Right now I'm not planning anyinternational moves, so it's a
(03:23):
little bit of a different summer, but let's just dive right into
it.
For me, I would always fill mysummers up with jobs or courses
or just things like that.
I remember when I was in highschool, I like would do classes
over the summer, not because Iwas failing classes or anything,
(03:45):
just because I wanted to domore classes.
I remember I wanted to do somany different music classes
that it actually bumped theother classes that I had to do
and there were options of doingthem over the summer, and so
every summer, like, I was stillin school.
Basically it was just on my ownschool in school, basically it
was just on my own school.
(04:05):
Honestly, I look back and I'mlike, wow, I was so motivated as
, like a 12 year old not 12, 14year old as a 14 year old, I was
super duper motivated and thatI'm just like wow, she was
really focused.
But I would always fill thingsup.
These past two summers I havehad a summer job and that really
(04:25):
made me focus, because then,you know, when I got home from
my summer job, I had to practiceand I had to, you know, make
sure that I focused on that aswell.
So there's definitely been myfair share of filling things up.
But I think a good thing tofocus on is how we're going to
structure our practice in thesummer.
(04:47):
So I think the one thing that Iam doing this summer that I
haven't done before, because allof my other summers have been
me still, you know, havinglessons every week, and so it
hasn't really felt like a summeroff from oboe as such, and I
don't think this summer is asummer off from oboe.
(05:07):
I'm not stopping playing oboe.
It's very important to to keepthat up.
But now that I don't actuallyhave lessons every week, I've
realized that this is anopportunity for me to, on top of
, you know, etudes andfundamentals and the things that
I am continuing to work on, Ican kind of experiment with
(05:29):
things that I might not have hadtime for during the school year
.
So, for instance, that includesfor me, learning different
structures.
When it comes to jazz Right now, I mean, I've always loved jazz
, I've always grown up with jazzand I've always wanted to kind
(05:51):
of play jazz on the oboe, andthis is something that it's
always just been in the back ofmy head, but I've never really
had time for it and I've neverreally had time to kind of learn
how jazz is structured when itcomes to playing it as such.
And that's what I'm doing, likeduring my time in the practice
room.
Um, you know, after I finishedmy fundamentals and my etudes
(06:15):
and the things that I need to towork on, I will, you know,
spend some time just doingimprov or focusing on, you know,
blues structures.
I've been doing that a lotrecently and just learning about
things that interest me.
I think this is a greatopportunity.
I think summer is a greatopportunity to learn about
(06:36):
things that interest us.
That might not necessarily haveto do with the specific things
that we're working on when we'rein school.
So what does that look like foryou?
What is that one thing in yourlife, or in your music life that
you're like?
I've always wanted to know howto do this thing, but there's
never been time, when I'm, youknow, in school and I have all
(06:59):
of these things I need to focuson.
There's never been time.
What is that one thing for you?
It might also be jazz, it mightnot, but I dare you to think
about that.
I dare you to kind of just takea moment and wonder what is
something that you could learnduring this time, music wise,
even if you are, even if youstill have, you know, regular
(07:23):
lessons.
Maybe you're not studying at aconservatoire and maybe you have
regular lessons over the summer.
Um, but just I, I dare you tothink about what is that one
thing that you've always wantedto learn how to do on your
instrument and that you've neverreally had the time for it,
even if it's like flutter,tonguing or extended techniques,
things like that.
I dare you to experiment,because it can be great when we
(07:47):
experiment with things.
The next thing is planning, ourpractice.
Practice planning, I think, isso, so, so important, because
over the summer, especially ifwe are in school and then we're
not, and maybe we don't haveother things in the summer, we
can feel like, oh my gosh, wehave so much time and then we're
not, and maybe we don't haveother things in the summer we
can feel like, oh my gosh, wehave so much time.
And then you're like, okay,this is a great opportunity to
(08:09):
practice.
But then you don't know when tostop because you're like, oh my
gosh, I have so much time, Ishould keep going, I should keep
going, I should keep going, andthat is never a good idea.
Do not ever push yourself toofar.
That is never a good idea.
So I think a great way to workthrough that is actually
planning your practice, planningwhat you want to do for the day
.
And then then, because you havea plan, you know when you're
(08:33):
done, you know when you're done,you know when it's done, and
that is really really helpful.
And the tool that I use whenplanning my practice is a
notable practice journal.
This journal is so helpful.
Not only can I practice or canI plan my practice, but I can
also reflect.
There are reflection questions,there is a reflection section
(08:56):
so that I know you know whatwent well and what didn't go
well.
So for the next practicesession I can improve, like
literally every single time.
It is really really reallyhelpful.
And as soon as I found out, thisnotebook was helping me.
I knew I had to tell you aboutit and I knew I had to give you
a code.
So use code Eleanor15 for 15%off your journal.
(09:19):
That is, e-l-e-a-n-o-r-1-5 for15% off your journal and get
yourself a notable practicejournal so you can have the
summer of planning and structure, because isn't that what we all
want?
You know me, I do not recommendanything that I don't
absolutely love.
This code is an affiliate code,which means I do receive a
(09:41):
commission with no extra cost toyou, and the link for getting
your journal will be in the shownotes.
It will be in the description.
So make sure you go check thatout, because, literally,
planning practice is so helpful,and not only in terms of you
know knowing what to practice,but also looking back.
If you, if you feel like and Iknow you know this feeling of
(10:02):
feeling like, oh my gosh, whatdid I actually practice?
You, if you feel like and Iknow you know this feeling of
feeling like, oh my gosh, whatdid I actually practice this
week?
I feel like I got nothing done.
When you have planned it out,you can literally look back and
be like oh no, I did things.
I did plan these things, I didpractice these things.
It's really helpful, especiallywhen our brain starts to spiral
out of control in terms ofthinking, oh I've, I've done
(10:22):
nothing this week.
So, yeah, it's very helpful.
The next thing is planning otherthings as well.
This is really helpful, I think, when we feel like we have all
the time in the world topractice, it's like it's really
helpful to plan other thingsinto our day as well.
These can be music related.
(10:43):
So, for instance, theory study.
This is something that I amgoing to be planning into my day
Time to study theory.
Um, because I think I should.
I think, you know, in this pastyear, I was in, you know,
theory class and that was reallygood, but I think that there
are some things that I can maybereview and go over so that I'm
(11:04):
more than ready for second yeartheory class.
So that's something that I amplanning on doing.
Also, with side instruments ifyou watch my Instagram stuff or
like any social media stuff, youmight have come across me
playing the guitar.
That is my side instrument.
It's not I don't study guitarat conservatoire, it's not
(11:24):
something that I'm beingexamined on, and that's really,
really nice to have aninstrument where I can just play
, and that's a side instrumentor something like that.
If it is music related, maybelike listening you know summer
is a great time for listening.
Also, reads for me, reads issomething that I think in the
past few months I've kind ofjust focused on playing because
(11:47):
I was preparing for my um examsyou know my playing exams and I
really needed to focus on that,so that's what I did.
But now I have, you know, I'mdedicating time to read making
and really focusing on that.
So that's what I did, but now Ihave, you know, I'm dedicating
time to read making and reallyfocusing on that.
So that's something.
Um, yeah, just just stuff likethat.
Music stuff.
Planning in time to work onthat can be really helpful as
(12:09):
well.
Um, and then also non-musicrelated.
Let's be honest, like we arehumans and we don't need to.
We're not music robots, right?
We're just humans.
And so something else thatyou're maybe interested in
learning I remember when I was14 and I had a schedule conflict
in high school and the way forme to resolve the schedule
(12:30):
conflict was to take a classover the summer, take a German
class over the summer, take aGerman class over the summer.
So then in the next year I wouldbe in like German for the year
ahead of me and I was so excitedto do this because I love
language learning.
And yeah, I just took a literalhigh school course that's
(12:51):
supposed to last like what?
Nine months and what?
Three months of summer, so that.
So that was crazy.
I was very busy, but thingslike that, just like other
things.
So if you want to take a course, you know, if you're interested
in things that you know youdon't have time to do over
during the school year, like Idon't know, pottery maybe, or
(13:12):
just things like that whateveryou want to do, this is a
perfect chance to do that, andthen you can balance that out
with your practicing so that youhave something that you're
focusing on other than yourinstrument and so you don't burn
out.
You can also balance that outwith a job.
Let's be honest, a summer job isreally helpful.
It's really good.
(13:32):
I have had summer jobs For thepast two years.
I did a summer job and it wasreally helpful because the
summer job actually the summerjob that I had in the past two
years I cleaned a high school.
So I literally just like Icleaned a high school.
That was it and it was reallyfor me.
(13:52):
I mean, there's always pros andcons about jobs.
For me, I mean there's alwayspros and cons about jobs, and a
pro I love to find the pros, youknow and things, and a pro for
me was definitely the fact thatI could listen to things.
So I listened to podcast afterpodcast after podcast and for me
I mean that was helpful,because then I also listened to
like music.
I listened to a lot of uh, likeexcerpts, you know, oboe
(14:17):
excerpts, things like that.
That's a great way to to spendthe time with that.
Um, that was just like a profor that.
But, yeah, getting a getting asummer job is really helpful as
well.
Um, so, yeah, just think aboutthings that you're interested in
.
I, I, I dare you to think aboutwhat, what other than music are
you interested in?
And if you honestly cannot comeup with something which is
(14:39):
totally fine, that was me, likewe've all been there I challenge
you to maybe find something.
Try things out, take a class,you know, get involved in
something and see what you likeand what you don't like, because
it can be really helpful,especially in the summer, to
(14:59):
have something that you do thatis not music related.
It's really good to balance itout.
And then the last thing iscreating a weekly structure that
works for you, specifically aweekly structure that is really
helpful.
So I mean, let's be honest,this is going to take time, like
um, weekly structures aredifficult, I feel, and we're
(15:22):
never going to get it right thefirst time, because we're going
to create a structure and thenwe're going to do it, and then
we're going to realize whatdoesn't work and then the next
week we're going to try andcreate a better structure.
That's literally me everysingle week.
Um, I record these episodes onSundays and and so because
that's like the quietest day.
I live in a city, so Sundaystend to be the quietest day for
(15:42):
podcast recording, and for me,it's also the day that I plan
out the week, and so you can youcan bet that I am, after
recording this, I'm sitting downwith my, with my notebooks
and'm planning the week, andyeah, it can be really, really
challenging to to get it right,but you know what that's okay.
It's important that we'retrying.
(16:03):
So, structure when you're gonnapractice, structure when you're
gonna, um, do other things, youknow, whatever that, that other
non-music thing is, if you haveshifts at a job structure, that
like really kind of create astructure so you can see your
week and then you can see thegaps of time that you can spend
just hanging out in the summer.
I was going to say the summersun, but it might not be sunny.
(16:26):
I live in Scotland.
It's not always sunny.
But yeah, creating thatstructure and understanding that
it's not always going to workout, you might get to Thursday
and be like what was Sunday me,thinking this is a crazy plan,
and then you know you can alwaystweak it and work through it
and that is a great way tostructure your summer.
(16:47):
I think this summer I ampersonally trying to find the
balance between having a goodstructure and also having time
to just be me.
I am so good at structuringmyself way too much and like
that causes burnout and kind ofover predicting what I can
actually achieve in a week, andso that's something that I'm
(17:10):
working on just kind of creatingthe time to just chill and be
okay and be calm and quiet andstill, and that's just kind of
something that I'm focusing on.
But yeah, so that is kind of it.
Let's do a bit of a recap.
The first thing is creatingtime in the practice room for
experimenting.
What is that thing that youwant to do on your instrument
(17:31):
that you didn't get time to do,you know, throughout the school
year?
What's that one thing thatyou're like I wish I learned how
to do this?
You can learn it now.
And then the next thing isplanning our practice.
You know, so that you know whenyou're done practicing for the
day.
And I use a notable practicejournal for my planning.
Yeah, it's really, really,really helpful for me.
(17:52):
And so there is a code Eleanor15 for 15% off.
Check, check the description,check the show notes for that
code.
Um, the next thing is planningother things as well.
Planning other things musicrelated.
You can do theory, study a sideinstrument if you make reads,
make reads, things like that.
You can also plan like, um, youknow summer opportunities, like
(18:15):
there are like camps, likemusic camps and and things like
that.
I've never really done those,um, but you can totally do them,
um.
And then the next thing iscreating a weekly structure that
works for you.
Oh, sorry, I forgot in theplanning other things, also
planning non-music relatedthings.
So something else that you'reinterested in learning or maybe
(18:37):
having a summer job or all ofthese things, um are good as
well.
And then creating a weeklystructure that works for you and
let's let's be compassionatewith ourselves.
If we create a weekly structurethat we get to Wednesday or
Thursday and we're like this isnot working, it's okay, we can
tweak these things.
All, all right, that is about itfor this episode.
(18:57):
Thank you so much for hangingout with me.
I am so grateful.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
And, if you did, please sharethis podcast and this video, if
you're watching it on YouTube,with all of your music friends.
Seriously, it does help growthe podcast and I appreciate it.
(19:19):
So, so, so much.
So, all right, that is about itfor this episode.
Yeah, thank you so much forlistening and watching and I
will see you in the next episode.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye.
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