August 5, 2025 • 13 mins
Why should musicians introduce themselves to each other? Networking is so important. Here is the story of how an introduction turned into a really exciting opportunity.
Click here here to watch me answer Google's most common questions about oboe!
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! 😊
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Transcript
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.
Hello, hello, hello, andwelcome back to another episode
(00:47):
of the podcast.
Today we are diving intosomething that is really
interesting, something that'skind of unfolded and something
that I think, as musicians, isso, so, so important, and that's
kind of the power of going upto someone and introducing
yourself, kind of the power ofgoing up to someone and
(01:08):
introducing yourself.
I have this story and it'ssomething that started in March
of this past year so kind of thebeginning ish of the year and
is kind of resulted in someamazing opportunities and just
basically what I did was I wentup to someone and introduced
myself, and I think that that isso important and as musicians
especially like, we need to stayin touch with people and need
(01:31):
to create like professionalconnections and contacts, and
that is kind of what today'sepisode is about.
But before we jump in, I'm kindof adding a new segment to the
episodes and that is the lifeupdate section.
So basically, I'm just going totell you something interesting,
fun, or maybe not sointeresting or I'm not, so I
(01:52):
hope it's interesting, maybe notfun, I don't know any.
Anyway something that I thinkis worth sharing about, like
what's been happening recently.
And today I want to share withyou something really fun and
that is kind of a rehearsalslash jam session thing I
recently had with a friend andit was like a classical guitar,
(02:13):
oboe, duos, duet situation.
We found some duets andhonestly it's quite interesting
because I've never kind ofworked with a classical
guitarist before.
I am a classical guitarist aswell as an oboist.
That's kind of like my sideinstrument, so I kind of
understand it.
But I've never worked withanother person who plays
(02:34):
classical guitar with me on theoboe, and it was so much fun.
I got there and we did ouractual practicing, like the
pieces that we decided.
And then afterwards I was like,like I just want to jam, I just
want to have fun and kind ofjust create whatever music comes
to us.
And so I was like, do you wantto do that?
And I also I brought myclassical guitar, so, um, we had
(02:57):
kind of some some part of itwhere we were both playing
classical guitar and then otherparts where, um, like it was
oboe, classical guitar, and itwas just so fun.
And I think, especially asclassical musicians, sometimes
we just forget to jam, you know,just forget to like make music
or or whatever, um, and and sothat was really really fun.
(03:18):
So I challenge you just to likemake music with your friends,
like, even if it's not music,that's on paper or something
that's already been written,just make noise and see what
amazing stuff you can come upwith.
Because it was really fun.
So, all right, that was likethe little life update section.
And now we're going to go intothe more um, the part of the
(03:42):
episode that you know the titleis about, the part of the
episode that you know the titleis about, and that is this story
of the power of going up tosomeone and what it did for me.
So let's go back to March ofthis year, right, I went to
Perth, perth, scotland, for aconvention thing.
(04:04):
I was performing with a groupof students from the
conservatoire and there werekind of stands set up and in the
stands of different companiesthere was one that I really
value and admire and I this thislike person next to me that I
know just happened to casuallysay, oh, you know that person
(04:27):
over there.
They are like the UKrepresentative of this company
and I thought I need tointroduce myself to them.
I just need to.
And I remember feeling reallystressed and really nervous
because I'm like, oh my gosh,you know, this company is really
important, it's really big.
And I was like I, I want tointroduce myself to them, I want
to make this professionalconnection.
(04:48):
But what if I mess up?
And what if I say something Idon't know bad?
Or you know, like we all havethese, these feelings in our
brains of like I want to make agood impression.
I don't want to, you know, messup a good first impression,
like, oh my gosh.
It was like.
It was like, ah, but I decidedyou know what You're going to
regret not introducing yourselfto this person.
(05:09):
So I was like, okay, I'm goingto just do it, I'm going to go
up and do it.
And I remember, like waiting ina line because there were a lot
of people coming up to this um,to this booth, and I finally,
when it was my turn I don'tremember what I said, but I was,
like you know, I introducedmyself.
I said, like my instrument, Isaid my conservatoire.
(05:30):
You know, I just wanted to tomake your um, like to make this,
to introduce myself to you.
My brain said to make youracquaintance.
People don't say that anymore.
I absolutely love this phraseto make your acquaintance.
I think we should bring it back.
Um, it's really handy.
Um, but yeah, so I introducedmyself to this person and it was
(05:52):
crazy because not only was it agood first impression and a
good introduction, but it wasalso amazing because they were
like you know what?
We have this opportunity.
We need a conservatoire-leveloboist to do this thing.
Would you be interested indoing it?
And I was like yes, yes, Like Inot only stumbled into a good
(06:16):
professional connection, butalso an opportunity to play.
And I was like, of course, youknow, definitely.
And it ended up working out.
I was able to go do thisopportunity.
It's actually I went down toYork, england, and I filmed some
playing videos and I alsofilmed a video with them, um,
(06:38):
which was a like a video of likeoboist answers the most google
questions about obo, um, whichis something so cool and so fun
and I really enjoyed it.
And, um, I'll link it below ifyou want to check it out,
because it's just me answering abunch of questions about the
oboe.
It was, oh my gosh, so much funand you know, it was kind of
(07:00):
like a whirlwind, like Iintroduced myself to this person
who represented this companyand they were like, yes, let's,
you know, like there's thisopportunity, are you interested
in doing it?
And and I did it and it's, itwas such a good opportunity.
And looking back on it, and now,you know, now I have, like this
, you know, professionalconnection with this company and
(07:21):
it's so, so good and soimportant and so amazing.
And looking back, I'm like it'sall because I just had the
courage to go and introducemyself to this person.
You know, and I think asmusicians, we often kind of
maybe talk ourselves out of thatand you know, I've had my fair
(07:42):
share of introducing myself tosomeone and it not going well.
I've had my fair share of thatand doing that professionally
and it not going well and beinglike, oh, I messed that up, but
I mean at the end of the day,like that's all, like it's not
black and white.
You know there are gray areasand it's kind of like OK, maybe
you've said something thatwasn't the best, but you can
(08:03):
still kind of work through that.
You know what I mean.
But it was such a goodencounter and I was like if I
had chickened out and if I waslike I'll send them an email do
you know what I mean?
I might not have gotten thatopportunity.
It was just like the spur ofthe moment.
It was so amazing and so cool.
So I wanted to tell you that,because it's something that I'm
(08:25):
really excited about and I wantto encourage you, in whatever
you're doing to, to introduceyourself to people, especially
music wise, especiallyprofessionally wise.
I'm doing this thing with theplaces I go to routinely, like
the conservatoire, where I justintroduce myself to one new
person, because it is so easy tokind of get siloed like oh, I
(08:46):
know the oboe students and Iknow you know, like that, the
oboe, the woodwind students, butdo I?
How many you know otherstudents?
Do I know that?
Oboe students, and I know youknow like that, the oboe, the
woodwind students.
But do I?
How many you know otherstudents do I know that have
nothing to do with, like, mydiscipline, um, and so I'm doing
that and I challenge you, um,wherever you are whether you're,
say, in a youth orchestra,maybe you're doing a degree
program, maybe you're in anorchestra, maybe you're just
(09:06):
getting started to justintroduce yourself to people,
people aren't that scary.
When you actually introduceyourself, it's it's a crazy
thing.
It's a crazy thing, but it'sjust so helpful and amazing when
, when it is like really good.
So I challenge you to do that.
Think about what, what area ofyour life could you introduce
(09:29):
yourself to more people?
Because I think and this is astrong belief that I have we can
learn something new from everysingle person that we meet,
seriously.
Like we can learn everyone thatwe know has something valuable
kind of to offer us in terms oflike, knowledge or whatever.
Like we can learn somethingfrom every single person that we
(09:50):
meet, even if they have nothingto do with our instrument,
because the cost of success isthe chance of being seen trying
at things right.
The cost, the cost of thesuccess of like me getting this
opportunity was the chance of me.
I don't know being embarrassedwhen I introduce myself to
someone, do you know I mean it'sthe chance of me.
I don't know being embarrassedwhen I introduced myself to
(10:11):
someone.
Do you know what I mean?
It's the cost of me insidebeing nervous, right, being like
, okay, but I'll still do it.
That was the cost, but thereward was so, so good.
Do you know what I mean?
So the cost of success is beingseen trying, and that is like I
mean.
What do we really not want tobe seen trying?
(10:33):
Do you know what I mean?
Like it's so, so, worth it tojust introduce yourself to
people, especially in the musicworld.
All right, that is kind of itfor this episode.
Let me tell you about somethingreally cool before we wrap up,
and that is, um, something thatI've been using to really help
me in my practice.
(10:53):
So I have been using in mypractice, a notable practice
journal.
This journal not only allows meto plan out my practice so I
know exactly what I'm working onbut also reflect, and that is
so important to me because Ithink reflection is so, so
crucial to improving everysingle day.
As soon as I found out thatthis journal was helping me, I
(11:14):
knew I needed to tell you aboutit and I knew that I needed to
give you a code.
So use code ELEANOR15 for 15%off your journal.
That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R-1-5 for15% off your journal.
And, yeah, like, start planningyour practice.
It is so helpful and soValuable in your practice.
(11:34):
You know that I don't recommendanything that I don't
absolutely love, so this code isan affiliate code, which means
I do receive a commission withno extra cost to you.
Alright, let's do a wee recap.
Basically, this was the storyof how I introduced myself to
someone and it turned into areally good opportunity for me,
(11:55):
and I think that I wanted to,you know, just bring this up to
you and tell you about it,because it is so important to
introduce yourself to people,especially in the music world,
to hopefully inspire andchallenge you to introduce
yourself to more people, because, at the end of the day, it's
all about networking.
It's all about networking.
I feel All right.
(12:16):
That is about it for thisepisode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me, as always.
All the links that I mentionedto do with the video that I did
with these people, that Iintroduced myself to these
people, that I introduced myselfto.
That will be in the description, in the show notes, and so will
the code and the link for anotable practice journal.
(12:37):
If you enjoyed this episode,please do show all the love,
like, subscribe, comment, share,follow all the things and, yeah
, share with all of yourmusician friends who you think
could um benefit from thisepisode and I will see you in
the next episode.
All right, take care.
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 podcast.
Today we are diving intosomething that is really
interesting, something that'skind of unfolded and something
that I think, as musicians, isso, so, so important, and that's
kind of the power of going upto someone and introducing
yourself, kind of the power ofgoing up to someone and
(01:08):
introducing yourself.
I have this story and it'ssomething that started in March
of this past year so kind of thebeginning ish of the year and
is kind of resulted in someamazing opportunities and just
basically what I did was I wentup to someone and introduced
myself, and I think that that isso important and as musicians
especially like, we need to stayin touch with people and need
(01:31):
to create like professionalconnections and contacts, and
that is kind of what today'sepisode is about.
But before we jump in, I'm kindof adding a new segment to the
episodes and that is the lifeupdate section.
So basically, I'm just going totell you something interesting,
fun, or maybe not sointeresting or I'm not, so I
(01:52):
hope it's interesting, maybe notfun, I don't know any.
Anyway something that I thinkis worth sharing about, like
what's been happening recently.
And today I want to share withyou something really fun and
that is kind of a rehearsalslash jam session thing I
recently had with a friend andit was like a classical guitar,
(02:13):
oboe, duos, duet situation.
We found some duets andhonestly it's quite interesting
because I've never kind ofworked with a classical
guitarist before.
I am a classical guitarist aswell as an oboist.
That's kind of like my sideinstrument, so I kind of
understand it.
But I've never worked withanother person who plays
(02:34):
classical guitar with me on theoboe, and it was so much fun.
I got there and we did ouractual practicing, like the
pieces that we decided.
And then afterwards I was like,like I just want to jam, I just
want to have fun and kind ofjust create whatever music comes
to us.
And so I was like, do you wantto do that?
And I also I brought myclassical guitar, so, um, we had
(02:57):
kind of some some part of itwhere we were both playing
classical guitar and then otherparts where, um, like it was
oboe, classical guitar, and itwas just so fun.
And I think, especially asclassical musicians, sometimes
we just forget to jam, you know,just forget to like make music
or or whatever, um, and and sothat was really really fun.
(03:18):
So I challenge you just to likemake music with your friends,
like, even if it's not music,that's on paper or something
that's already been written,just make noise and see what
amazing stuff you can come upwith.
Because it was really fun.
So, all right, that was likethe little life update section.
And now we're going to go intothe more um, the part of the
(03:42):
episode that you know the titleis about, the part of the
episode that you know the titleis about, and that is this story
of the power of going up tosomeone and what it did for me.
So let's go back to March ofthis year, right, I went to
Perth, perth, scotland, for aconvention thing.
(04:04):
I was performing with a groupof students from the
conservatoire and there werekind of stands set up and in the
stands of different companiesthere was one that I really
value and admire and I this thislike person next to me that I
know just happened to casuallysay, oh, you know that person
(04:27):
over there.
They are like the UKrepresentative of this company
and I thought I need tointroduce myself to them.
I just need to.
And I remember feeling reallystressed and really nervous
because I'm like, oh my gosh,you know, this company is really
important, it's really big.
And I was like I, I want tointroduce myself to them, I want
to make this professionalconnection.
(04:48):
But what if I mess up?
And what if I say something Idon't know bad?
Or you know, like we all havethese, these feelings in our
brains of like I want to make agood impression.
I don't want to, you know, messup a good first impression,
like, oh my gosh.
It was like.
It was like, ah, but I decidedyou know what You're going to
regret not introducing yourselfto this person.
(05:09):
So I was like, okay, I'm goingto just do it, I'm going to go
up and do it.
And I remember, like waiting ina line because there were a lot
of people coming up to this um,to this booth, and I finally,
when it was my turn I don'tremember what I said, but I was,
like you know, I introducedmyself.
I said, like my instrument, Isaid my conservatoire.
(05:30):
You know, I just wanted to tomake your um, like to make this,
to introduce myself to you.
My brain said to make youracquaintance.
People don't say that anymore.
I absolutely love this phraseto make your acquaintance.
I think we should bring it back.
Um, it's really handy.
Um, but yeah, so I introducedmyself to this person and it was
(05:52):
crazy because not only was it agood first impression and a
good introduction, but it wasalso amazing because they were
like you know what?
We have this opportunity.
We need a conservatoire-leveloboist to do this thing.
Would you be interested indoing it?
And I was like yes, yes, Like Inot only stumbled into a good
(06:16):
professional connection, butalso an opportunity to play.
And I was like, of course, youknow, definitely.
And it ended up working out.
I was able to go do thisopportunity.
It's actually I went down toYork, england, and I filmed some
playing videos and I alsofilmed a video with them, um,
(06:38):
which was a like a video of likeoboist answers the most google
questions about obo, um, whichis something so cool and so fun
and I really enjoyed it.
And, um, I'll link it below ifyou want to check it out,
because it's just me answering abunch of questions about the
oboe.
It was, oh my gosh, so much funand you know, it was kind of
(07:00):
like a whirlwind, like Iintroduced myself to this person
who represented this companyand they were like, yes, let's,
you know, like there's thisopportunity, are you interested
in doing it?
And and I did it and it's, itwas such a good opportunity.
And looking back on it, and now,you know, now I have, like this
, you know, professionalconnection with this company and
(07:21):
it's so, so good and soimportant and so amazing.
And looking back, I'm like it'sall because I just had the
courage to go and introducemyself to this person.
You know, and I think asmusicians, we often kind of
maybe talk ourselves out of thatand you know, I've had my fair
(07:42):
share of introducing myself tosomeone and it not going well.
I've had my fair share of thatand doing that professionally
and it not going well and beinglike, oh, I messed that up, but
I mean at the end of the day,like that's all, like it's not
black and white.
You know there are gray areasand it's kind of like OK, maybe
you've said something thatwasn't the best, but you can
(08:03):
still kind of work through that.
You know what I mean.
But it was such a goodencounter and I was like if I
had chickened out and if I waslike I'll send them an email do
you know what I mean?
I might not have gotten thatopportunity.
It was just like the spur ofthe moment.
It was so amazing and so cool.
So I wanted to tell you that,because it's something that I'm
(08:25):
really excited about and I wantto encourage you, in whatever
you're doing to, to introduceyourself to people, especially
music wise, especiallyprofessionally wise.
I'm doing this thing with theplaces I go to routinely, like
the conservatoire, where I justintroduce myself to one new
person, because it is so easy tokind of get siloed like oh, I
(08:46):
know the oboe students and Iknow you know, like that, the
oboe, the woodwind students, butdo I?
How many you know otherstudents?
Do I know that?
Oboe students, and I know youknow like that, the oboe, the
woodwind students.
But do I?
How many you know otherstudents do I know that have
nothing to do with, like, mydiscipline, um, and so I'm doing
that and I challenge you, um,wherever you are whether you're,
say, in a youth orchestra,maybe you're doing a degree
program, maybe you're in anorchestra, maybe you're just
(09:06):
getting started to justintroduce yourself to people,
people aren't that scary.
When you actually introduceyourself, it's it's a crazy
thing.
It's a crazy thing, but it'sjust so helpful and amazing when
, when it is like really good.
So I challenge you to do that.
Think about what, what area ofyour life could you introduce
(09:29):
yourself to more people?
Because I think and this is astrong belief that I have we can
learn something new from everysingle person that we meet,
seriously.
Like we can learn everyone thatwe know has something valuable
kind of to offer us in terms oflike, knowledge or whatever.
Like we can learn somethingfrom every single person that we
(09:50):
meet, even if they have nothingto do with our instrument,
because the cost of success isthe chance of being seen trying
at things right.
The cost, the cost of thesuccess of like me getting this
opportunity was the chance of me.
I don't know being embarrassedwhen I introduce myself to
someone, do you know I mean it'sthe chance of me.
I don't know being embarrassedwhen I introduced myself to
(10:11):
someone.
Do you know what I mean?
It's the cost of me insidebeing nervous, right, being like
, okay, but I'll still do it.
That was the cost, but thereward was so, so good.
Do you know what I mean?
So the cost of success is beingseen trying, and that is like I
mean.
What do we really not want tobe seen trying?
(10:33):
Do you know what I mean?
Like it's so, so, worth it tojust introduce yourself to
people, especially in the musicworld.
All right, that is kind of itfor this episode.
Let me tell you about somethingreally cool before we wrap up,
and that is, um, something thatI've been using to really help
me in my practice.
(10:53):
So I have been using in mypractice, a notable practice
journal.
This journal not only allows meto plan out my practice so I
know exactly what I'm working onbut also reflect, and that is
so important to me because Ithink reflection is so, so
crucial to improving everysingle day.
As soon as I found out thatthis journal was helping me, I
(11:14):
knew I needed to tell you aboutit and I knew that I needed to
give you a code.
So use code ELEANOR15 for 15%off your journal.
That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R-1-5 for15% off your journal.
And, yeah, like, start planningyour practice.
It is so helpful and soValuable in your practice.
(11:34):
You know that I don't recommendanything that I don't
absolutely love, so this code isan affiliate code, which means
I do receive a commission withno extra cost to you.
Alright, let's do a wee recap.
Basically, this was the storyof how I introduced myself to
someone and it turned into areally good opportunity for me,
(11:55):
and I think that I wanted to,you know, just bring this up to
you and tell you about it,because it is so important to
introduce yourself to people,especially in the music world,
to hopefully inspire andchallenge you to introduce
yourself to more people, because, at the end of the day, it's
all about networking.
It's all about networking.
I feel All right.
(12:16):
That is about it for thisepisode.
Thank you so much for hangingout with me, as always.
All the links that I mentionedto do with the video that I did
with these people, that Iintroduced myself to these
people, that I introduced myselfto.
That will be in the description, in the show notes, and so will
the code and the link for anotable practice journal.
(12:37):
If you enjoyed this episode,please do show all the love,
like, subscribe, comment, share,follow all the things and, yeah
, share with all of yourmusician friends who you think
could um benefit from thisepisode and I will see you in
the next episode.
All right, take care.
Bye.
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